Thinny looking little yellow clown goby

[Lily Lemire]

Hy everyone !
Im worried about my little guy
I have him since about 1 month and a half and its strange because he eats readily cyclops and brine shrimp but he looks SO thin that i am worried please help me diagnose what he has !
He's the only fish in a 10 gallon reef tank and the tank has been cycled about a month ago.
Note : On the picures, the tank water is very foggy because i did a water change an hour ago.
Any help will be greatly appreciated
Lily

 

[Big G]

Brine shrimp has little to no nutritional value. Consider mixing up a fish smoothie: get a variety of frozen fish cube: mysis, brine shrimp, cyclops, chopped clams, seaweed, coral mix, etc. Place one cube of each into a tupperware. Let the cubes "slump." Drain off the excess water. Add a few drops of vitamins like Selcon, Zoecon, etc. Mix well. The mix will stay good in your fridge for several days. My fish love it. Hope this helps a bit.
Did you treat your goby for parasites or worms prophylactically when you got it? Sometimes intestinal worms inhibit the fish's nutritional intake. If you did not you could add some Metro (or API General Cure) + Focus to food to treat for worms. Just don't overfeed. You want to limit the amount of Metro that gets into the water column.
Best of luck with your beautiful fish.

 

[starypotter]

I had a green clown goby that was deathly thin and wouldn't eat. I started getting him eating with fresh hatched brine shrimp, after I'd collect some in a bottle I put a bunch of vitamins in there, sometimes phyto for them to eat then I'd feed it. It got his weight back up and got him to start eating pellets. He was also in an isolation box so it was easy to keep track of how much he ate compared to the others. I'm pretty sure he just looked at me like he thought I was crazy when I tried to feed frozen

 

[Lily Lemire]

I had a green clown goby that was deathly thin and wouldn't eat. I started getting him eating with fresh hatched brine shrimp, after I'd collect some in a bottle I put a bunch of vitamins in there, sometimes phyto for them to eat then I'd feed it. It got his weight back up and got him to start eating pellets. He was also in an isolation box so it was easy to keep track of how much he ate compared to the others. I'm pretty sure he just looked at me like he thought I was crazy when I tried to feed frozen

Hey thanks ! My goby ditched the cyclops ever since I fed frozen brine shrimp. The problem is that the frozen brine shrimp is too big most of the time so he pukes them out after gulping them . Thats why i dont know what to do since he really doesnt care about cyclops now :/ . He just wants brine shrimp ... but he cant eat most of the pieces so i need to buy something else. .. Whats the brand of vitamins you have ?

 

[starypotter]

Hey thanks ! My goby ditched the cyclops ever since I fed frozen brine shrimp. The problem is that the frozen brine shrimp is too big most of the time so he pukes them out after gulping them . Thats why i dont know what to do since he really doesnt care about cyclops now :/ . He just wants brine shrimp ... but he cant eat most of the pieces so i need to buy something else. .. Whats the brand of vitamins you have ?

I have Vita Chem, Big G also mentioned Selcon, and Zoecon. As Big G mentioned brine isn't the best food, but I think the freshly hatched is a bit better, I could be wrong. Since mine was in an isolation box I was just able to constantly put brine in there for him and I think it was volume that really got him better. It took maybe a week but he's now allowed out of the box now and I just make sure I have food sink to where he is at feeding time.

 

[Big G]

+1 on the "freshly hatched brine shrimp", Amazon, etc. sell the hatchery setups with everything you need to get it going.

 

[Lily Lemire]

Brine shrimp has little to no nutritional value. Consider mixing up a fish smoothie: get a variety of frozen fish cube: mysis, brine shrimp, cyclops, chopped clams, seaweed, coral mix, etc. Place one cube of each into a tupperware. Let the cubes "slump." Drain off the excess water. Add a few drops of vitamins like Selcon, Zoecon, etc. Mix well. The mix will stay good in your fridge for several days. My fish love it. Hope this helps a bit.
Did you treat your goby for parasites or worms prophylactically when you got it? Sometimes intestinal worms inhibit the fish's nutritional intake. If you did not you could add some Metro (or API General Cure) + Focus to food to treat for worms. Just don't overfeed. You want to limit the amount of Metro that gets into the water column.
Best of luck with your beautiful fish.

Hey ! Thanks for all the info!
1- My yellow clown goby is wild caught and i didnt do any treatment yet. Here, we have API General Cure available but is it gonna scrap my bacteria ? Im afraid so because whenever i used API General Cure in my freshwater tanks it negatively impacted afterwards my bacterial cycle afterwards.
2 - I really like the idea of mixing several good food and vitamins like you do but do you think that it will stay good for about 1 week in the fridge ?
Thanks again!

