Hi everyone.
You may think what you’re about to read is crazy or a joke. Just hear me out and then let me know what you think.
One week ago I added a starry blenny to my mixed reef (took me 3 months to find one locally). Main purpose was for him to eat some random GHA. Not a big issue, just thought he’d be a good and useful addition. On the same day I added a few very small birdsnest frags and one pretty small ricordia yuma .
Tank had been doing fine until that day; parameters in range and at targets, most corals growing, especially montipora species growing quickly, GSP quickly. Acans, leathers, zoas growing but more slowly. If I’d pick one thing I had not been doing enough of, it would be WCs. Maybe feeding too little. But basically OK.
A few hours after adding the blenny and gluing down the frags, I looked at the tank and saw that two of the small birds nest frags were stripped of flesh, pure white. I assumed random RTN and removed them. No suspicious of the blenny at that stage. Anyway, most of us have had problem frags before. It’s par for the course.
Then… I worked from home the next day and was watching my tank… then saw the blenny swim over and sit on an acro, and then begin biting it. I assumed it was an outlier behavior and let it go. Worried he was hungry so fed a bit of extra nori and flake.
Fast forward 5 days and I’ve had a partial crash which peaked on Friday and now is improving a bit. Half of my SPS all RTN’d and some are still STN. LPS and soft corals, fish, shrimp, snails are still normal. Frogspawn looked angry on Friday but now is normal again. Non-SPS wise, just losing the new ricordia purchased and added also at the same time as the blenny.
I am hoping what has been affected but not died yet will recover. One birdsnest mini colony for example is stripped of flesh in the center/top area, with the lower and interior branches seemingly unaffected.
Here’s the thing…
Yesterday after doing a WC, I was just looking at the tank. And I saw the blenny swim over, sit next to the birds nest, and then aggressively bite at the flesh stripped area at least 10 times. Then he stopped for a minute or two before biting it another few times. After that he swam over and started biting an acro. Then onto an encrusting montipora and started biting. Then my favorite red/green digi. Had you told me this, I might not believe it. I’m even still struggling to believe it after seeing it with my own eyes.
Now every time I watch the tank for 10 minutes plus, I see him do it to some coral at least once.
So I’m wondering if this fish is the root cause of my issue. Ruled a lot of other things out, parameters have been fine though I hadn’t done any WC’s for a while and was worried I had been dosing too much aminos and trace. Fauna Marin ICP tests just became available locally so am running one of those to see if we can learn something (other ICP providers don’t have local presence yet and doing my own overseas shipping is challenging). Hope to have the ICP results in 2-3 weeks. Meanwhile I’ll continue my own routine tests as normal.
Anyway I’ve done an emergency 50% WC yesterday and stopped dosing everything but 2 part. I’ve had the idea of possible chemical contamination in my mind, though if it were a chemical I would have no idea how it would have happened. Running like 400 mL fresh activated carbon. Considering adding purigen and cuprisorb for a day or two just in case. Chemical-Pure isn’t available where I live.
Do you think this semi crash could possibly be due to this crazy blenny? As said based on previous experience and understanding I would have not believed this had I not seen the fish do it with my own two eyes. And the biting isn’t casual nipping. It’s like very aggressive, full mouth biting. Like you how happy and hungry tangs attack nori on an algae clip? That’s how the blenny was biting the coral.
So two questions, one is above. Reiterating, do you think this disaster could be due to the blenny? And second, this is a starry blenny, right? Total herbivore? Just wanting to ensure I bought what I think I did. Pics attached. One arrival in bag pic, one in tank, one still frame from a bite video, and the bite video itself (sorry for the quality, and only catching one bite - sometimes he bites them nonstop over and over, perhaps 10 times - this is just the only one I recorded).
I’ve been pretty depressed over this for the past couple of days, but now coming into the “acceptance, learn from it, and move on” phase. Hence my questions.
I have a lot of live rock and corals, so if it is this fish and he needs to come out, it’s going to be a big challenge to remove him without breaking down down the aquascape.
All parameters and specs available if it would be helpful. Just not posting unless you need them as I’ve already written a long post.
Thank you all.
