Last week, I noticed another skilletfish acting weird, not coming to the front to eat, breathing heavy, not interested in food if I put some near it, etc. My fear was that it was going to die like the other one did, mysteriously. So, I decided to treat it with Prazipro, thinking that perhaps I never got rid of the flukes. My reasoning was that a couple gobies have been scratching for a while now, not going crazy or acting sick, but, that is a sign that it could be flukes. Anyway, that was Wednesday night.
On Friday night, I got home, took out some leftovers for dinner, put them in the microwave so that my wife and I could eat dinner and watch a TV show. While the food was in the microwave, I went downstairs to check on my fish.
The sickly skilletfish was still in the same shell, doing the same thing. The previous night, at feeding time, only two fish came out to eat, the others hid in their shells, although a few of them did eat when food drifted by. But, normally, they all come out to eat out of my hand. I shined my flashlight around the tank, as not many fish were poking their heads out, and that worried me. Inside one of the shells, I noticed one of the male blennies upside down, breathing heavy. There was another male blenny that wouldn't come out of his shell and eat that I noticed the night before too, and he had me worried.
I went into panic mode. I had plenty of circulation and aeration in the tank, but, maybe the fish couldn't take the meds. So, in my mind, 90% water change, so I drained the tank. Only a small amount of water was in the tank, with the fish.
While I was at it, I figured that I'd pull out the oyster cultches and fix some of the things that fell apart over time. For example, there was an overhang that I thought was really cool that broke apart and fell, and I really wanted to fix it. There was another couple of oysters that fell off that weren't originally glued well also. These things really bugged me, even though things looked OK in the video, I hated knowing that it wasn't as I had planned.
Of course, pulling out the reef meant that fish could be in the reef, out of the water, and I had to shake a few fish out. The blenny that hid in his shell wouldn't come out that I was worried about was one of the fish that I had to shake out. I finally did, and then I saw why he was behaving that way...not disease...he was guarding eggs! Well, that was good news.
Anyway, I thought the upside down blenny was dying for sure, but, after removing the reef, I counted all of the blennies swimming around just fine. He was probably just in the shell, as they always do, acting goofy in his shell. I panicked for no reason.
Of course, when pulling the reef out, I was worried about leaving a fish stuck in it, but as it turned out, all of the fish were accounted for. I didn't find any crabs, so I don't know what happened to all of the crabs in the tank. They could still be in the tank buried in the sand. I hope that they weren't in the reef, because it's been out of the water under repair since Friday night.
I filled the tank with newly mixed brackish water, increasing the salinity just a tiny bit. I left about a dozen loose oyster shells in the tank for hiding spots, and tossed in a half dozen PVC pipe sections for additional hiding spots, with the hopes of calming the fish down and easing potential aggression.
Anyway, I repaired the large overhang and it looks really good:
I beefed up the two other overhangs and any other loose oyster shells:
I also removed a dozen complete oyster shells that I collected that were laying by themselves on the sand, that were loose or had come completely apart, with the purpose of gluing them together. I also wanted to glue them to the cultches to provide more hiding spots on the main structure. The clothes pins are about a half inch thick, and are perfect spacers for gluing open oyster shell hiding spots. I used thick rubber bands to since them tight so the glue would hold nicely.
After they dried, last night, I glued them onto each of the structures pictured above, adding a dozen new open oyster shell hiding spots solidly to the structure, Previously, these shells were either lying on the bottom of the tank, or loosely stuck in crevices in the reef.
The problem is that, even though the dead oyster shells are great cover, and the fish use them, they eventually come apart and become litter on the bottom of the tank. I wanted something more permanent. And, since they also like the permanently glues ones on the reef, I figured more is better.
Tonight, I will remove the remaining oyster and clam shells from the tank and repair them. Then, I'll place the oyster reef back into the tank, and tomorrow night, place the repaired oyster and clam shells strategically in the tank (where I can easily observe them). I need 24 hours for the glue to cure.
By the way, I used Gorilla Glue again. Most of the reef is still really solid, so I'm happy with how it held together over time. I just used more of it on the overhang, and it's really solid now. I just didn't use enough glue the first time. Also, last night, after gluing the new hiding spots permanently on the structure, it looks really good. I couldn't be happier.
I still am not sure what to do about the "sick" skilletfish. I may QT it and try and treat it. Maybe the water changes will help it recover, I don't know. I'll do another one tonight, maybe 50%. The rest of the fish are doing OK, although disoriented because their favorite hiding spots were removed. I think that once I return the reef to them, they'll get back to doing what they do.