I guess the title of the thread is pretty much all you need to get the gist of what has been going on in two of my tanks. The short story is, my dragon goby died from some sort of bulge in his digestive tract, and 2 of my corydoras died this weekend from 'fish fungus' (which I am going to post in a different thread because I don't want to confuse the 2 tanks).
I am going to make this a very detailed account so be forewarned it is written in my usual, long-winded fashion:
Anyways, I keep a little calendar above my 20 gallon tank where I mark down when I do my weekly water changes for each of my three tanks, when I change carbon, when I added fish/plants, and when I add fertilizers to my planted 20 gallon.
Well, on the 17th I took a day off from renovating our kitchen to change the water on my tanks. I usually do my 15 gallon first because it is my brackish tank and I like to have all the time I need to mix up the salt and measure salinity and other water params.
When I was vacuuming out the tank I noticed that my dragon goby was thrashing around the tank. I was shocked at this behavior because normally he just hides from the gravel vac until I am done. I was worried he might jump out of the tank so I filled another bucket with relatively clean mid-level water and placed him in it until I was done vacuuming.
When 50% of the water was out of the tank I paused to inspect my goby as his behavior had been a little odd lately. I noticed that more often than not he swam around like a 'normal' community fish does in a tank with no cover... my tank have several areas to hide and he wasn't interested in them.
I looked over his body and noticed that, unnoticed to me before, he had the tell-tale red dots of those infamous red tumors that form on violet gobies after being kept in fresh water before. Now, at first I began to panic about my hydrometers and after testing water (both fresh at 0.0 and brackish at 1.005) but everything checked out.
Then I looked at him mid-body where his anus is and realized there was a large bulge there and another small red tumor near or on his anus.
So, I continued to refill my tank, clean decorations and the filter, and then returned him to the tank.
I went online and tried to find information about how long it takes for those tumors to form on a goby kept in FW (thinking that since he was about 8 1/2" to 9" long that he may have been in captivity, and therefore FW, a while).
I found nothing and so I kept an eye on him until the next day when he would no longer eat. I used the airline-method as Tihso had explained to me once, and he didn't eat then either. Sometimes he would suck food into his mouth but couldn't seem to swallow even the smallest morsels; it was something I've seen my bumblebee goby do countless times when he tries to eat large chunks of krill.
I was extremely worried for him and moved him into a 5 gallon bucket. I put an air stone and a small whisper filter my sister had into the bucket. I also added a couple of caves for him to hide under, although he continued to thrash around the bucket erratically whenever I came near it.
I measured water params again and again:
SG: 1.005
pH: 8.0
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 80 F
15 gallon tall
His diet consisted of: blood worms, small chopped up bits of frozen krill, brine shrimp, small bits of squid, and occasionally blocks of San Fransisco Bay's Marine Cuisine, which I don't remember the ingredients.
So, he continued his strange behaviors another day until he seemed unable to stay upright. I thought he was dead a couple times and I would gently nudge his body and he swam away in the same fashion as a loach; seeming to be dead yet swimming away as if nothing had happened.
My husband grew concerned because I spent so much time babysitting my fish, and he tried suggesting I medicate him... To that I asked, "Medicate him for what?"
Well, he rapidly weakened from not eating an eventually died.
I was devastated that I couldn't have saved him, and now I really want to know what happened. Any ideas? I mean to me, it looked as if he had some sort of tumor growing into his digestive tract and eventually he no longer could eat because the food had nowhere to go....
Could it be that maybe they need full marine and those red tumors will develop in light brackish tanks as well as fresh?
So that is what happened in my Brackish tank, in which btw, all of the other inhabitants are acting as they always did and eating vigorously, despite the mystery of my prized dragon gobie's death.
Fish Catastrophe Part I: Dragon Goby
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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OraLacerta
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RIP: C. travancoricus, Chilomycterus schoepfi. Canthigaster jactator. - Location (country): USA
- Location: USA
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lisalisa
-
OraLacerta
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 573
- Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:51 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Tetraodon biocellatus.
RIP: C. travancoricus, Chilomycterus schoepfi. Canthigaster jactator. - Location (country): USA
- Location: USA
Oh it's ok, LL.lisalisa wrote:Sorry I didn't respond sooner to this.
I'm guessing you didn't do any inspection after he died?
By inspection you don't mean dissecting him do you?
I didn't dissect him, I wouldn't have been able to get the nerve to do it, but I could see clearly just from looking at him that he had a very large bulge near his anus that seemed like either an internal tumor or some sort of intestinal blockage. I'm thinking he stopped eating because his food had no where to go.
As for his environment, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary- the two caves he liked most were still easily accessible and ignored by my F8. The water params were good, nitrates slightly elevated, but it the day of the w/c when I noticed his behavior.
I looked for bites and scrapes on his body as well and found nothing. Like I said in the post, all of the others in the tank are doing great & thriving. My BBG is feisty as always, my freshwater sole is growing rapidly, and my F8 is as plump and inquisitive as he was before.
You know what, this just occured to me- he was digging a lot before he began to show symptoms... Maybe he ingested some gravel?
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OraLacerta
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 573
- Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:51 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Tetraodon biocellatus.
RIP: C. travancoricus, Chilomycterus schoepfi. Canthigaster jactator. - Location (country): USA
- Location: USA
Lol. Ok, I was just making sure that wasn't what you were implying.
Well, I figure if I'm ever going to get another violet goby I'm going to wait until I can give it a sand substrate and possibly a full marine environment.
Thanks for digging this thread up, LL, I appreciate it! It was nice to get some input from someone.
Well, I figure if I'm ever going to get another violet goby I'm going to wait until I can give it a sand substrate and possibly a full marine environment.
Thanks for digging this thread up, LL, I appreciate it! It was nice to get some input from someone.