Lawnmower blenny post-mortem help?

[karimwassef]

These should be the easiest fish to keep so finding one dead after only 10days in the tank is very upsetting.

I have a hair algae problem due to a number of factors I'm working through. I got a sailfin tang and then this blenny. They are the only fish inhabitants of my 380g DT (96" x 34" x 27")

The system is ~660g (380 DT + 180 sump + 100 surge). It's primarily corals and invert only. It was set up the first week of July (~90 days).

I have a sand floor in the DT that's 2-3" thick. There are over 100 snails and 100 hermits as well as several large turbos, a cucumber, 3 stars, 9 emerald crabs, 1 porcelain crab, a massive 10" arrow crab, 2 peppermint shrimp and 40 glass shrimp.

The tank only has about 45lbs of live rock. The rest is concrete DIY.

The tank has Rhodactis, green star polyps, zoas, Favia, Porites, Frogspawn and pipe organ. They all look good.

pH 8.3
Alk 9dKH
Ca 440ppm

The sailfin is healthy and eating constantly so I don't think it's the water.

Could the blenny have eaten to death? I took these pictures as soon as I got it out of the tank. It was alive 8 hours earlier but none of the snails/crabs had gotten to its body. It's belly was swollen (gas, algae?)

There were two green nodules protruding from under him and he has loose yellow excrement running out of him when I took him out.

Here are the pictures.
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/3DE196FC-B1BC-44E9-8CDD-34DDAF8427B3_zpsfuwxhifg.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/3DE196FC-B1BC-44E9-8CDD-34DDAF8427B3_zpsfuwxhifg.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 3DE196FC-B1BC-44E9-8CDD-34DDAF8427B3_zpsfuwxhifg.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/F2EB4CAB-9453-4DCA-9956-F79BF3E84C73_zpsjjx6mdx8.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/F2EB4CAB-9453-4DCA-9956-F79BF3E84C73_zpsjjx6mdx8.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo F2EB4CAB-9453-4DCA-9956-F79BF3E84C73_zpsjjx6mdx8.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/B4CAD7A2-115E-46BE-BF88-CCB68B62DCB1_zpsrmh3xhk4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/B4CAD7A2-115E-46BE-BF88-CCB68B62DCB1_zpsrmh3xhk4.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo B4CAD7A2-115E-46BE-BF88-CCB68B62DCB1_zpsrmh3xhk4.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/694CCA31-E75F-44DF-A1A9-F79EF7877157_zpsluuiqs26.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/694CCA31-E75F-44DF-A1A9-F79EF7877157_zpsluuiqs26.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 694CCA31-E75F-44DF-A1A9-F79EF7877157_zpsluuiqs26.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/AAF5405B-5A82-4618-BEA9-CB12DB27C245_zpszpzvtmbg.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/AAF5405B-5A82-4618-BEA9-CB12DB27C245_zpszpzvtmbg.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo AAF5405B-5A82-4618-BEA9-CB12DB27C245_zpszpzvtmbg.jpg"/></a>

 

[karimwassef]

Another datapoint: the tank rock work was designed for coral, not fish. So it's all suspended with very little rock/sand connections. The rock work also doesn't have a lot of hiding places but he found them all very quickly. The only other fish was the juvenile sailfin that he ignored from day one.

I've only had two other kinds of fish in the tank before: green chromis - 13 where one bullied the rest to death and then died. And a diamond goby that leapt to his death.

I had a rose bubbletip that got sucked into the only power head in the whole tank... And a 2" sea hare that disappeared along with a 1" lettuce nudibranch.

There's my short list of death.

 

[HumbleFish]

The swollen belly/yellow excrement could indicate: an intestinal obstruction (most likely) or possibly even intestinal parasites.

 

[karimwassef]

So what's that from? Is there anything I could have done?

 

[HumbleFish]

So what's that from? Is there anything I could have done?

Well, an obstruction can sometimes be cleared by feeding a peeled boiled pea i.e. "the pea trick". For intestinal parasites you would soak food in metronidazole. But the more I think about it, the latter is unlikely in your case as fish with intestinal parasites usually lose weight - not become bloated.

 

[karimwassef]

Also, there's few sources for parasites. There's only one other fish in the whole tank and it's only 90 days old with a small amount of live rock.

 

[karimwassef]

What would constitute an obstruction? Like chocking on sand or a small rock or too much hair algae?

 

[HumbleFish]

What would constitute an obstruction? Like chocking on sand or a small rock or too much hair algae?

Digesting sand or something would do it. It could be a freak thing like that. Or it could be a really bad case of constipation, or a particular food he ate that caused a blockage/adverse reaction. I have a PBT that displays symptoms of swim bladder disorder if I feed red nori (so I stopped). Another possibility is it could be a tumor or growth of some kind. You'd have to perform a fish autopsy and know what to look for to know for sure. :eek2: