2 surprise deaths

If you've seen my other threads I bought a tiger sleeper goby on saturday. Upon entering the tank, he was immediately sought out and destroyed by my two ocellaris clownfish and to my surprise algae blenny. He usually bothers nobody and keeps to himself. I am officially deeming him dead. I am really sad about this one because he was an outstandingly healthy and perky specimen at the LFS. I turned the lights off for a day and a half after he went in to get him settled, but no matter, he was killed anyway. To my surprise, when I turned my lights back on, my yellow headed sleeper was gone too. He was awfully thin and had been since he came home a few months ago. He may not have been able to get through the two days without feeding. Thats my only thought.

One question remains in my mind. Why did this guy not dig a burrow? Being a jawfish I thought he would have and gained some protection. Was he just too stressed out to do this?

Whatever it may have been, RIP my two little jawfish buddies

 

I just saw another thing. The body of an emerald crab. It may be a molt, but he was a very big one so I'm not sure. He may have been near the end. Time will tell. I also forgot to mention that I am bringing the culprits back to the LFS this weekend, so I am saying goodbye to my clownfish and six line in favor of a fairy or flasher wrasse and maybe a sunburst anthias.

 

Just one question, did you have a yellow head sleeper - http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/product/p-24014-goby.jpg

or a yellow headed jawfish - http://www.aquacon.com/images/YellowHeadJawfish2.jpg

If they were the latter, jawfish are very hard to acclimate with any other territorial fish in the tank. It is recommended that they be introduced before any other fish when stocking them BUT if you have peaceful tankmates, you can get away with it like I have

K+ for the loss

 

I had an established yellow headed sleeper and had introduced a tiger sleeper. Both died. The new one was killed. I am unsure of the cause of death of the old one, but he was so thin that he may not have been able to go the 2 days without food.

 

I'm gonna say it wasn't the food. Algae blennies are very territorial and may have seen these two guys as competing for food or something like that. Just food for thought. They have similar body types and could have been bullied. I don't know about the burrow thing. That's what my new sleeper goby did. Just buried himself for a couple hours when the cleaner shrimp came to check him out.

 

Yea. The food thing seems a little ridiculous. I see how the new fish would be bullied. I don't, however, understand how an established jawfish with a burrow would suddenly be bullied to death. Thats why I'm still confused about the disappearance of my yellow headed sleeper. I'm bringing the clowns and sixline back to the LFS. Don't know what to do about the algae blenny though. I need him for algae, but I also need a jawfish to keep my sand bed turned over. We'll see.