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Live fish found in my live rock


jrod90

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I have a 3 Gallon pico tank I am starting up. I just bought some live rock and found a live fish in it when I got home. I think it is some kind of a Goby, it is about 1 1/2 inch long. What can I do? Do I need to remove it? I have Live Rock, ocean water and Live Aragonite. Can I still set it up and keep him alive? Can a 3 Gallon support him?IMG_5426.thumb.JPG.20a6910d83f28dc4db413257382a9373.JPG

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Christopher Marks

Wow, that's quite a hitchhiker to have! It definitely looks like a blenny of some sort. I think there's a very good chance you could keep it in your pico reef, hopefully we can get a more exact ID on it. Definitely keep it for now!

 

My one concern is how it will fare during your tank's cycle process. You may have to accelerate your water change schedule and 'soft cycle' since the fish is in there.

 

Welcome to the community @jrod90 :) 

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keep it if you like, if not its a great trade.

 

thank you for posting the single best example ive ever seen in reefing as to why we do not dose live rock with ammonia, that's for dry rock. your thread is now linked to a giant cycling thread that says, don't add ammonia to live rock setups. You never know what you might burn.

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That's an amazing find man! If the rock was already submerged before, you're already ahead in the cycle. Just do an extra water change here and there to make it easier for the little fella and he should be fine...that said has it shown any sign of feeding yet?

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If that rock was in water upon purchase, you didn't allow it to dry out,  your tank most likely won't go through a cycle. The rock is liverock, not dry.

 

Ammonia shouldn't be used when liverock is used- why is this advice given out by some? Ammonia kills living things, it's in sanitizers and cleaners for that purpose.

 

Test the tank for ammonia or you can get the seachem ammonia badge to monitor in the event of a small spike. Have seachem prime on hand in the event (good to have on hand all the time).

 

Very cool hitchhiker. Blenny' s are awesome.

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OK, quite an undertaking! This is my first SW tank, and I wasn't planning on adding anything especially a fish for quite a while. I was just trying to get used to cycling and water changes and levels. I guess I have a lot of research and work ahead of me. He is still alive. He has hidden as far back as he can in a cave in the LR, but he has his head poking out and he watches me whenever I look at him. Being a new tank, I don't have any algae yet. Do I need to buy him food for now?

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Very cool find. I only wonder if your tank is a bit small for this guy. I was looking into tailspot blennies because I thought the lawnmower would be to large for my 12 gallon.... :rolleyes:

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A new fish would be a fun but daunting surprise in my live rock.  You have to feed, and food in a new tank means algae unless you are on top of water changes or filtration.

You only have 3 gallon, so big water changes might not be too much a problem.

 

Watch how much you feed at a time to keep algae in check, but you don't want to starve him either.

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1 hour ago, benstatic said:

A new fish would be a fun but daunting surprise in my live rock.  You have to feed, and food in a new tank means algae unless you are on top of water changes or filtration.

You only have 3 gallon, so big water changes might not be too much a problem.

 

Watch how much you feed at a time to keep algae in check, but you don't want to starve him either.

To be fair, new tanks usually have algae anyway. :lol:  I'd start small on feeds and work your way up.  Super cool hitchhiker!

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He has started eating! I was pretty worried about him, because I never saw any signs of eating. He only stayed in his little cave in the LR and rarely came out. I added some algae strips that he doesn't even seem to notice, but today he has been swimming around a lot more and I have seen him picking off some algae in the LR, Sand and the powerhead. The lights in the aquarium don't work. I am waiting on a replacement from JBJ. But I have two reading lamps I am shining above the tank for about 10-12 hours a day. I know it is not ideal for the poor guy, but I am encouraged that he seems to be doing better. I have topped off with Distilled Water each day and did a 10% change on 3 days ago. Ammonia levels seem a bit high, but everything else is perfect. Also, the lights have been heating up the water more than I would like. I have the lid open and am running a fan at the top of the water. It is staying between 78-81. Anything else I should look for? I really don't know if my tank is cycled yet or if I should be doing anything else. We have officially named him "Hitch".

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4 hours ago, jrod90 said:

He has started eating! I was pretty worried about him, because I never saw any signs of eating. He only stayed in his little cave in the LR and rarely came out. I added some algae strips that he doesn't even seem to notice, but today he has been swimming around a lot more and I have seen him picking off some algae in the LR, Sand and the powerhead. The lights in the aquarium don't work. I am waiting on a replacement from JBJ. But I have two reading lamps I am shining above the tank for about 10-12 hours a day. I know it is not ideal for the poor guy, but I am encouraged that he seems to be doing better. I have topped off with Distilled Water each day and did a 10% change on 3 days ago. Ammonia levels seem a bit high, but everything else is perfect. Also, the lights have been heating up the water more than I would like. I have the lid open and am running a fan at the top of the water. It is staying between 78-81. Anything else I should look for? I really don't know if my tank is cycled yet or if I should be doing anything else. We have officially named him "Hitch".

Any light is fine for fish, corals have certain light requirements so I wouldn't worry about hitch and the light.

 

You can use seachem prime which detoxifies  the ammonia, it will prevent any injury to the fish.

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Cool experience for sure but IMO an algae (or similar type) blenny isn't the best inhabitant for a 3g pico...  As far as blennies go they get pretty large - I see them 4-5" regularly.  Because they're herbivores that also means that they need to pretty much be grazing constantly.  I hate to say it but I'm going to assume it starves in a relatively short time if you leave it in a 3g unless you can provide a pretty much constant supply of algae (like nori sheets on a clip) and it takes to eating that. A 3g simply can't produce enough algae. Herbivores are different than carnivores in that they need to be grazing all the time vs. eating once or twice per day. You can buy frozen herbivore preparations which have the added benefit of introducing phosphates into the tank to encourage algae growth. Lol.

 

Regarding your cycle what do you mean by "Ammonia levels seem a bit high"?  If your tests read anything other than undetectable you have too much ammonia.  It kills very quickly and even a short spike can have a devastating effect.  Since it's been in there a little over a week and it's not dead I would say that your tank has an established nitrogen cycle but it's likely still not very mature. You should be cautious of making any significant changes.  When you feed, nori strips for example, they need to be swapped out a few times per day.  You don't want it to start decaying at all. As mentioned dosing prime a few times a day can act as a safety net.  Also doing daily 50% water changes would be very effective in minimizing ammonia build up.  This process of frequent large water changes is what was earlier referred to as "soft cycling".   

 

Final thought...  Realize you just started this 3g but how hard would it be to step up to at least a 10g or maybe a 20L?  Cost wise those options are reasonable and it wouldn't take much in terms of equipment to create a nice softie/macro tank.  Just something to consider.

 

Good luck!

 

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He seems to be doing pretty well. He comes out of his cave a lot now, even when we are close to the tank. When we come into the room, he perches up on top of some rock to watch us. I finally got my refractometer from Amazon. It took over a month to ship. I checked the water and it showed a salinity of 1.030. I changed out the water gradually to get it down to 1.024. Also the Ammonia is down to 0 again. I think I may just have had a bad test. He is actively feeding on algae in the Live Rock and Sand. He is eating pretty constantly, but I am a bit worried he isn't getting enough food in this size new tank. I will be trying a few more food options for him. I live in Puerto Rico, and in my area, the only LFS is Petco, and their stock is limited. If I can't find a food that he will eat consistently, I will probably have to donate him.

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