Heavy Breathing Goby

[RamAirTA95]

I just recently added 2 Maxi-Jet 900's to my 45 to replace a rio 600 and add some more circulation to my tank. When I added the Maxi's I had to swith my fans to a different power strip. Anyway I forgot to turn on the fans yesterday and my temp. (which is usually dead set on 78*) was up around 83* when I got home :( . I quickly turned on the fans and shut off one of my 96 watt PC's to get the temp to come down.

Everything looked to be fine, but my Mandrin Goby seemed to be breathing heavily (less 02 in the water at higher temps?). He almost looks like he is panting, he opens his mouth to suck in water, and then forces out his gill openings. This is not common behavior for him.

Today the temp is back to normal, but he is still breathing abnormaly?

Any Ideas?

:confused:

[RamAirTA95]

Any Ideas?

[hcs3]

i wouldn't worry about it. if there is anything wrong, i doubt it was induced by the temperature change. 83' is not that warm. in fact, it is cooler than the temp i keep my tanks at.

also, while diving, it is common to have cold water currents wash through. in one recent instance, i was around 80' deep in negril with the water temp a cool 85. a cool water current came through and the temp dropped to 78 - 80 for about 15 seconds. then it went right back up to 85.

HTH

henry

[cdbdi's]

You said Mandarin Goby? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Mandarin should never be put in a tank less than 200 lb of live rock with a refugium. These guys rely mainly on copopods and anphapods as their diet. Them taking any food you may put into the tank is highly unlikely.
A way to replenish thier food supply is to frequently go to the ocean (if you are near)and pick up a cup or 2 of live sand and introduce this to your tank.
They maybe beautiful animals, but better left in the ocean if one cannot take care of them properly.
There are a couple of websites on about the Mandarin. (I wish I had them handy) look them up.
If your chemestry is fine, your water temp is fine, all I can say is he/she probably is not getting the food it needs and is starving. Are any of your other fish in distress?

[RamAirTA95]

My only other fish is a Maroon Clown for now, and he is pretty much indestructable. I have TONS of pods and the Mandarin eats them all the time. He has actually grown since I got him (as a Gift). I am thinking maybe the more extreme flow from the added powerheads have made it more dificult for him to find the pods. They used to be all over the glass, but with the new Maxi's the are not where they usually are.

Any other ideas?

[budhaboy]

watch him swim- is he having trouble in the currents? he could be having trouble hunting because hes struggling against the currents- just an idea...

[cdbdi's]

Is your clown is heading to the top for air? If so then it is most likely is an oxygenation problem. Do you have any parasite control in your tank? UV filter? Cleaner shrimp?

[RamAirTA95]

The clown is doing nothing out of the ordinary. I do not have any cleaner shrimp or other parasite control, but the Mandarin has been fine for 3+ months and I haven't added anything new (Except for the Powerheads and a rock with some yellow polyps). I have a Coral Banded Shrimp and 3 peppermints, would it be alright to add a Cleaner?

Now that I think about it the Mandarin did have a little excess slime on him this morning hanging from his fin.

Hmmm?

[cdbdi's]

I had to ask hubby about that one and he said it would be okay to add the Cleaner. Slowly acclimate them though as they are VERY sensitive changes in salinity.
I'm almost positive the extra slime you saw was released durning sleep. Ours would leave a ball laying around or have some drooling off in the mornings when we would turn on the lights.
Is he/she just laying around? Does there seem to be a loss in activity?
Is the current flow in your tank really high?

[RamAirTA95]

There does seem to be some loss of activity, but not drastic. I haven't seen him since lunch time so I will check on him when I get home.

Thanks for the help.

[BlinkBoyCK]

Be careful, often in smaller tanks coral banded shrimp will go after other shrimp due to their aggressive nature. But since yours is getting along ok with the pepperment shrimp it will probably be fine.

chad

[Panda]

Not to be picky or anything like that, but your Mandarin Goby isn't a goby. They are Dragonets.

Family: Callionymidae

Species: Synchiropus splendidus

Sorry to disappoint that liitle guy, but you wouldn't want him to grow up not knowing what he is. :D


Dave

[RamAirTA95]

OK now that we have clarified what kind of fish it is I think I have figured out what the problem is. Today he was swimming by the front glass and I could see he has actually gotten skinny. I guess I do not have enough pods for him to feed on and he has slowly been starving. What can I do to get him some pods? I do not have a sump yet, but I was planing on getting one.

Any Ideas?

[Panda]

Try to get a refugium going to give the pods a place to reproduce. CPR makes a hang on one, but it's kinda high priced, or you could get an old 5 or 10 gallon tank and use a small power head with a gravity feed back into the tank until you get a sump.



Dave

[Al]

RamAir
you can get more 'pods for the mandarin by mail ordering them from either Inland Aquatics or IndoPacific SeaFarms. Another thing you can do is to go down to the shore. Anyplace where its clean, you can collect some seaweed and rinse the pods off of it into a bucket. You can also use a fine mesh net in any weedy shallow water areas. After rinsing the bugs into a bucket, check over your catch and evict anything you don't need (like tiny jellyfish). The amphipods and shrimp you can collect like this should keep your pet well fed. Also, mandarins don't like strong currents it makes it hard for them to catch their food, so it might be neccessary to adjust the powerheads.

[cdbdi's]

Sorry we didn't get back sooner. All of the above are excellent ideas. You can even like I suggested earlier get a couple of cups of sand from the beach and add it to your sandbed (if you are nearby one (beach).
We wish you the best of luck!!