This is a duplicate post from another forum, but I haven't gotten any response yet and my goby is definitely on his way out. He is worse today and also lying on his side, still gulping for air. I really appreciate any help here:
I have a 10g saltwater tank with snails, crabs and an orange stripe prawn goby (randall's goby) + pistol shrimp (I never ever see the shrimp but hear the snaps ocassionally). I've always fed the goby flakes with the occasional frozen brine shrimp. Have had them ~2.5 years.
About 2 weeks ago I ran out of flakes and before I could get some new food I started to feed him daily with the frozen brine shrimp. He seemed fine and was moving around as normal and eating.
The last day or two I noticed he's barely moving and is resting on the sandbed under a rock, looking like he's "gulping" for air. I've read that if a fish is gulping for air it will go to the top of the water column - is that correct? I'm not sure what he's doing but he definitely does not seem well and I'm worried.
Here's a video to better show what he's been looking like for the last 2 days: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/706356/goby.MOV
Sorry for the quality.
A few things have happened recently:
- my protein skimmer had a bad habit of shutting off randomly. It got worse and some days I'd come home and the skimmer (which also moves the water) had been off all day. I decided to take it off and put in a spare water pump I had that I was using in a tub of live rock. I figure the live rock can live a while without water movement, but my fish is in trouble. Now this is just a pump no skimmer, but I figure its better that I know there is movement and not going to shut off randomly ? just until I can get a replacement skimmer.
The pump has a similar flow to what the skimmer was pushing, about 110GPH.
I tested the water and noticed the nitrates were through the roof ~ 100ppm or maybe higher. My guess is that I was feeding too much brine shrimp. I did a 40% water change (that was yesterday) and checked today but Goby is still looking in the same condition.
I know I need to act quick but I'm not sure what to do. Thanks for your help.
I don't know if this is related, but I did notice a whole bunch of aptasia hitchikers (which had been multiplying on the glass) had died. Snails and crabs seem fine and not showing any bad signs.
Note because of the room the tank is in, in the summer the tank runs very hot, it can get up to 86 or 88 on a really hot day. But this has always been the case so I don't think the problems are related to temperature.
Salinity ~ 1.022
I have a 10g saltwater tank with snails, crabs and an orange stripe prawn goby (randall's goby) + pistol shrimp (I never ever see the shrimp but hear the snaps ocassionally). I've always fed the goby flakes with the occasional frozen brine shrimp. Have had them ~2.5 years.
About 2 weeks ago I ran out of flakes and before I could get some new food I started to feed him daily with the frozen brine shrimp. He seemed fine and was moving around as normal and eating.
The last day or two I noticed he's barely moving and is resting on the sandbed under a rock, looking like he's "gulping" for air. I've read that if a fish is gulping for air it will go to the top of the water column - is that correct? I'm not sure what he's doing but he definitely does not seem well and I'm worried.
Here's a video to better show what he's been looking like for the last 2 days: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/706356/goby.MOV
Sorry for the quality.
A few things have happened recently:
- my protein skimmer had a bad habit of shutting off randomly. It got worse and some days I'd come home and the skimmer (which also moves the water) had been off all day. I decided to take it off and put in a spare water pump I had that I was using in a tub of live rock. I figure the live rock can live a while without water movement, but my fish is in trouble. Now this is just a pump no skimmer, but I figure its better that I know there is movement and not going to shut off randomly ? just until I can get a replacement skimmer.
The pump has a similar flow to what the skimmer was pushing, about 110GPH.
I tested the water and noticed the nitrates were through the roof ~ 100ppm or maybe higher. My guess is that I was feeding too much brine shrimp. I did a 40% water change (that was yesterday) and checked today but Goby is still looking in the same condition.
I know I need to act quick but I'm not sure what to do. Thanks for your help.
I don't know if this is related, but I did notice a whole bunch of aptasia hitchikers (which had been multiplying on the glass) had died. Snails and crabs seem fine and not showing any bad signs.
Note because of the room the tank is in, in the summer the tank runs very hot, it can get up to 86 or 88 on a really hot day. But this has always been the case so I don't think the problems are related to temperature.
Salinity ~ 1.022
