I Need Some Help

[cybermeez]

Last night along with the introduction of 5 small Chromis, I did a 25% water change (30 gallons of a 120g tank). Today Blue Dot Jawfish who I've had about a month was seemed in distress. When I got up this morning he was out of his cave and he'd lost some of his color. I fed the tank some mysis (something he's always eaten heartily) and he refused to eat ? he?s never refused to eat.

I watched him for a bit and while he eventually went back into his cave, he kept going in and out every minute or two. He didn?t go anywhere, just came out, turned around and went right back in. At one point I noticed a bristle worm stuck to his tail, something he usually sees as a snack, so I was surprised. After some effort he was able to shake it off and went back into his cave again.

This evening I fed the tank and again he refused to eat. I put some more rubble around the opening to his cave and after a few minutes he moved a couple pieces and that was it.

There are a few factors that may be playing into this. The first is the little school of Chromis like to hang out near his front door and will dart in the back door if frightened. They also could have brought some parasite in with them I guess, but I thought it would take longer to manifest. Secondly, tonight was setting up my Bio Cube and calibrated my refractometer with RO water. If RO gives an accurate 0 reading for calibration, my refractometer was reading high by .005 (so reading 1.025 but really the salinity was 1.020). It had been quite some time since the last calibration so it's been like that for a while I suspect and this Jawfish has been through several water changes with it like that.

So, does anybody have any idea what could be going on with my Jawfish? Also, do any of the vendors here have salinity calibration fluid in stock or can I borrow some from somebody so I can know for certain if my meter is accurate?

Since it's late I'm and may be a while before I get any responses, in case it?s a parasite I'm going to fire up the UV and hope it doesn't nuke my pod population and starve my mandarin.

 

[Imbarrie]

How are the other readings in your tank?
Are any other fish or coral showing signs of distress?

 

[cybermeez]

The other fish seem fine. I have a Hippo, Orange Shoulder, Foxface, a 6 Line, Royal Gramma, a pair of Clowns, a pair of cleaner Gobies and a Mandarin. I caught one of the Chromis rubbing on a ball sponge shortly after I put him in the tank yesterday. However, that was only after one of the clowns got a good nip out of his side (same side he was scratching). The corals are OK as are my Serpent and Linkia starfish.

I've lost a couple turbo snails, a fire shrimp and a tuxedo urchin in the past month. I chalked it up to elevated nitrates, warmer temps than turbos like (chiller keeps the tank between 78.5-80) and both they and the urchin were new.

According to my Aquacontroller, the pH runs between 8.1 and 8.3 depending if the lights are on. Nitrates are around 20 (down form 40 ten days ago). I haven't checked anything else but plan to in the morning. There shouldn't be any ammonia or nitrites since the tank has been running several years, has 100+ lbs of live rock and live sand.

I'm sure there is some level of phospate in there but I've been running a phosphate reactor for as long as I've had the tank (will be getting a biopellet reactor at the swap). The calcium should be OK with the reactor and anytime I've ever tested for magnesium it's never been below 1350.

 

[Imbarrie]

Is the bsj still acting strange?



Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[KathyC]

Hey Robyn - you can try and use distilled water to check the refractometer in the meantime. Do you know how to make it at home?

The Jawfish sounds stressed and if nothing else has changed (I doubt the salinity change during the water change would do and would think it likely it is more the addition of the Chromis. Perhaps try leaving the lights off for a day or two?
Any long coral like a gorgonian that you can move nearer to the JF's home that might cause the Chromis to swim elsewhere in the tank and give the JF some security back?

The addition of the UV light should not affect your pod population in any major way. They'd have to swim into the input line to be killed by it, so you're probably safe there.

 

[cybermeez]

Thanks for the advice Kathy. The Jawfish didn't eat again this morning and he's definitely started scratching. I don't have a gorgonian, but what I'm going to try to do is use some rock to block up the holes where the Chromis are slipping into the Jawfish's den. I’ve moved a rock to in front to the biggest opening, but I’ll have to do the rest when I get home from work tonight since I don’t have time this morning. I'll keep running the UV for a couple of months to get rid of any parasite if the Mandarin's pod population isn't at risk.

The Jawfish did quite an impressive job making his burrow. He completely excavated everything out from under the largest piece of base rock in my tank. The draw back of him being such a good digger is that the sand on the edges collapsed in at the back and on the side leaving places where the Chromis can slip in. They are the only ones small enough to get in from what I can tell.

So, it may be a combination of ich and the new Chromis. Ironically I got them to act as dither fish. My big Hippo tang zooms around the tank occasionally (as best he can in a 120) causing the Jawfish to duck into his cave when the Hippo comes tearing by. He’s getting to the size where he needs a bigger tank and I’ll have to put him up for adoption him soon.

Before all of this started, the Jawfish had been doing so well that I'd ordered a mated pair of wild Zebra Dartfish from liveaquaria.com and they are coming in this week. I can't put them in with the ORA Mandarins because the tank is too small (12g) and it's really meant to be a Mandarin tank. Besides, everything I've read says Zebras are among the few fish you shouldn't quarantine due to their shy nature.

 

[cybermeez]

An update on my Blue Dot Jawfish....

It looks like you were right Kathy. I blocked up all the holes around the Jawfish's den so the only way in or out was his front door. Within a day he's settled down and appears to be his old self again. Last night he began eating again and is taking an interest in his surroundings both in and outside the tank. He seems to find the cats very intriguing.

Since he was scratching, I'm going to continue to run the UV just to be safe. Hopefully things will continue to go well and he'll be fine. Thanks for the help!

 

[THEDLO]

glad everything worked out man

 

[cybermeez]

Here's a picture of the little guy with his new rubble arranged just the way he likes it.