Tailspot blenny aggession?

[Nathan Milender]

I have four fish in quarantine. A tailspot blenny, a clown goby, a watchman goby, and a purple firefish. Duration of QT is 2 weeks so far. QT is 20 gallons with lid, sponge filter, bare bottom, and pvs fittings. No medications have been used. No fish show disease. All fish will eat mysis and brine naupli (naupli have been scarce last few days as my last batch did not hatch). Only the dartfish will eat pellets, nobody will eat flake. One water change performed for nitrates at 20 about 5 days ago. Never had detectable ammonia. ph 8.05, DkH 9.8, temp 77F. No ato, I add fresh RO with eyeball on bottom of black rim line.

The dart fish hides underneath the pvc pipes. The clown and watchman goby hide in the corner on top of each other. The tailspot goby claimed ownership of the sponge filter and he clings to it and comes off to grab food. Lately I have noticed that he comes off the filter and goes after the two gobies, I have not seen him go after the dartfish but I cannot imagine why the fish 3 times the size of everything else hides unless there is food. I have started seeing the gobies run up and down the corner with the blenny doing a weird tail curl and quick lunge. I assume this to mean to mean the tailspot took over the neighborhood.

While I did not expect this. I am not sure what to do about it. Solutions I have considered; move all or some of them to the main system as there does not appear to be any disease, the extra space may fix this problem. Feed more often and place some main tank algae into the QT tank for the blenny. Add more hiding places even though at least 6 of them are going unused.

I am looking for thoughts on how to proceed. The main tank is new and has no fish in it. It has been doing well with 1 emerald crab, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 skunk shrimp, 10 cerith snails, 10 nassiarius snails, and 2 dwarf blue leg hermits. Total size is 165 with 40 in the sump, tons of rock (I almost never see the peppermint shrimp of emerald crab without using a flashlight).

 

[Old Fritz]

Well thats unusual. My tailspot is fairly shy and he keeps to himself even with a clown goby in the tank as well. The firefish hiding is fairly normal. My purple firefish didnt come out of hiding for a couple days and would hide as soon as i came into the room until it associated me with food. If possible qt the tailspot in a seperate tank or even a bucket with a powerhead and/or airstone. Ince you finish qt add the three fish into your dt first, let them settle in first for a little while and then add the tailspot

 

[Nathan Milender]

I was not expecting it either. I moved all the fittings around in the QT as well as the sponge filter he likes to hide on. The tailspot went into hiding. Once the watchman settled down he did display his fins for me and it does look as though his caudal and dorsal are frayed at the tips a bit. I could consider a bucket if I could make a lid. I guess I should have made two quarantines.

 

[Katrina71]

My Tailspot is fearless. I think it is more normal than you might think. You have timid tank mates. Without scape I think it may exacerbate his personality. Ever seen a Tailspot beat up a crab? Hilarious.

 

[Old Fritz]

My Tailspot is fearless. I think it is more normal than you might think. You have timid tank mates. Without scape I think it may exacerbate his personality. Ever seen a Tailspot beat up a crab? Hilarious.

Is that death by a thousand paper cuts?

 

[Katrina71]

Is that death by a thousand paper cuts?

Yes

 

[Nathan Milender]

I do agree the tailspot has attitude. When I approach the tank he hides, I can literally turn my back and he has the two gobies backed into their corner. Since I moved some stuff around and added some fittings to break up the blennie's line of sight it appears things have settled a bit. I really thought those horns were for show, but apparently in fish language horns and the ability to turn your body into a U is really intimidating.