Rapid Breathing/Lethargy/Injury in New Fish Added to My Reef

[- Jaffa -]

Hi everyone, recently I've been struggling with fish suffering from rapid breathing, lethargic movement and occasionally missing scales from their bodies/torn fins. These symptoms only occur in fish that I have added to the 60 litre system within recent months. My hectors goby has remained totally unaffected for over half a year now, however two months ago I attempted to add a Randall's goby. He was fine for a couple of days, however then over the course of a single night acquired these symptoms and the next day would not eat, then sadly perished during the following night. Now, I attempted to add a purple firefish three days ago and everything was going great until this morning I woke up and he had the same symptoms as the Randall's goby. I myself believe it could be stress from something in the tank, however I highly doubt the hectors goby due to how docile they are...and I am beginning to suspect a pair of "overly enthusiastic" cleaner shrimp. Would anyone else have any idea of what it could be ?

 

Thanks, Jaffa.

[- Jaffa -]

Update : within 7 hours of me discovering the fish this morning, it has died.

 

Any ideas as to what could be doing this ?

[mitten_reef]

were the new additions properly acclimated?

[- Jaffa -]

Yes, both of them were thoroughly drip acclimated.

[Tamberav]

I don't believe the cleaner shrimp would be an issue, they can annoy fish but generally lose interest when the fish swims away in my experience.

 

If I had to guess, I would say external parasite or possible disease. Uronema marinum can cause lesions and lethargy, It usually feeds on bacteria, but will attack weakened fish. It is usually seen on chromis/damsels but can effect any fish. This is just an idea of possible causes.

 

Your hectors goby is established and would have a better immune system than the new guys.

 

One of the benefits of a QT tank is to keep disease out of the DT but also give new fish with lowered immune systems a place to get eating and acclimated before meeting the family.

 

Were the fish both from the same place?

[- Jaffa -]

No, both fish were from different tanks that were being shut down and they also didn't share the same quarantine.

 

Is it possible that these suggested parasites are within the display, and are able to survive in dormancy without a host for long periods of time ?

[Tamberav]

No, both fish were from different tanks that were being shut down and they also didn't share the same quarantine.

 

Is it possible that these suggested parasites are within the display, and are able to survive in dormancy without a host for long periods of time ?

 

Uronema marinum does not need a fish host.

 

It's also possible the hectors is a host for something too but is not showing disease because his immune system keeps it in check. We usually think of ich doing this, I am not sure about other diseases as some of them are more deadly.

 

Hard to say without pictures, even with pictures, it's hard to say sometimes. The speed of the deaths is sort of alarming though, brook and kill that fast but not sure why the hectors isn't effected if brook was the issue.

 

Was their behavior odd before the missing scales/torn fins? Or did it coincide with the injuries? If the fish had odd behavior before the visible signs, we can probably rule out predator.

[- Jaffa -]

Their behavior was great in the few days I had both, no signs of stress, both were comfortable in the tank and fed very well on frozen and pellet foods.