Adam
You may think what you’re about to read is crazy or a joke. Just hear me out and then let me know what you think.
One week ago I added a starry blenny to my mixed reef (took me 3 months to find one locally). Main purpose was for him to eat some random GHA. Not a big issue, just thought he’d be a good and useful addition. On the same day I added a few very small birdsnest frags and one pretty small ricordia yuma .
Tank had been doing fine until that day; parameters in range and at targets, most corals growing, especially montipora species growing quickly, GSP quickly. Acans, leathers, zoas growing but more slowly. If I’d pick one thing I had not been doing enough of, it would be WCs. Maybe feeding too little. But basically OK.
A few hours after adding the blenny and gluing down the frags, I looked at the tank and saw that two of the small birds nest frags were stripped of flesh, pure white. I assumed random RTN and removed them. No suspicious of the blenny at that stage. Anyway, most of us have had problem frags before. It’s par for the course.
Then… I worked from home the next day and was watching my tank… then saw the blenny swim over and sit on an acro, and then begin biting it. I assumed it was an outlier behavior and let it go. Worried he was hungry so fed a bit of extra nori and flake.
Fast forward 5 days and I’ve had a partial crash which peaked on Friday and now is improving a bit. Half of my SPS all RTN’d and some are still STN. LPS and soft corals, fish, shrimp, snails are still normal. Frogspawn looked angry on Friday but now is normal again. Non-SPS wise, just losing the new ricordia purchased and added also at the same time as the blenny.
I am hoping what has been affected but not died yet will recover. One birdsnest mini colony for example is stripped of flesh in the center/top area, with the lower and interior branches seemingly unaffected.
Here’s the thing…
Yesterday after doing a WC, I was just looking at the tank. And I saw the blenny swim over, sit next to the birds nest, and then aggressively bite at the flesh stripped area at least 10 times. Then he stopped for a minute or two before biting it another few times. After that he swam over and started biting an acro. Then onto an encrusting montipora and started biting. Then my favorite red/green digi. Had you told me this, I might not believe it. I’m even still struggling to believe it after seeing it with my own eyes.
Now every time I watch the tank for 10 minutes plus, I see him do it to some coral at least once.
So I’m wondering if this fish is the root cause of my issue. Ruled a lot of other things out, parameters have been fine though I hadn’t done any WC’s for a while and was worried I had been dosing too much aminos and trace. Fauna Marin ICP tests just became available locally so am running one of those to see if we can learn something (other ICP providers don’t have local presence yet and doing my own overseas shipping is challenging). Hope to have the ICP results in 2-3 weeks. Meanwhile I’ll continue my own routine tests as normal.
Anyway I’ve done an emergency 50% WC yesterday and stopped dosing everything but 2 part. I’ve had the idea of possible chemical contamination in my mind, though if it were a chemical I would have no idea how it would have happened. Running like 400 mL fresh activated carbon. Considering adding purigen and cuprisorb for a day or two just in case. Chemical-Pure isn’t available where I live.
Do you think this semi crash could possibly be due to this crazy blenny? As said based on previous experience and understanding I would have not believed this had I not seen the fish do it with my own two eyes. And the biting isn’t casual nipping. It’s like very aggressive, full mouth biting. Like you how happy and hungry tangs attack nori on an algae clip? That’s how the blenny was biting the coral.
So two questions, one is above. Reiterating, do you think this disaster could be due to the blenny? And second, this is a starry blenny, right? Total herbivore? Just wanting to ensure I bought what I think I did. Pics attached. One arrival in bag pic, one in tank, one still frame from a bite video, and the bite video itself (sorry for the quality, and only catching one bite - sometimes he bites them nonstop over and over, perhaps 10 times - this is just the only one I recorded).
I’ve been pretty depressed over this for the past couple of days, but now coming into the “acceptance, learn from it, and move on” phase. Hence my questions.
I have a lot of live rock and corals, so if it is this fish and he needs to come out, it’s going to be a big challenge to remove him without breaking down down the aquascape.
All parameters and specs available if it would be helpful. Just not posting unless you need them as I’ve already written a long post.
Thank you all.
Adam
Who knows when he last got a good SPS meal before your tank.
