Yellow Watchman died fast

[kmc]

We added a yellow watchman goby to our 29gal bio cube yesterday. I dripped for an hour then put him in. He ate fine when I fed them last night. I found him dead in the drip tray this morning. Any thoughts? The other fish in the tank are a six line wrasse, a cherub angel and a false perc, along with a cleaner shrimp and assorted hermits and snails and an emerald crab. The water parameters are all good.
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Ph 8.2
Temp 78
Salinity 1.024
Is this a case of stress? Will another fish, maybe the wrasse jump on a new one and kill it immediately or did the thing jump the back wall over into the drip tray and expire? I do let the water barely trickle over the back wall to keep the scum off of the surface but this is the first time a fish has ever gotten over there and I thought watchmen were primarily bottom dwellers? Would you take it back to the LFS and exchange or consider this operator error?

 

[kimc]

Mine stays mostly on the bottom. This site says to drip for 3+ hours.... I'm not sure what a drip tray is. I have a aquapod & nano cube and lost a clown fish once when he jump over the back wall into the chamber where the pump is. I found a really easy quick fix for that problem and haven't lost another fish by jumping over the back wall. I don't know if will work with a Bio Cube. I bought a tank divider kit from LFS. In this kit there is a plastic strip that is like the plastic thing you use for a report cover/binding.. there is also a plastic sheet. I cut the plastic sheet into 2 inch wide strips, I then placed the plastic stip over the back wall and super glued the 2 inch strips on top of it. I used super glue gel. Sorry I can't explain any better, here's a pic hopefully you can see what I did.

 

[chipmaker]

I think 3 hours of drip acclimation is a much bit overkill and probbaly stresses a fish more than it does good. 45-60 minutes is more than sufficideint for most fish and other critters. YWG are primarily bottom dwellers, but its not unusal for them to scoot up to the top either looking for food. I know the two YWG I have in two different tanks both have similar habits. Early on in the initial morning light (Actinic only) they hang out at the top where my hob and skimmer is returing water into the DT, they hang near the surface looking for food, then when daylight bulbs come on they usually always return to the bottom and hang out around a cave or burrow and look for food or just watch the world go by...same thing when daylight bulbs go off and actinic comes back on prior to moonlights, they once again head up towards the surface to look for food.

 

[hatessushi]

The only time you would need to drip for 3 hours is if the SG or temp is way off. I got a trigger that came in 68 degree water so therefore it took nearly 6 hours to drip acclimate him properly. Drip acclimation really depends on the water differences. If I had raised the temp by 10 degrees in 1 hour I think my fish would have been way over stressed.
I had a Yellow Watchman that disappeared and I found him nearly 3 months later in my fuge which is part of the acrylic tank in the back. I got him out and put him back in the main tank and put some egg crate to cover the top of the tank to prevent jumping. Since I put him back in the tank I haven't seen him. He was so small I think the anenome may have ate him.

 

[kmc]

I took the fish back to the LFS and got a store credit for him. Suits me. i will just watch what comes in over the next few weeks and decide in the meantime. I would like to add one or two more fish and some more corals.
Thanks for everyones input.

 

[ahmoser]

I have found my male clown in that tray in my 29 biocube 6 times in the past three months. He has always survived though!

I can't find a way to keep the water level high enough to run the pump, but low enough to NOT trikle over the back wall. It is possible he suffocated on the back tray, my clowna is always breathing heavy when I find him back there!

 

[hatessushi]

there is some plastic netting you can put there to keep the fish from flowing into the overflow and use egg crate to keep them from jumping out.

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by kmc
I took the fish back to the LFS and got a store credit for him. Suits me. i will just watch what comes in over the next few weeks and decide in the meantime. I would like to add one or two more fish and some more corals.
Thanks for everyones input.
I recommend that any fish you consider buying from the LFS you observe for a few weeks before buying it. The reason is that you can make sure you are buying a healthy fish up from and get no surprises in your QT.