It's been a while since I posted about this aquarium. I had one sad set back. One of my male blennies all of a sudden became blind about three weeks ago. I discovered that he wasn't swimming out to accept food, and the other blennies were terrorizing him. And, after observing him for a while, I determined that he was blind. So, I moved him to my 20g high, away from the other blennies that picked on him and outcompeted him for food. From that point on, I fed him using a turkey baster, and he was much happier, just blind. That is, until a couple nights ago, where he acted very sick, swimming near the surface and breathing heavily. I suspect that some sort of disease overcame him, probably the one that I quarantined him from before, suggesting, perhaps, that his immune system was compromised. So, I euthanized him. I didn't feel much like writing about this, because I was pretty emotional about it. The other fish in my 20g long are all doing well and healthy.
I don't understand why this happened, and I may never know, but usually, this happens to fish that become malnourished. I think that the blindness was the result of that, but I have to wonder if an internal parasite may have been the root cause of the malnutrition, especially since, prior to this, the fish ate readily everything that I offered. I feed them quality food, either fresh or frozen. I don't feed them flakes or pellets at all, except when I'm on vacation. However, included in the mix of food were meals of frozen brine shrimp. I fed them frozen brine shrimp every third meal. I haven't heard of any studies on this, but some have suggested that, over the long term, fish that eat frozen brine shrimp sometimes become susceptible to blindness. Has anyone experienced this before? So, the only change that I've made over the past three weeks was to give up on the brine shrimp. I feed my fish frozen or fresh sea food now. The fish love it, but my wallet doesn't, especially with the food purchased at my LFS.
As far as the tank goes, all three species spawn about every three days to a week, depending on the species. All seem healthy and eat well. My attempt with the cage failed, not because of the cage, but probably the fish starved and need live food, not just frozen baby brine shrimp or oyster eggs. So, I'm going to set up a system to raise these fish soon, once I get some free time.
To keep this from being a depressing post, I included a video that I shot from a while back, showing my fish doing their thing. About 2/3 through the video, you'll see that two male blennies will have an encounter. The blenny that the camera is tracking changes coloration, one that is common after or during aggression with another blenny. You'll notice that the dorsal half of the fish, from the eyes back, becomes very dark, almost black. This is an indicator of an aggressive mood in these fish. I haven't seen anyone document this before, so, there ya go, now it's documented
This was after a feeding session, including a dose of Oyster Feast. I hope you like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32yyttkv-V8&t=3s
