Clown goby fighting with red head goby

[trimma0426]

So in my 20 gallon Fusion, one of the first fish I added was a black clown goby, Gobiodon ceramensis.

Its been very peaceful towards all other inhabitants. The other week, I added a Paragobiodon echinocephalus. Anytime the red head got close to the black goby, the black goby would attack it. Is this something that will go away with time, or should I take them both out, and then put them back in together? I really would prefer the red head over the black clown goby, if I do have to get rid of one.

On another topic, is that white spot on black goby ich, or normal coloration?
http://www.fishbase.se/summary/7219
Some pics of each to make thread more interesting.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Their gobies they will fight no matter what

 

[trimma0426]

Their gobies they will fight no matter what

Every goby in my tank is peaceful with each other besides these two.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

Looks like ich... you shouldn't mix similar species in such a small tank as aggression may follow. You'll want to quarantine and treat all of your current fish.. all ich treatments are not reef safe so you'll need to leave your DT fishless for 76 days.

The easiest way of treating ich is to put your fish into hyposalinity (1.009). 48 hours of acclimation to the lower salinity is recommended and you should keep the fish in that salinity for 2 weeks AFTER you no longer see any visible signs of ich on any of your fish.

After this process is finished, slowly raise the salinity by .002 points per day until you reach your DT's level.. keep in mind that you will still need to keep your DT fishless until the 76 days are up.

I highly recommend a refractometer to ensure you have an accurate salinity

 

[trimma0426]

I have a refractomet

Looks like ich... you shouldn't mix similar species in such a small tank as aggression may follow. You'll want to quarantine and treat all of your current fish.. all ich treatments are not reef safe so you'll need to leave your DT fishless for 76 days.

The easiest way of treating ich is to put your fish into hyposalinity (1.009). 48 hours of acclimation to the lower salinity is recommended and you should keep the fish in that salinity for 2 weeks AFTER you no longer see any visible signs of ich on any of your fish.

After this process is finished, slowly raise the salinity by .002 points per day until you reach your DT's level.. keep in mind that you will still need to keep your DT fishless until the 76 days are up.

I highly recommend a refractometer to ensure you have an accurate salinity

I have a refractometer and do have proper salinity levels. If I dont have a quarantine setup, and don't plan on one.... is the easiest course of action to donate the black clown goby to someone who has a QT? I keep no corals, and am not worried about the disease spreading, but I don't mind re-homing the ugly aggressive black clown fish to someone else's tank. It's a fish only tank and will stay that way and if my tester fish from a crappy LFS has to go, that is not a problem for me.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

If there aren't any inverts in the display, you can treat with hypo in there...

 

[eatbreakfast]

Clown gobies usually don't get ich. They have an extra copious slime coat, which makes them more resistant to parasites, not immune, but more resistant, but also makes it more likely that sand is sticking to it.

Rehome the black clown goby.

 

[Sistawolf]

That doesn't look like ich to me.. but if it were ich.. you would have to treat the whole tank regardless if you kept the black clown goby or not.. it would have already infected the tank.. did it have the spot before you put the red one in? It looks like he harmed himself.. but let's bring the pros in.. @melypr1985 @Humblefish @4FordFamily

On a second note.. and please take it from someone whom has been there.. if you plan on never getting a qt.. then I wouldn't advise on putting anymore fish in your tank.. you can set up a 10 gallon for almost nothing and it's a huge peace of mind knowing your not bringing in a fish with a disease that will wipe your whole tank out in a matter of hours.. good luck

 

[Sistawolf]

As far as your question with the gobies being placed in one tank.. most fish will do ok as long as their body shapes are different.. such as a clown goby and a diamond goby and a watchmen goby.. but adding two clown gobies will only cause problems unless they have plenty of room and still they may not get along.. I found this and thought I would share..
The Clown Gobies
The clown gobies (or coral gobies) are also quite small, staying under 2.5 inches in length. In fact, the most common species (Gobiodon okinawae) doesn't even reach 1.5 inches, making them well-suited for life in very small tanks. They're brightly colored too, and typically won't bother anyone with the exception of other clown gobies.

Even though they don't get along well with other clown gobies when kept in confined quarters, if a number of them are kept in a large enough tank with plenty of rock and corals, they'll often pair up into male-female couples and will get along well from there. They also have an odd hangout, as they like to perch in the branches of stony corals like Acropora, but they don't do any harm to them.

About the only other thing to throw in is that they tend to be quite hardy and will eat a wide variety of fish foods, as long as the size is small enough. However, due to their smallness, it's obviously best to keep them with other small, peaceful fishes. Otherwise, they may be harassed by larger tankmates, and more aggressive fishes also tend to get all the food.

 

[melypr1985]

I agree that it doesn't quite look like ich, but he does appear to have a bit of an infection setting in. Probably from the abuse he's taken from fighting with the other goby. You'll want to get rid of the black goby like suggested and advise the new owner to feed him vitamins in his food or possibly antibiotics in a QT if it doesn't start getting better within a couple days.

 

[Humblefish]

I agree that it doesn't quite look like ich, but he does appear to have a bit of an infection setting in. Probably from the abuse he's taken from fighting with the other goby. You'll want to get rid of the black goby like suggested and advise the new owner to feed him vitamins in his food or possibly antibiotics in a QT if it doesn't start getting better within a couple days.

+1