death of my Midas Blenny and now some ammonia

OK my midas blenny (ol yeller) died on Sunday I believe maybe Saturday the 7th. I have a different thread about my six line but the midas has no signs of aggression or abuse. His death happened the next day after my post and I haven't found out why. He was about 14 days old in the tank. He was very yellow up into his last day when I noticed him laying on the sand looking a little darker. Now comes the problem....

If he died in his hole(home) then I don't see way to get him out of a huge peice of 15 pound rock.

My ammonia is reading very slightly. Not even .25 yet but I can tell there is a hint of it. Should go ahead and do a water change to tackle this? Should I exspect a larger ammonia spike? I've never had a fish die that I couldn't remove. I tried getting down into his hole with tweezers but not successful. I can't see his body at all.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Tank is a 60 gallon red sea max 250.

 

Are you able to use a siphon hose to pull him out of the hole? Then maybe you can get him out? What type of ammonia test are you using? API has given me questionable results on a consistent basis and have never used a different one.

 

Thats a good idea I will try. I'm using the API ammonia test. I'll keep testing often and see if the results go away or get worse.

Thanks for the fast reply mdbostwick

 

How old is the tank and are you running biopellets? In an established tank normally a fish death that's small won't show any signs of spikes as bacteria and clean up crew do there thing. Nothing is certain but we're your params stable prior to the fish's death? API is less than stellar as far as accuracy goes so I wouldn't rush to fix that tests numbers. A water change will not hurt though so I'd recommend that for sure.

 

I think that DSC reef is right on target. A lean up crew is designed to take care of just this situation. If you have enough rock and are not maxed out on your bio load, it should not be too big of an issue. I would increase your testing cycle just for piece of mind and have water available for a change if needed.

 

Agree. FWIW If there is any lr or corals in the tank the cuc is already there.Bristleworms,pods,micro brittles, etc.do a wonderfull job and are basically free.

 

Sorry for the delay in response. Looks like the ammonia never went up. I kept testing and testing. The clean up crew must have taken care of it.

The tank is 3 years old but I had to move it a little over a month ago. I kept all the water and sand when I did so.

And sorry for the delay and thank you everyone for your advice!!!!

 

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear that all was well.