kylekruko85 Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 So this morning I woke up to my Bicolor Blenny belly up on the bottom of my tank. He had been acting a little strange as of late seemed to be hiding more and stressed for some reason. Last night he was even doing some weird twitching. I checked parameters yesterday and ph was 8.2, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates are under 20, temp runs at 79-80 degrees. my tank is 9 weeks old and I have had the blenny for 3 weeks now along with a fire shrimp and a clean up crew.I make RO/DI water. The only thing that I feel that I have changed in the last week is I did a 20% water change with a new salt. I switched from instant ocean to red sea coral pro. I also added a few small hermits as well. I was feeding him some pellets every other day. But within the last week he didn't seem too interested. He would eat algae off the rocks every once in awhile but not too often. Could I have starved him? He showed no signs of sickness like ich. What could it be? Going to test some other parameters when I get home. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 sorry for your loss. You didn't mention your alkalinity or salinity levels. Change in salinity and swings in alkalinity can stress creatures out. If he was previously eating then suddenly stopped I doubt that you starved him. If he never ate, then possibly he didn't like what you were giving him and eventually starved himself. Every other day feeding is fine. Also possible he was not healthy when you got him. Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 forgot to mention, salinity was 1.024. I will test alk when I get home Link to comment
Clown79 Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 I had a blenny and it was fine for 7 mnths. Ate like a pig and then 1 day died. No signs of anything on his body, no odd behaviour. It may have not been healthy from day 1, there may be nothing wrong in the system. Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 Alkalinity is on the lower side 6.5-7 dKH and calcium is low as well around 400 Link to comment
Ryan_E Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Could have just been that fishes time to go. It doesn't sound like you did anything to stress it out. If it makes you feel any better, my six line wrasse that was eating and looked perfectly healthy died on me a few months ago. I saw it twitch one time and sink like a rock. Could have been a fish heart attack or something haha. Sometimes these things are just unexplainable and it sucks. Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 I still need to test magnesium and phosphates but I am kind of surprised with the low alk and Calcium reading with the new salt I used. Anyone had problems with Red Sea coral pro? Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 Mag is at 1200 and phosphates are at 0. Anything I need to do before adding another fish? Kinda confused with my low readings after switching to a salt that has high levels of those trace elements Link to comment
smeagol108 Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Fish just die sometimes without us be a causing factor. From the facts you provided it doesn't appear u did anything wrong. Any number of viruses, parasites, or other issues could have been affecting the fish from before it was in ur hands. Don't beat urself up over it and it's in our nature to want to understand why everything happened. In this world, unless u are a marine biologist/scientist and able to autopsy a fish, one will never know. All we can do is try to provide the most stable environment possible. Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 It's been a week and a half or so since I did a water change for good measure. I was going to add another fish this weekend. Since its been a month. Should I not push my luck and add 2 fish? I figured the bioload is up to or for one fish already. But to stay on the safe side should I only add one? Link to comment
Clown79 Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 Your ca isn't low at 400. Its in mid range. Low is 370 and under. Mag is right on the border. Your alk is low. When mag drops its hard to maintain ca and alk. I had the same issues as you. Normally in small tanks water change is enough but that wasn't the case for me. I switched to reef crystals to increase numbers. That also didn't work. If anything, my mag drops after a water change. My ca is fine, alk a bit high, mag everywhere. I dose my mag, get it perfect and then a water change drops it below 1200. Test your mixed water for ca, alk, and mag. The salt may not be offering the numbers for mag. Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted May 26, 2016 Author Share Posted May 26, 2016 After My water change the alk went to about an 8. I will check just the mixed water next time to see what my numbers are. Link to comment
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