 

[Lily Lemire]

I have Vita Chem, Big G also mentioned Selcon, and Zoecon. As Big G mentioned brine isn't the best food, but I think the freshly hatched is a bit better, I could be wrong. Since mine was in an isolation box I was just able to constantly put brine in there for him and I think it was volume that really got him better. It took maybe a week but he's now allowed out of the box now and I just make sure I have food sink to where he is at feeding time.

Thanks !
Ever since I put him in a separate tank he is less stressed and eats more readily than before. For the past month he was with a couple of ocellaris clownfish. They were nice to him until one night the female clownfish pursued him and bite his little fin so i isolated him for two days until i could buy and prepared a new tank . I had lots of live rock and live sand + bottled bacteria just in case so it helped kick the cycle abd now hes fine still he is very thin ... i observed him eat every SINGLE day that i fed them .... he ate well and readily. He has never been scared by the clowns while feeding so i thought that it would only improve but i had to separate them because the female clown bitw him and became territorial . This morning he looked very thin so im worried now :/ hes such a great fish.

 

[Big G]

Hey ! Thanks for all the info!
1- My yellow clown goby is wild caught and i didnt do any treatment yet. Here, we have API General Cure available but is it gonna scrap my bacteria ? Im afraid so because whenever i used API General Cure in my freshwater tanks it negatively impacted afterwards my bacterial cycle afterwards.
2 - I really like the idea of mixing several good food and vitamins like you do but do you think that it will stay good for about 1 week in the fridge ?
Thanks again!

Yep, it's better if you treat it in a QT if using GC. Dose, wait 5-7 days do a water change and dose again. Wait 5-7 days do a water change. I like GC because it rids the fish of both flukes and worms, and the dose of praziquantel is a bit lower than Prazipro. Run a powerhead, actively rippling the water surface, to add O2 while treating with GC. Run carbon to remove meds. But if you are careful, the metro + Focus works if the fish is eating and you can cleanup the extra, for example, with a turkey baster, etc. Yes. the mix stays good for about a week in the fridge.

 

[Lily Lemire]

Yep, it's better if you treat it in a QT if using GC. Dose, wait 5-7 days do a water change and dose again. Wait 5-7 days do a water change. I like GC because it rids the fish of both flukes and worms, and the dose of praziquantel is a bit lower than Prazipro. Run a powerhead, actively rippling the water surface, to add O2 while treating with GC. Run carbon to remove meds. But if you are careful, the metro + Focus works if the fish is eating and you can cleanup the extra, for example, with a turkey baster, etc. Yes. the mix stays good for about a week in the fridge.

For the past days and weeks my poor fish has been greatly stressed and i have no QT tank as its being used for another fish already. Is there a bacteria-friendaly dewormer that i could use ? I have Prazi at home but i really think its the worst since i juat read that it causes a huge loss of appetite. That might kill my fish. ...any ideas. ? Except GC or Prazi ?

 

[Lily Lemire]

I forgot to mention that Metro + Focus is unavailable here.. is it softer on the bacterial cycle than other meds?
If so i might try buying some on Amazon or eBay

 

[Humblefish]

I forgot to mention that Metro + Focus is unavailable here.. is it softer on the bacterial cycle than other meds?
If so i might try buying some on Amazon or eBay

Focus binds the medication (metronidazole) to food, so it should not interfere with your biofilter.

 

[Lily Lemire]

Focus binds the medication (metronidazole) to food, so it should not interfere with your biofilter.

I'll try to find some then ☺

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello Lily,

I would also try and get some of the garlic guard and mix that in with his food. Sometimes when tangs get stressed they won’t eat and this helps them. It also keeps them fat and helps keep their immune system up. So it’s great to help prevent ick as well. Another thing is I would turn the lights down, as well. Fish will stress less if the lighting is lower or not as bright. Keep me posted on how he does, so we can help as much as possible.

Sincerely
Sarah

 

[Lily Lemire]

Concerning the Guarlic guard , can i put it straight into the Tupperware with the dethawed Cyclops or Brine Shrimp in it ? So that when ill take it with the turkey baster the guarlic guard will already be with the dethawed food ?

 

[Humblefish]

Concerning the Guarlic guard , can i put it straight into the Tupperware with the dethawed Cyclops or Brine Shrimp in it ? So that when ill take it with the turkey baster the guarlic guard will already be with the dethawed food ?

I would use a glass jar to do the med/garlic soaking, as Tupperware (plastic) might absorb some of these. I typically let everything mix & soak for 30 minutes before feeding.

 

[Lily Lemire]

Thab

I would use a glass jar to do the med/garlic soaking, as Tupperware (plastic) might absorb some of these. I typically let everything mix & soak for 30 minutes before feeding.

Thanks i'll try this ;D