Starry Blenny in trouble!

justanotherfishhead

justanotherfishhead

Lisa
My starry blenny didn't come out to eat last night and I eventually found him hiding. I put in some of his favorite food and he did come out and ate a little but he looked really pale. Now tonight he didn't come out at all and he's sitting on the sand looking really pale. Before yesterday he has been so active and energetic and eating really well. He was starting to get a little skinny about a month ago and then I made more of an effort to hand feed him and make sure he got plenty of food. My royal gramma has shown ich spots but still eating and acting normal. The starry blenny has no noticable ich spots, but maybe he has it? Unless there's some other reason he's sick. Should I try to pull him out and put him in QT and go buy some copper or try the hypo? I have been so lucky with fish so far - if he dies it will be the first one I've lost.
 
Im by far a fish person but i do have a starry. He does pale up from time to time and i think its stress related. I have a blue CBS that i have caught pinching the crap outs my starry. That said is there anything in your tank that could be messing with him?
 
No I don't think anything could be messing with him. All other fish are peaceful. Everyone else seems fine except the royal gramma which is still eating and swimming around but has white spots. Maybe he's just in a funk. I checked all params came out fine...temp is steady 77, salinity is 1.024-1.025, amm, trites and trates are 0. I've been monitoring these anyway lately because my canister filter broke about a week ago and I didn't replace it so I wanted to make sure the water was okay and it has been checking out fine.
Hey there fellow Wisconsinite! Go Packers! haha, just kidding I don't care about football. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, but moved to CA a few years ago.
 
justanotherfishhead said:
No I don't think anything could be messing with him. All other fish are peaceful. Everyone else seems fine except the royal gramma which is still eating and swimming around but has white spots. Maybe he's just in a funk. I checked all params came out fine...temp is steady 77, salinity is 1.024-1.025, amm, trites and trates are 0. I've been monitoring these anyway lately because my canister filter broke about a week ago and I didn't replace it so I wanted to make sure the water was okay and it has been checking out fine.
Hey there fellow Wisconsinite! Go Packers! haha, just kidding I don't care about football. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, but moved to CA a few years ago.
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White spot sound like ich. Maybe more will chime in. Fawk the packers, go SAINTS! I've always been a rebel and actually started being a fan during their dark era In 86 when I was in 4th grade. :p
 
Actually, the process of trying to pull a fish out and QT generally does more harm than good.

I would be worried that he is stressed from someone keeping him in the rocks and not getting enough food. I would turn the lights out and re-arrange the rocks. I would also work on getting him more food. Wonton made a feeder box for her blenny and you might look into that.


Also have you added anything new to the tank at all?


Lastly, this might just be a thing he is going through. My starry blenny turnes the freakest shade of pale brown with black spots when I pull out the glass cleaner. He then follows it around the tank and never lets it leave his vision, all while in his scary colors. I think he is trying to frighten it off or something.
 
Just woke up and found him covered in nassarius :( I am so bummed, he was the coolest fish. I don't know what happened. He didn't have any ich spots that I could see and he was eating every day. No I haven't added any new fish or new anything for a few months. Last thing I added was a frogspawn a few months ago. Everyone else looks good except the royal gramma, who has had white spots off and on but continues to act normal (except occasional scratching). The clowns are clear, chromis are clear. My plan was to transfer everything over to my new tank when I get it in 3-4 weeks and do hyposalinity in my 55 before I get rid of that tank. I could maybe move everthing but the fish to my 20 gal (put most live rock in buckets) and start hypo now to avoid losing another fish.
 
Also should mention in my 20 gal I have a firefish and bengaii cardinal. They seem fine but I haven't been careful about cross-contamination. So I was going to add them to the 55 and treat everyone at once before moving to the new tank (leaving it fallow for 6 weeks).
 
If you havent treated the fish for ich, you can assume they have it and arent showing syptoms.

did he ever fatten back up after getting skinny?
 
little_fish said:
If you havent treated the fish for ich, you can assume they have it and arent showing syptoms.

did he ever fatten back up after getting skinny?
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Yes he had gotten more plump since I noticed that. I gave him pieces of nori every few days, I made sure he got a couple good pieces of the frozen food by putting the spoon right by him, and he always ate the formula 2 flake food and the other flake food too. Just a few days ago I saw him grab a big flake from my clown (clown had grabbed too big a piece and couldn't eat it all).

Guess I learned my lesson the hard way - always treat in QT as if they have ich. One of my fish must have been carrying it with no symptoms. I read somewhere that you should even QT all new corals, rocks, everything in case it has ich on it. I think most people don't do that. I wonder if the coral dips get rid of ich.
 
Thanks everyone. Frodo was a great fish, I looked forward to having him a long time. Maybe I'll get another starry blenny someday.

Winter2011-12001.jpg
 
Aww, what a cool guy. I'm sorry for your loss. I lost a guy yesterday too, and it sucks :( But yeah, I agree with others, sometimes it just happens and it's not something we did. Hang in there!
 

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