Woke up to find Red Scooter Blenny dead (why?)

[chrisw4111]

I'd like to know how I failed my fish so I won't do it again. Feels bad to lose a fish. I did a lot of research and thought I knew how to take care of this fish but apparently I was wrong. Here's the story.
8 gallon Biocube, 2 months old. At least 10% water changes every week, along with testing for SG, Amm, NO2, NO3, and pH. Test results before a half gallon WC saturday were
SG 1.025
Amm, NO2, NO3 all 0, haven't had a problem with these to date.
pH 7.8. Its always been here, I've been adding reef builder for a month per instructions on label but no movement.
Constant 77 degrees
In the tank is a bag of carbon, a bag of phosguard. Put cheato in middle chamber a month ago, 2 scarlet reef HCs, 2 Kenya trees all a month ago. Pom Pom crab 3 weeks ago. Ricordea 2 weeks ago, pulsating xenia 2 weeks ago. I've also had 3 turbo snails since the tank began. 9-10 lbs LR and LS. The tank is peaceful, crabs avoid eachother and the corals, Kenya trees fragging and fully open as I type this, xenia fragging like crazy and pulsating now.
As for the RSB, added him 11 days ago. I've observed him constantly and he appeared happy through last night. Crawling all over the tank, picking at the glass, rock, and sand. Belly not getting smaller. I fed the tank frozen mysis, brine, and cyclopeze twice a day. No algae on the sand, an inch worth on the glass just above the sand.
Causes?
I'd always had the actinic in front and 10k in back. Saturday during WC I switched them around, figuring the xenia would appreciate the more direct light.
Last night I went in to the tank and snipped a branch off a Kenya tree. It was low lying, almost reaching the xenia, so I did a little reading and assumed it was okay to snip in tank. Like I mentioned the tree is back to fully open and the little branch I snipped is also fully open and looks fine. I just tested for ammonia and still get a zero.
When I found the RSB he was on the ground in a cave, belly up, with the pom pom picking at him. Now although the pom avoids the HCs like kryptonite, I did once notice him slowly approach RSB once during a feeding with poms waving. RSB just swam away slowly.
I don't know what to think? The RSB buried himself with sand at night, if I had to guess I'd say the pom got to him but I know there are plenty of causes that I'm not even aware of so I'm looking for some guidance.
Thanks.

 

[meowzer]

8 gallon Biocube, 2 months old.
That would be my first guess....They really need much more established tanks since they eat off the microfauna (and pods) a 2 month old tank would not have a sufficient amount of either
In my opinion

 

[chrisw4111]

not sure how the smile next to the title got there. If anything it should be a frown, or puzzled face.

 

[garick]

you might be putting way to much food, but algae will grow seems like regardless of water quality. Its natures little clean up crew (though not always a pretty one)
As for the scooter. Those guys are very hard to keep. In fact they are not a blenny at all, they are a dragonet.
Dragonets are incredibly difficult if not impossible to adapt to a captive diet and will rarely accept anything but the tiniest of live foods.
Dragonets should never be introduced to an aquarium smaller than 75 gallons and should equally never be introduced to an aquarium that is less than at LEAST 6 – 8 months old as it usually takes their main food source this amount of time to properly populate.
So the fact it was in such small tank. Might have been its downfall.
Was yours wild caught or captive?

 

[chrisw4111]

Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3225168
That would be my first guess....They really need much more established tanks since they eat off the microfauna (and pods) a 2 month old tank would not have a sufficient amount of either
In my opinion
Darn. I did read that they eat algae, and might take to eating some frozen. I used to have pods everywhere but since adding crabs they are non-existant.
I figured with the snails doing fine and zooming all over the place I had algae for the RSB. Lesson learned.

 

[chrisw4111]

Originally Posted by Garick
http:///forum/post/3225171
you might be putting way to much food, but algae will grow seems like regardless of water quality. Its natures little clean up crew (though not always a pretty one)
As for the scooter. Those guys are very hard to keep. In fact they are not a blenny at all, they are a dragonet.
Dragonets are incredibly difficult if not impossible to adapt to a captive diet and will rarely accept anything but the tiniest of live foods.
Dragonets should never be introduced to an aquarium smaller than 75 gallons and should equally never be introduced to an aquarium that is less than at LEAST 6 – 8 months old as it usually takes their main food source this amount of time to properly populate.
So the fact it was in such small tank. Might have been its downfall.
Was yours wild caught or captive?
I read minimum 10 gallon on the shopping area of this website. Guess I should have double checked.
I am guilty of not having acclimated the tank long enough though. Won't happen again. But like I said, I'd read they eat algae, and I know my tank is producing that, though not on the sand as that is shaded from direct light by the rock, but my rock has turned dark green. Other than the 6-8 month rule is there a way to know when you are producing enough algae for an algae eating fish?

 

[olemiss]

The crabs did not eat the pods, the dragonet did. It exhausted the supply and more than likely starved to death. Not sure where you heard they eat algae but I would find a better source for future purchases. An eight gallon tank is not large enough for algae eating fish, they will eat the algae faster than it can grow. Stick to inverts/water quality for algae control.

 

[fmarini]

i too would say it die from starvation.
Not enough infauna to support the fish. Mandarins and scooter blennys require a large amount of food and surface area to provide said food.

 

[chrisw4111]

Originally Posted by OleMiss
http:///forum/post/3225302
The crabs did not eat the pods, the dragonet did. It exhausted the supply and more than likely starved to death. Not sure where you heard they eat algae but I would find a better source for future purchases. An eight gallon tank is not large enough for algae eating fish, they will eat the algae faster than it can grow. Stick to inverts/water quality for algae control.
Diet of algae, mysis, and brine, and 10 gallon minimum are both things I read on the shopping area of this website. Then again it is a store afterall, and I should know better than to take a store's advice for gospel.