Citron Clown Goby

[fishgirljockey]

I have a Citron Clown Goby who is extremely skinny. You can see his bones especially in his face. When I bought him about 3-4 weeks ago, he was already in terrible shape. He was skinny, pale and miserable looking so I wanted to help him. The first couple of days I couldn't get him to eat...after some time he finally started to eat mysis (this is the only thing he will eat aggressively). He really loves the mysis! He puts his mouth in front of the baster lol its very cute! However, it doesn't seem like he is putting on any weight. His face is so sunken in, I feel horrible. Is there anything I can do? I was wanting to use the API General Cure, but read they were bad for corals. I have an anemone and few other corals. I have hermit crabs, emerald crabs and snails as well. Is there something I can use to treat the tank safely? He is eating really well and happy for most part, but he just won't put on any weight. He is just so skinny and pale!

 

[Rtaylor]

I have a Citron Clown Goby who is extremely skinny. You can see his bones especially in his face. When I bought him about 3-4 weeks ago, he was already in terrible shape. He was skinny, pale and miserable looking so I wanted to help him. The first couple of days I couldn't get him to eat...after some time he finally started to eat mysis (this is the only thing he will eat aggressively). He really loves the mysis! He puts his mouth in front of the baster lol its very cute! However, it doesn't seem like he is putting on any weight. His face is so sunken in, I feel horrible. Is there anything I can do? I was wanting to use the API General Cure, but read they were bad for corals. I have an anemone and few other corals. I have hermit crabs, emerald crabs and snails as well. Is there something I can use to treat the tank safely? He is eating really well and happy for most part, but he just won't put on any weight. He is just so skinny and pale!

Just target feed him 5-7 times a day if you can. Small frequent feeding will be best until he fattens up. As many as you can fit in your schedule.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Perhaps try out some micro foods, like roe, cyclops, baby brine shrimp, etc...

 

[fishgirljockey]

Perhaps try out some micro foods, like roe, cyclops, baby brine shrimp, etc...

I have been doing what you mention; other foods. He still isn't putting on any weight. I feel awful! Maybe this is just the way he is? All my other fish are nice and plump. If he had parasites, this would of spread to other fish by now no? Ive had him now for 2 months. I have a hospital tank I just started and it is almost cycled; the diatom phase is almost done. I was thinking to put him in there and treat him for parasites, but now I am not sure if he even has them. His face is so sunken in; you can see all his bones as you can see in the pictures. He eats super well! It is very frustrating! When I got him, he was extremely pale too. The photo I provided was when I first got him (the one of just his face) In the photo you can see his face sunken in and just very pale. He's suppose to be bright deep yellow! 2 months later, he is starting to get his yellow back thankfully, but it is just his weight that isn't changing (second photo of his whole body). He is very happy; not lethargic or hiding or anything suspicious. Soon as he sees the turkey baster, he darts to it and nips at it before I can get the food out lol He loves his food. He is a very happy camper so I'm wondering if this is just the way he's built?

 

[Tired]

Oh, geez, that's bad. No, that is not just the way he's built, that's a fish with some sort of physical issue preventing it from gaining weight. Organ damage from bad collection, parasites, <i>something</i>. He should be fat, he shouldn't look like a poor little piece of jerky.

How often are you feeding him?

Might be worth a try to keep him absolutely surrounded in live baby brine shrimp, maybe in a breeder box. They're full of nutrition, and he should love them.

 

[fishgirljockey]

Oh, geez, that's bad. No, that is not just the way he's built, that's a fish with some sort of physical issue preventing it from gaining weight. Organ damage from bad collection, parasites, <i>something</i>. He should be fat, he shouldn't look like a poor little piece of jerky.

How often are you feeding him?

Might be worth a try to keep him absolutely surrounded in live baby brine shrimp, maybe in a breeder box. They're full of nutrition, and he should love them.

I do feed him brine shrimp. I switch it up eveyr few days but brine shrimp is my go to. I target feed him 6-7 times a day. He eats very well, just not putting on weight. Should I treat him? And what is best to treat him with? I have a hospital tank I can put him in cause I have corals. What would you recommend?

 

[Tired]

The lead suspect for a fish that's eating well but not gaining weight is intestinal parasites. I know Humblefish has a good write-up on that somewhere.

Newly hatched baby brine shrimp, specifically, is highly nutritious due to the yolk sacs. Adult brine shrimp, or frozen baby brine of an unknown age, are much less so. Frozen adult brine in particular has very little nutrition, better as a treat than anything else- and there are much more nutritious treats to be had anyway.

