Help With Goby in Quarantine

sundog101 · Dec 13, 2014

I need some help with my Randall's goby/Orange stripe prawn goby. Ok here's the story, I have a 29 gallon biocube and recently had a problem with ich. I have 4 fish, a royal gramma, clownfish pair, and the goby. The Royal gramma started to show signs and they have been in qt for about 5 days. The goby just started to take a little food today. All other fish are eating and doing well. The goby does not look good. He has really started to darken in color. Especially around the eyes and mouth. He looks pretty stressed. I don't have a picture right now, he's hiding but I'll get one up asap. My main question is do you think this is stress related or a whole different problem? I have not started copper yet and Do you think I should wait until he's doing better. Sorry this isn't a lot of info I'll post more when I can. Any information would be helpful. Thanks!!

mark11 · Dec 13, 2014

These posts always seem to result in a discussion about your stresses, and diet. So you should probably prepare to report the nitrite, etc., the amount of fish in inches, the tank history, how long was it stable, changes, and diet.

Squishie89 · Dec 13, 2014

mark11 said:
These posts always seem to result in a discussion about your stresses, and diet. So you should probably prepare to report the nitrite, etc., the amount of fish in inches, the tank history, how long was it stable, changes, and diet.

Hahaha, howdy neighbor!!

Back to original post.

Wait on treatment until goby is eating better. Copper makes them want to eat even less. How was the goby doing before the ich? What is the history with your QT? Has it been up and running for a while and is established or did you throw it together when the first fish got sick? If it is the latter I would be very concerned about ammonia.

sundog101 · Dec 13, 2014

My display tank is a biocube 29 reef tank. It's been setup for about 3 months, this is my first tank. Water parameters are stable, ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate- less than 10, kh- 9dKH, calcium- 450, phosphate- 0.04, salinity- 1.025. Ich showed up in the Royal gramma about 2-3 weeks ago. I tried the "reef safe" ich treatments without luck. Last week I setup a 20 gallon quarantine tank to treat all fish with copper and leave the dt fallow for 60 days. I've had the goby for about 1 month he's about 4 inches. The clownfish are small...about 2 inches. The Royal gramma is about 3 inches.The quarantine tank is 20 gallons and has been setup for 1 week. It has a hob filter and a small power head. I added a sponge from the dt to the filter. I filled it with 50% water from the display and the other half fresh.The ammonia at the highest has been 0.2 (I added ammolock). Nitrite is 0. Nitrate is 5. I've done one 6 gallon water change and am going to do another water change tomorrow. I'm currently feeding rods original food, plankton, and mysis shrimp. I've fed flakes in the past but not in qt. The goby is reluctant to eat and hides a lot. He just ate for the first time this morning. He's been in qt for 5 days. When I first put him in my display (didn't quarantine but I will now) he was very shy and didn't eat for about a week. Exept for the first week, he been a good eater and always takes food. He has always been pretty shy though. About 2 weeks ago his color started fading. Now that he's in qt it has gotten worse. His body is pretty dark. There are really dark areas around his eyes and mouth. It's hard to tell if he has ich spots or not since he is white. I'm sure he is stressed from being moved but he but he really doesn't look good and I'm wondering if something else could be wrong. I have not started copper yet and I'm not sure if I should wait or not. If the problem is being caused from the ich I think I should start the copper. What do you think?Ya sorry I typed the first post really fast and didn't have time for details. Once I get a picture I'll post it. Thanks for the help!!