Yellow Watchman Goby is acting weird

[Sick_man]

I just got my YWG today and for some reason it wont eat the pellets I offered. Its fairly small (about 1.5 inch) and it just sits there. It hid in a rock for a little but I had to move it so I can add and reorganize a bit of rock. Also it never swims upward, just hovers over the sand. And right now it is just sitting still in the front wide open. Finally, the strangest thing is that it leaned sideways and flipped a couple times. Please help. Current parameters 0,0,10. Also a pair of clownfish live here in this 20 gallon but they dont bother anyone

 

[Oropher]

I just got my YWG today and for some reason it wont eat the pellets I offered. Its fairly small (about 1.5 inch) and it just sits there. It hid in a rock for a little but I had to move it so I can add and reorganize a bit of rock. Also it never swims upward, just hovers over the sand. And right now it is just sitting still in the front wide open. Finally, the strangest thing is that it leaned sideways and flipped a couple times. Please help. Current parameters 0,0,10. Also a pair of clownfish live here in this 20 gallon but they dont bother anyone

Wild fish is not accustomed to pellets. Fish keeper has to train them to accept pellets. You can offer something more similar to their natural diet : live food (e.g. newly hatched baby brine shrimp) or frozen food (mysis, pods) then transition to flakes/pellets. If you have a quarantine tank for the newly purchased fish, then this training would be simpler in a controllable environment. In main tank, other inhabitants could interfere training process.
New fish tend to hide first because they need to be certain that in the new environment they will be safe. They would look out for predators from their hiding place to ensure their safety.
This Gobies has a unique habit of perching and peeking out from the rock, and also they like to burrow themselves in the sand. Be careful with Gobies, they like to jump out from the tank.
If it leaned sideways and flipped a couple times, this could be the sign of stress because water in tank is very different from the plastic it came from (salinity difference, pH, temperature etc). This kinda stress could be fatal. Hopefully it's not.

 

[Sick_man]

Wild fish is not accustomed to pellets. Fish keeper has to train them to accept pellets. You can offer something more similar to their natural diet : live food (e.g. newly hatched baby brine shrimp) or frozen food (mysis, pods) then transition to flakes/pellets. If you have a quarantine tank for the newly purchased fish, then this training would be simpler in a controllable environment. In main tank, other inhabitants could interfere training process.
New fish tend to hide first because they need to be certain that in the new environment they will be safe. They would look out for predators from their hiding place to ensure their safety.
This Gobies has a unique habit of perching and peeking out from the rock, and also they like to burrow themselves in the sand. Be careful with Gobies, they like to jump out from the tank.
If it leaned sideways and flipped a couple times, this could be the sign of stress because water in tank is very different from the plastic it came from (salinity difference, pH, temperature etc). This kinda stress could be fatal. Hopefully it's not.

Thank you so much for the response. I will be sure to put your tips to use. Do you think it is wild caught? I assumed that since these fish were so popular they were captive bred.

 

[Oropher]

you could ask the seller whether it is from wild or captive-bred one.
personally, I don't feed the newly bought fish right away (even if it's captive-bred), because their primary concern is adjustment to new environment first; also I kinda starve them a little.
if they have already accepted the new environment then they will explore tank, this is the good time to introduce feeding.