My Fish is Dead

[ash_jones11]

I bought a very small Dragon Sleeper Goby yesterday at my local fish shop. It was very skittish. I bought it to help aerate and help keep my sand clean. I acclimated it last night when I got home and put him in. He stayed close to and in my rock work since last night. I watched him this morning and into the afternoon. At about 5:30, I came into the room to find the fish dead, being eaten by a large, brownish worm in the cave. It also had large amounts of mucus around it. I don't know if this is something to worry a lot about. I thought that he could have died due to stress and the scavenger worm came out but I've seen him moving a little today. Any thoughts?
(I also posted a picture of my rock work and dead Dragon Goby)

 

[gone fishin]

Sorry to hear about the goby. It is difficult to say what caused the death. It could be a number of things:

The fish was not in good shape at the store.

Had a parasite/illness

chemistry in your tank.

something stressed it in your tank.

 

[AlSimmons]

I'm sorry to hear about the Goby as well. FWIW the link below might help in the future.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/ft/index.php

 

[snorvich]

Sorry to hear about the goby. It is difficult to say what caused the death. It could be a number of things:

The fish was not in good shape at the store.

Had a parasite/illness

chemistry in your tank.

something stressed it in your tank.

Or improper acclimation.

 

[ash_jones11]

Sorry to hear about the goby. It is difficult to say what caused the death. It could be a number of things:

The fish was not in good shape at the store.

Had a parasite/illness

chemistry in your tank.

something stressed it in your tank.

The goby seemed a little stressed and skittish in the store but I knew he had recently been shipped in. I also talked to the store that I got it from and they said that parasites was a possible issue with the goby. That combined with the stress of moving could have killed it. The store also said to come in tomorrow for a water check (for parasites) and a refund for the fish (24 hour warranty).

 

[ash_jones11]

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

[Fish Friend]

I am sorry to hear that.
Since it was small and skittish, a simple straightforward explanation would be that it did not manage to get enough food during it's transfers & it simply stressed out.
I am glad that you can get a test for parasites, so you know if you need to deal with it any further. I have seen many goby fishes look undernourished at the seller, so if parasites are ruled out, I don't think you need to worry any further about it.
In the wild the smaller/weaker fish would possibly also have been out-competed and eventually probably killed and eaten. Hopefully it did not bring any disease to your tank, the slime-thing sounded a little alarming, although I could not really see much slime on the picture, so I won't guess around about disease.
Let us know if the seller could tell you anything more and have fun, get a new fish and keep it!
There is nothing but sunblock and plastic in the ocean anyway.

 

[ericarenee]

Might be time to think about a quarantine system...

you never really know about livestock these days ..:deadhorse:

 

[AlSimmons]

I'm not sure if QT will be 100% though...

Stop beating your friend... That drunk horse might find it's way home before U do...