# Blue Spot Jawfish - out of character



## SH4D0W (Sep 17, 2012)

Hello all,
I am a new comer and this is my first post so please be gentle! 


I am hoping you might be able to help me out a little; I have a Blue Spot that is of a mature age and fully grown, he has been in my tank for some 2 years now, well i say my tank... it was my sisters but we have recently bought it off of them. He had burrowed a nice little cave in the center of the tank where he appeared to be happy, he did get some grazes on the back end but i put this down to stress with the move OR where he was rubbing against the rock, anyway, I came home from work today and found him perched on top of a fallen thermometer in the bottom end of my tank touching the glass, completely exposed, this is not like him. My missus fed the fish at about 1400 GMT and he was in his home at that point and was feeding fine, at 1820 when i got home he wouldn't feed when i target fed him, as soon as my other fish came to see he would scatter off and escape, he was up swimming at the top of the tank. I have just tried to feed a small amount of flake, nothing, and also some pellet but again, he turned his nose up. I did add some Activol and Garlic to my feed and he just spat at the food as if he was pushing the food away. 

I say out of character as this is not what i am used to seeing, so i am hoping you guys could point me in the right direction. 

It is worth mentioning that i lost my Shrimp 2 weeks ago and my pair of Bangai Cardinals a week apart and also the 2 year old Bangai during the move. 

I have added some new Clowns and a Mandarin which have all taken well. 

My set up is:
Aqua One Regency 100 (220ltr tank)
Aqua One 1050 filter
Ehiem 2229 wet and dry filter
JBL 18W UV Filter (on the aqua one)
Two T5 lights
Two AquaRays in blue (the top end jobbies) 
Power heads positioned to eliminate dead spots 
Heater set to 26 Celsius.

A recent 5 days ago full water test resulted in:
PH - 8.2 (today reads the same)
Nitrate - 50
Nitrite - 0.2
02 - 4
Ammoniom - 0.05
Alkalinity - 9
Phosphate Sensitive - 1
Calcium - 0

Water temp is 26.2 - 26.7


The only changes i have made since i have taken over the tank is the adding of a few new fish, an anemone, some carbon for the 1050 filter as a precaution due to the shrimp dying and a liter of new Bio Balls for my wet and dry, i mixed the new bioballs in with the old and then re-topped the trays up.

Can anyone please help me out. 

I am very worried about Mr Spot. 

Best regards

Martin (on behalf of Mr Spot) 

PS – Ill add some pics


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Oh boy. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but you are likely to lose everyting in the tank, Anemone included.
Your tank is in a Nitrogen Cycle. And that is what is likely killiing the fish. Ammonia and Nitrites are very harmful to fish.
Anemones need prestine water conditions, including 0 Nitrates and near .001 Phosphates, this will will surely be in trouble in that tank.
Best thing for yoiu to do is start doing 25-50% water changes to try and decrease those Ammonia and Nitrites readings, and keep them going down. Using RO/DI Water or Distilled.


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

#1-Dry Rock, there are a few hitchhikers on Live Rock that people want to stay away from, so they opt for using Dry Rock, or Dead Rock. Macro Rock is a good place to start looking for that. Either way you go you will need a minimum of 1lb per gallon.

#2-Replacement filter media like filter floss and activated carbon (if you get a filter) Which is really not necessary.

#3-Multiple Power heads (2 or 3) 10x your water volume for just a Fish Only With Live Rock, and at least 20x your water volume for a Reef Tank. So lets say your going reef, and you have a 100g tank, you would need flow in that tank at minimum of 2000gph, or 2 1000gph power heads.

#4-Protein Skimmer, rated at 2 times your water volume. Unless your tank is under 30g, in which case you can do 10% water changes a week to rid the system of detrius. But, you'll have to watch the water parameters close, if things go haywire, you'll have to do more water changes.

#5-Saltwater Test Kits. Reef Test Kit. Test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, Phosphates, Calcium, ALK and Magnesium.

#6-Saltwater fish food. Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Cyclopease, Algae Sheets, Romaine . Flake food is not really a good food to feed your marine fish.

#7-Aquarium vacuum. This one is iffy. Most don't use one, if you have enough flow in the tank you won’t need one

#8-Rubber kitchen gloves

#9-Fish net

#10-Two, clean, never used before, 5-gallon buckets

#11-Aquarium thermometer, digital being the best.

#12-Brush with plastic bristles (old tooth brush) - needed for cleaning the live rock if you don't get Fully Cured Live Rock.

#13-Power Strip, possibly GFCI outlets by the tank.

#14-Optional but definitely recommend getting a Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter for the make-up water, and a barrel for storing the water.

#15-Possibly a Quarantine Tank for your new fish. They sit in here for a few weeks to kill off parasites and bacteria, to keep it from getting in your main tank

#16-Heater rated for your size tank.

#17-Saltwater Mix. Marine Salt. Instant Ocean is the cheap Salt that beginners and Advanced use alike.

#18-Saltwater Hydrometer or even better a Refractometer, which is more accurate. There is also a Digital Meter that is way advanced if you have the cash.

#19-Aquarium filter (not absolutely necessary if running with adequate amounts of live rock, but nice to have if you need to use a mechanical filter or activated carbon, or GFO and such)

#20-Aquarium substrate such as live sand or crushed coral. Some go bare Bottom, others choose the 2-3" bottom, others, more advanced will try the Deep Sand Bed, which is over 6" deep.

http://www.znnea.rmuvx.servertrust.com/default.asp

Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle and cycling. Methods for ammonia, nitrite removal.

aquarium heater | eBay

power heads | eBay

NEW 0-10% Salinity Refractometer Salt Water Aquarium | eBay

MarcoRocks Aquarium Products

Bulk Dry Live Rock - Bulk Reef Supply

Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariumsrock&af=cat1:liverock&isort=score&method=and&ts=results

Fish & Aquarium Supplies: Marine Substrates, Sand, Crushed Coral, Live Sand

Aquarium Lighting; Reef, Planted Light Information. PAR, Bulb, Watt, Kelvin, Nanometers, MH, LED.

http://www.live-plants.com/

What Your Coral Needs | Successful Reef Keeping

t-5 lighting | eBay

cree led aquarium | eBay


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## SH4D0W (Sep 17, 2012)

thanks for the info here mate, i will do a 20% water change today and report back.


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## SH4D0W (Sep 17, 2012)

I went down to check at 3am and Mr Spot had moved to the other corner of the tank, this morning i checked at 7 and he had made himself a little pit in the same he was at 3am, i put some flake in and he turned to have a look but did not eat, i put a bit of RS MYSIS under his nose and i can not be too sure if he ate or spat it away. Either way this is really not like him.


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Only time will tell now.


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