My Fish Guys Fed GFO!

[HarrisonMG]

I was away for three weeks, and in the last week I was notified that my most expensive fish, a special order Midas Blenny, had died.

I just got back and was about to feed the fish......when I noticed the food container was filled with GFO!

So, the guy who was maintaining the tank weekly filled it up with that--but the guy feeding my fish twice daily (who is a family friend) noticed after a day or two that the fish weren't eating the food he was feeding. He decided to instead only feed frozen food the rest of the time.

Could my fish being fed GFO a couple times warrant one of them dying? I inspected the fish and saw no signs of disease, from what I could tell.

Thanks!

 

[rvareef]

special order midas blenny...how expensive are we talking? gfo dosed to the tank while someone else is feeding the tank might not be the worst thing to happen because usually overfeeding occurs when someone else has taken over, either way time to find a new fish guy lol

 

[mcgyvr]

Always possible....probably unlikely....you will never know for sure...
Sorry that happened...

 

[Uncle99]

I would hope the fish can tell the diff between gfo And food.
It would not look, smell right
Mine can tell the difference between pellets, flake and frozen

 

[bertoni]

I agree that I'd expect the fish to be able to detect that GFO isn't food. It's just rust, effectively, and it shouldn't be poisonous. That said, if the fish got a little over-eager and got some in its digestive track, I don't know what would happen.

 

[HarrisonMG]

From what I was told by the guy who was feeding, the fish ate it then spit it out so he stopped feeding it to them.

I do think he might've been overfeeding in general. Not terribly tho, its just that the containers of food for each tank were almost empty so he probably did a tiny bit more.

I did test my water and the parameters are 10 for nitrates and 0.25 for phosphate, not great and some algae growth, but ok.

RVAReef--the blenny, all-in was about $90, an XL size from liveaquriua Diver's den. Not really special order, but sort of.

Now, I've another question: the fish place offered to replace the blenny. Obvi he prob won't be as large and I don't get to choose exactly, but should I say the food was phosban? I feel like maybe they could say I shouldn't have put the bag near the food......

Anyways, this place is used by some of the richest people around (im not rich!) and have such a great reputation that im willing to give them another try. I think I might've just been unlucky with the specific guy who came to the house, so next time I think ill ask for someone else!

Thanks

 

[bertoni]

I'd mention the issue to the company. It might point to a training or procedures issue.

 

[HarrisonMG]

Ok then. I mean yeah, its pretty obvious that it was phosban. It just looks similar to the pellet food. I mean, a newbie I'd understand of course they'd do that mixup, but a trained professional that I'm paying a lot of money for? Mmmmmmmm---no. Not acceptable, even if there are not any issues that have arisen solely because of the GFO.