 

[fishgirljockey]

Oh, geez, that's bad. No, that is not just the way he's built, that's a fish with some sort of physical issue preventing it from gaining weight. Organ damage from bad collection, parasites, <i>something</i>. He should be fat, he shouldn't look like a poor little piece of jerky.

How often are you feeding him?

Might be worth a try to keep him absolutely surrounded in live baby brine shrimp, maybe in a breeder box. They're full of nutrition, and he should love them.

I know, I felt the same. He is lethargic or anything. Swims and plays with everyone. No signs of anything wrong, just very skinny. Poops normal too. Eats super well.

The lead suspect for a fish that's eating well but not gaining weight is intestinal parasites. I know Humblefish has a good write-up on that somewhere.

Newly hatched baby brine shrimp, specifically, is highly nutritious due to the yolk sacs. Adult brine shrimp, or frozen baby brine of an unknown age, are much less so. Frozen adult brine in particular has very little nutrition, better as a treat than anything else- and there are much more nutritious treats to be had anyway.

what about krill? He loves krill. I give them all different everyday. Mysis, krill and brine. I also use the phytoplankton once a day in the morning. And then I use pellets as well. Everyone else is fat but him lol when I first saw him, I bought him cause he looked so bad and I thought the same as u, parasites cause he was so skinny. His yellow is coming back but just not the weight. His energy level is excellent. He poops normal. He plays with the other fish all day. It’s strange. I’m wondering if he’s just built this way? He would of passed on the parasites to the others no?

 

[reefiniteasy]

Those pictures don’t look terrible. I have a clown goby that’s been through complete qt and is 100% healthy. He eats Hikari frozen mysis and LRS reef frenzy. They have a sculpted look to them that gives the impression that maybe something is wrong. They also contort their body to suction to vertical surfaces which gives the look of boniness.

 

[Tired]

Those pictures don’t look terrible. I have a clown goby that’s been through complete qt and is 100% healthy. He eats Hikari frozen mysis and LRS reef frenzy. They have a sculpted look to them that gives the impression that maybe something is wrong. They also contort their body to suction to vertical surfaces which gives the look of boniness.

If your clown goby looks like this, something is wrong with it. Look at the lines around this one's face. You can see every outline of every angle in his skull, his spine is sticking out- that is not a healthy body weight for anything.
There's a healthy weight clown goby https://plugon.us/fishtank/citron-clown-goby-1348e here. See how the body is smooth, without any of the angles of the bones visible? They're not supposed to have a sculpted look, they're supposed to be smooth and rounded, with maybe a tiny hint of a ridge in the face from some angles.

That fish is not built this way. That fish is missing significant amounts of, not just fat storage, but muscle. This is a severely emaciated fish, that I'm honestly surprised is still kicking. The feeding is probably helping- keep up with that, though maybe cut out the brine, that's not very nutritious. Mysis shrimp is good. Maybe try canned cyclops, or see if you can get any fish eggs- something fatty.
Phytoplankton can help to grow copepods, and is good for filter-feeders, but isn't directly relevant to the fish. They don't eat it.

And, no, parasites from one fish wouldn't necessarily become particularly symptomatic in the others. The others would probably catch them, but a healthy fish can live with intestinal parasites and be fine, until/unless something stresses them and gives the parasites the upper hand.
If you're certain you're seeing normal poop from him, you might be looking at organ damage from cyanide collection- I've recently learned that's very common with clown gobies.
You may want to look into anti-parasitic medications regardless of normal poop. Something is clearly wrong, and it may be worth trying to treat for parasites, just in case.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

May need to treat the little guy. Just recently added one to my 50g and it's a little piggy and is fairly plump. He's doing great on selcon soaked frozen mysis & brine. Also I toss in a little flake and working on pellets as all my fish eat on pellets as I travel a bit for work. Maybe try some metro/focus mixed with the food.

Either way, good luck!

 

[Tired]

Cute lil dude, but the blotches are weird. Color morph? Either way, that's another good example of how a clown goby should look- nice and smooth.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Cute lil dude, but the blotches are weird. Color morph? Either way, that's another good example of how a clown goby should look- nice and smooth.

It's the color correct from the Pixel 6 pro phone. That tank has a smat farm light which is more blue than not, so it tends to wash out colors with auto settings.