Mural Goby dead in 3 days

[MrPiGuy]

Hello! I had bought a Mural goby 3 days ago. The first day it was fine. It was sifting sand and even made a couple homes. The second day it went missing. I come home today and found it dead. The tank is three years old. It was converted to a reef tank 7 months ago. Other fish are convict tang, melanurus, tailspot, cleaner shrimp, and cuc. Any idea what could have happened? I didn’t see any signs of ich or flukes.

 

[Cell]

I'd consider the tank 7 months old, time spent as a FW tank doesn't count for our purposes.

Did you QT?

 

[MrPiGuy]

I'd consider the tank 7 months old, time spent as a FW tank doesn't count for our purposes.

Did you QT?

It wasn’t freshwater, it was a fowlr tank for 2 1/2 years. 7 months ago I switched to a reef tank. Sorry, should have specified that.

 

[MrPiGuy]

@Cell sorry I missed the last questions. No I don’t quarantine. I follow ich management method, not ich removal. I did however observe it for a week at the lfs. It showed nothing but healthy signs.

 

[MrPiGuy]

Would the hole in its belly area be from post death?

 

[Cell]

Yes, that likely occurred post death. Absent visible symptoms or unnatural behavior prior to death, diagnosing post mortem is going to be difficult. A #fishmedic may have more insight into that particular species of fish though.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry, not much to go on here. We see a lot of issues with LFS holding their fish at low salinity and then people try to acclimate them up to full salinity and that often fails. However, you see that issue on the first day, not three days later.

Another issue is that these are relatively low value fish to the collectors, but they are VERY difficult to catch in a net. Very often, then, the divers resort to using cyanide to collect them, and that results in latent mortality up to about 45 days after collection that can exceed 60%.

Jay

 

[MrPiGuy]

Sorry, not much to go on here. We see a lot of issues with LFS holding their fish at low salinity and then people try to acclimate them up to full salinity and that often fails. However, you see that issue on the first day, not three days later.

Another issue is that these are relatively low value fish to the collectors, but they are VERY difficult to catch in a net. Very often, then, the divers resort to using cyanide to collect them, and that results in latent mortality up to about 45 days after collection that can exceed 60%.

Jay

Thanks Jay. I have heard of the cyanide thing. That really sucks if that’s the case. Obviously I understand that it isn’t possible to verify that.

yeah I verified salinity with them before I left. It was at 1.026.

thanks for your insight!