Barnacle Blennies dying

Whiterabbitrage

Whiterabbitrage

New member
I bought 6 barnicle Blennies and they were all doing well for a week. They are in a 10 gallon QT and a gallon gets changed every day. Four days ago 1 blenny stopped eating. It looked like he might have been rubbing his belly on his shell, but I can't be sure. If it was, it was not a scratching kind of rub, but a sore/ bloated kind of rub. Like maybe he was constipated or had eaten too much. I have been feeding frozen mysis and frozen plankton and there are lots of pods living in the QT as well.
So 4 days ago he stopped eating and the next day he was dead. I found the body yesterday and did a postmortem. I did not see any parasites or inflammation or infections. He looked fine. Internal organs and gills and skin, all looked healthy.

Now today another blenny has stopped eating. He is hiding in his barnacle. Except for the behavior I can't see anything wrong with him. No marks, no wounds no parasites not even extra slime. He might be breathing a bit more heavily than the others. Any guesses? Im lost. Treating for bacterial infection. It's all I could think of to do. Help!
 
Thanks for chiming in. I thought maybe ammonia too, or hoping it was, but it tests zero, as it should since the tank is nearly a year old and kept fallow except for pods.

The other blenny died last night. The remaining 3 are eating well. But the dead one was too up to two days ago. Fins up, color good, he looks great except he's dead.
Ill post the rest of the parameters and post a picture of the dead guy later today.

Any other suggestions? Please help if you can.
 
It might be an acclimation problem? Never thought of that. I did not measure the transport water. Got them online from Bluezoo. Did a three hour drip acclimation. They were eating within a day. They were busy choosing a place to live, very active. There are rocks and shells along with barnacles so they are plenty of hiding spaces.
The tank has been set up nearly a year. The inhabitants are pods, macroalgae and three snails.
As of right now:
Temp 77'
Salinity 1.024 using refractometer and digital probe
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Phosphate 0.25 ppm chemical testing done with API kits.

The fish seemed to be acting normal for the first few days. Eating, exploring, squabbling.
Two were more pale in color than the others and I was hoping they were females. They were eating, fins were up, and the color was good, not blotchy or grayish or sickly looking. There was color it was just a bit more pale. It did not seem to be a sign of disease, they looked healthy. Alert. Acting like the others. It was such a slight difference in coloring...
But those are the ones that have died.

Any suggestions? With nothing to go on, am not sure how to proceed. Am treating with broad spectrum antibiotic.
 
Whiterabbitrage said:
It might be an acclimation problem? Never thought of that. I did not measure the transport water. Got them online from Bluezoo. Did a three hour drip acclimation. They were eating within a day. They were busy choosing a place to live, very active. There are rocks and shells along with barnacles so they are plenty of hiding spaces.
The tank has been set up nearly a year. The inhabitants are pods, macroalgae and three snails.
As of right now:
Temp 77'
Salinity 1.024 using refractometer and digital probe
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Phosphate 0.25 ppm chemical testing done with API kits.

The fish seemed to be acting normal for the first few days. Eating, exploring, squabbling.
Two were more pale in color than the others and I was hoping they were females. They were eating, fins were up, and the color was good, not blotchy or grayish or sickly looking. There was color it was just a bit more pale. It did not seem to be a sign of disease, they looked healthy. Alert. Acting like the others. It was such a slight difference in coloring...
But those are the ones that have died.

Any suggestions? With nothing to go on, am not sure how to proceed. Am treating with broad spectrum antibiotic.
Click to expand...

BZ, if I recall correctly ships at 1.017 SG and if your tank is 1.024 that may have been a problem even with 3 hours drip acclimation. Or the drip acclimation itself could be a problem.
 
Oh geez seriously? I never even thought to check. Stupid!!
Aside from checking salinity where else did I go wrong with acclimation?
 
Whiterabbitrage said:
Oh geez seriously? I never even thought to check. Stupid!!
Aside from checking salinity where else did I go wrong with acclimation?
Click to expand...

I always have a QT with SG adjusted to the exact transport SG and then all that must be done is a 15 minute float for temperature acclimation and then using a strainer (so no water is moved to QTA), into the QT. Works like a charm.
 
Never give up. We owe the animals we are charged with, our best efforts. Hard to say if it was the SG issue, but you asked what it could be.
 
You guys are people after my own heart.
Yes, I believe we owe these fish our best efforts.
I kept going with the Erythromycin and had lowered the SG a touch after Steve's eye opening comment about transport water. The other two slowly began eating again. Today all three are eating ravenously. I am crossing my fingers. Will be feeding food soaked in Selcon, keeping up with water changes and watching to see what happens.
 
All three are still eating well and their color has become amazing.
However, They seem to be panting. I looked on YouTube to see if BArnacle Blennies just breath like this but can't tell. What are the chances they have permanent gill damag because of the acclimation fiasco?
Thank you
 
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