Can't get Yasha to eat...

[BarbH]

Sorry to hear about the Yasha, but kudos to the seller for giving you credit. From personal experience I know that not are all like that

 

[mcarroll]

Sorry to hear it too.

Doubt there's anything you did or could have done - Yasha's are quite sensitive to shipping stress in my experience.

If you try again, I would suggest a much shorter acclimation time - about 10 minutes should do it - unless the bag water he comes in has vastly different salinity than yours. E.g. The shipper is a "low salinity genius" who thinks 1.010 water will prevent disease. Even 1.020 water. In a scenario like that I might slow down the acclimation to 20 minutes tops.

Problem is that ammonia will be building up in the bag water from the moment he goes into the bag to the moment acclimation is done. Extending his time (or any fish) in that water is almost always a bad idea. (Sometime no acclimation is best, in fact - done this many times over the years.) A little, relatively delicate fish like the Yasha doesn't have a lot of tolerance for stress like this. The Yahia, Gresingari and the Tangaroa's all actually seemed more delicate than the rest.

I know it's not the same, but FWIW we always had a lot better luck with High Fin Banded gobies - seem to be the heartiest small goby - than we did with Yashia's. We had better luck with almost any of the other shrimp gobies, in fact.

-Matt

 

[Cigar Sherlock]

Thanks Matt for the info. I checked my parameters numerous times, shut off the pumps and put food in front of his mouth..bought new food (small pellets) tried soaking food in garlic..he just wasn't interested. He almost had that look like he had seen a ghost and was in shock. I've read so many articles about aclimation and many of them are contradicting stories about what should be done. I thought a good drip method would delicately adjust him into my water without much stress but alas, you could be right about waiting too long.

 

[mcarroll]

Thanks Matt for the info. I checked my parameters numerous times, shut off the pumps and put food in front of his mouth..bought new food (small pellets) tried soaking food in garlic..he just wasn't interested. He almost had that look like he had seen a ghost and was in shock. I've read so many articles about aclimation and many of them are contradicting stories about what should be done. I thought a good drip method would delicately adjust him into my water without much stress but alas, you could be right about waiting too long.

I know that "seen a ghost" look on those little gobies all too well. Never seen one recover from it either.

I don't think the time you did for your acclimation was extreme, just not usually necessary and therefore best cut as short as possible. End the stress of shipping ASAP, in other words, which includes living in nasty bag water as well as acclimation time and the handling and re-handling associated.

I think our understanding of what's important about acclimating has changed over the years but the documentation online is largely historical and not updated by its nature.

Acclimation was (and is) much more important if you're dealing what the heck animals from the wild. This should be pretty rare or even unheard of among normal hobbyists these days - typically wholesalers and retailers go through this (and the associated losses) for us. All we typically have to do is a short acclimation to where half the water they are in is from your system and half is the old bag water. Something like 10 minutes is usually adequate. If the bag water salinity is far off of yours, more time could be called for. (Ask the shipper in advance what their salinity is - at least test the bag water when you get it.) If the bag water is funky, especially if it's stinky (usually indicating ammonia), I would skip acclimation altogether and move the fish/coral into the healthy water of your tank immediately.

-Matt