Strange Goby behavior

[jmorgret]

Got a diamond goby and QTd him for about 4 weeks, was fine. Put him in my main tank a few days ago. Fine. He was alone as my other 2 fish, Coral Beauty and Lawnmower Blenny, were in hypo tank and had been for about 6 weeks. Well the hypo ended and after the slow process of raising the salinity they were finally put back into main tank yesterday. I noticed yesterday I did not see the goby at all, which I thought was a bit unusual, as I normally see him. Anyway, around 8pm, I noticed the goby was out and just sort of hanging out. A few minutes later, my wife calls me over and the goby is spinning like a alligator. Huh? Then it appeared that the blenny came over and they were fighting a bit but was hard to tell as they were up in the rocks. Then the blenny left, the goby started to dig his head into a hole in the rock, which was too small for him. He kept spinning around digging it in deeper. Then stopped moving all together. His head was in, but his body was out. Of course the next day he was in the same spot, dead. Couldn't even remove him from the hole, had to move the rocks and get a pair of pliers to pull him out. What's up with that? Did my Blenny bully him? Very strange.

 

[AdidaKev]

What size tank were they in? Two fish relatively the same size and same shape, such as the blenny and goby, have a tendency to fight, especially in small areas. They are both pretty territorial as well. Gobies like to burrow themselves underneath the substrate/in between rocks, so that behavior isn't too unusual, but I suspect it was trying to escape the blenny, who was established in the tank and probably trying to defend its territory.