Fish Catastrophe Part I: Dragon Goby
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:07 pm
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.
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.
