Bad luck gobies

[Jholli90]

Hello all,

This will be my 2nd goby with this "problem". Maybe I'm just paranoid. They were/are both orange spotted.

They do not eat in quarantine tanks. The 1st was active and alert but never ate that I saw. I treated with copper for 2 weeks but panicked and put him in my main tank, worried he was going to starve. He perked up immediately, bounced all over the tank for a week but then committed suicide into the sump.

Fast forward 2 months later. I purchased another goby. He's been in quarantine 5 days along with a midas blenny. (Midas is eating fine) He is also not eating anything. I've fed mysis, flake, and some sinking pellets. I watch them when I feed and he never eats.

How do I get him to eat? I want to treat the full 30 days, but wont he starve

Quarantine tank is 10 gallon. No rock or sand, it is bare bottom. There are 2 pieces of PVC pipe in there. Temp is 77, salinity. 25

 

[Hitman]

I put some live sand in the QT when I quarantine Gobys and Wrasses. It makes them more comfortable as the sand is their natural environment. Once QT is over the sand goes in the trash. Just a small bag of livesand from petco for like $5-$10 works.

 

[LiveWire]

Have you thought about using some live brine shrimp? You may be able to get him interested in live food if he will not touch anything else. You may want to offer some more pvc also o give him a few more hiding spots as well.

 

[Katrina71]

Leave your powerhead on while you feed.

 

[Jholli90]

I put some live sand in the QT when I quarantine Gobys and Wrasses. It makes them more comfortable as the sand is their natural environment. Once QT is over the sand goes in the trash. Just a small bag of livesand from petco for like $5-$10 works.

I wasn't sure about sand because of ich surviving in it. Will I have to quarantine him longer?

 

[SeaJay]

I use sand when qt’ing sifters and wrasse as well. It doesn’t affect the copper levels enough to be a concern and I just sanitize and reuse the sand for qt only.

Brine shrimp seems to work best for mine.

 

[Jholli90]

Have you thought about using some live brine shrimp? You may be able to get him interested in live food if he will not touch anything else. You may want to offer some more pvc also o give him a few more hiding spots as well.

I will try both ideas, but live brine will have to wait a few days. We only have 1 fish store that isn't a Petco, and they close early most days.

 

[Jholli90]

As always, great advice on here. Thanks to everyone. I will put some sand in there, and get some brine shrimp.

 

[LiveWire]

Let us know how it goes @Jholli90

 

[rkpetersen]

Sometimes adding a bit of garlic to the food will get new fish eating.
Gobies in particular can be so shy at first that it takes an extra kick to get them to come out and recognize food as food.

 

[Jholli90]

Let us know how it goes @Jholli90

Goby didn't make it. I did add sand, and tried garlic. Everything test fine, and my midas blenny is doing fine and eating like a pig. I never saw the blenny bully him either.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The other goby didn't eat. I kept a copperband in quarantine for a month, and it's now been in my tank for about 4 months now. That should have been the difficult fish .

 

[rkpetersen]

Sorry to hear it.
Doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. Gobies can be very shy.
Keeping the light level in your QT low and minimizing foot traffic near the tank may help.
Place food in the tank and then back well away. Or set up a camera and leave the room entirely.
I have a camera on my QT; gobies, firefish, etc are considerably more active when I'm not around.

 

[Jholli90]

Sorry to hear it.
Doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. Gobies can be very shy.
Keeping the light level in your QT low and minimizing foot traffic near the tank may help.
Place food in the tank and then back well away. Or set up a camera and leave the room entirely.
I have a camera on my QT; gobies, firefish, etc are considerably more active when I'm not around.

I made the mistake of not asking to see him eat. I normally ask, but I was asking other questions and forgot.
Foot traffic could be the problem. My QT is in the kitchen, and its pretty active. I will find a better place for it, and try again. What kind of camera do you use? Like a game camera for hunting?

 

[rkpetersen]

Oh, sorry I didn't mention this sooner.
Another food to try is roe (fish eggs).
I've had timid gobies eat Reef Nutrition R.O.E. before when they wouldn't eat anything else non-living.

 

[rkpetersen]

Like a game camera for hunting?

Just an IP camera. I like Amcrest but there are many brands and they're generally pretty easy to setup if you have WiFi.