Citron goby spits EVERYTHING out

[SamiBlue]

Okay so I've had this guy for a little over a month now and when I got him from the pet store he appeared healthy except for a slightly pinched stomach. I figured he hadn't been fed much, easy fix, and he'll fatten up once he settles into my tank. After being in my tank for a day I try to give him some commercial flakes. Well he eats it, but a couple of seconds later spits it back out. Maybe he doesn't like the flakes? So I started offering different foods. Same response. Then I try frozen food. Nothing. I take a 5 gallon lowes bucket, mix fresh seawater, and add the fish and some API general cure thinking he might have internal parasites. I do the 1st dose, waited 3 days and gave him the 2nd dose while trying to get him to eat some frozen brine shrimp mixed with garlic. No change. At this point I'm not really sure what to do. I've put him back in the main tank and have tried every type of food I can think of: brine shrimp, clam bits, copepods, squid, plankton, herbivore blends. He reacts the same way to all of them. Is there some kind of disease that prevents fish from swallowing??
I really don't want him to die he's a cool little dude
Any feedback is appreciated

 

[Goodair]

Could be internal parasites. Have you tried live food like worms?

 

[tsouth]

Any luck with small pellets? Mine also spits flakes that are too large and so forth, but the appetite is still there. I feed hikari marine a pellets and it was a game changer

 

[SamiBlue]

I havent tried live food yet. I'm not sure if my pet store sells any live worms but I'm purchasing some brine shrimp eggs tomorrow so I can hatch them to see if he responds.

Any luck with small pellets? Mine also spits flakes that are too large and so forth, but the appetite is still there. I feed hikari marine a pellets and it was a game changer

I've given him hikari seaweed extreme pellets and although it seemed interested he just wouldn't down them. I've gone as small as frozen copepods and they were still spat out. -_-

Could be internal parasites. Have you tried live food like worms?

I treated the goby with general cure in a quarantine tank to see if it would help at all but he stayed the same.

 

[Goodair]

I don't got experience with gobies, but some of my fish had to start with live and transition into prepared.

If he was skinny when you bought it, it might just not aclimate in time.

 

[tsouth]

Mine does not go for the seaweed extreme either. I highly recommend trying marine s instead.

 

[SamiBlue]

Mine does not go for the seaweed extreme either. I highly recommend trying marine s instead.

I'm willing to try everything! Will ask my LFS tomorrow

 

[SamiBlue]

I don't got experience with gobies, but some of my fish had to start with live and transition into prepared.

If he was skinny when you bought it, it might just not aclimate in time.

The only possibility I can come up with is that he might have been wild caught? He seem incredibly picky for a goby. I think I'll ask the place I bought him from to see if they know

 

[rkpetersen]

Could try fish eggs/roe. About the only commonly available food you haven't tried, sounds like.
Also live brine shrimp if you can find them locally. Faster than trying to hatch and raise your own.

 

[tsouth]

@SamiBlue Any luck?

 

[SamiBlue]

I couldn't make it to the store that has live food however I did get frozen mysis and bloodworms as well as hikari marine A pellets. He didn't respond to the worms but he did try to eat the mysis and pellets. I think I might try to treat the fish for brooklynella because it looks like he has a couple of tiny little bumps on the top of his head that I can only notice when he's turned to the side

 

[SamiBlue]

Alrighty so it's been almost three months and he's still alive and kicking, so it's been eating a little bit of SOMETHING when he puts stuff in his mouth and spits it back out. Didn't treat for brook because I'm kinda doubtful whether he'll survive it and if that's really what's affecting him then he would have died a while ago. The couple of dots on his forehead have been in the same spot for the last month, still dunno what's up with that, but that's not why I'm updating. Today he tried to eat a bloodworm and while he was putting it in his mouth, it poked out of his left gill. He removed it after freaking out and rubbing against the rocks and I was wondering if that was a normal result of fish eating things that were a bit too large for them. Or could it be a clue as to why he can't swallow his food?

 

[tsouth]

Just to reiterate - when they go for it and swallow then spit, it's usually due to size. Just because they spit doesn't mean they're not chewing. You know that the appetite is there, it's just a matter of sizing. You can either 1.Purchase size appropriate food (marine s as you know they like marine a), or 2. Manually reduce the size of the food yourself via chopping or whichever method preferred. Seems like the fish is in good hands and I bet it's very happy you've come along to do your best. Keep it up!