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I got a clown goby via LA's Diver's Den. You know, the place that says they'll send you healthy fish that are eating? I got an underweight clown goby, not eating, with a bacterial infection disguised as ich. I got him eating BBS in the quarantine tank, got him starting to put weight on, and then put him in my tank full of copepods. Figured he'd fatten up on copepods.
He did not. He lost weight, and kept losing it until I started filling the tank with BBS on a daily basis.
I've been feeding him BBS for a month and a half, and I've been trying to get him to eat anything else. I've tried mysis, freeze-dried cyclops, frozen cyclops, frozen BBS, frozen adult brine shrimp, and teeny chunks of krill type plankton. Yesterday, he finally ate a single frozen adult BBS, showed interest in another, and then ignored everything else.
I've just given him a bunch of BBS, and watched him eat. He's very enthusiastic about the BBS, but I think I've figured out why he didn't get fat on copepods. He's not eating copepods. There's a swarm of 'em in the corner he's hiding in, and he was ignoring those in favor of the BBS. They're very slightly bigger than the shrimp he's eating, and they move a bit differently, but otherwise they're pretty much the same thing. So I have no idea why he seems to be ignoring them entirely.
He's not in good body condition. His lateral line is sticking out, his stomach is sunken, his face is angular when seen from the front. I'm giving him BBS daily, from a slow feeder thing so he can hunt them for a few hours straight, and it's just not doing the trick. I don't know if they're too small, or what, but this isn't keeping him healthy. I want to get him to eat something heartier, like mysis chunks, so I can fatten him up properly. Also so I can get him onto an auto-feeder rather than having to feed him several times a day myself.
Is there any point in getting a similar, compatible fish to demonstrate for him? I know some fish species, particularly in freshwater, can learn to eat prepared foods by seeing other fish eat prepared foods. Any merit in adding a trimma goby, so he can see that one eat, maybe learn from it? I'm assuming adding another clown goby (green, maybe) would go poorly; I know different species of clown gobies can be combined in larger tanks, but this is a pico.
If I get some sort of cheap branching SPS from my LFS (maybe a monti or something else that should do OK), is he reasonably likely to nibble on it? I've read that they'll annoy branching SPS and eat the slime that results, and I'm willing to sacrifice a couple frags in the name of getting him fattened back up.
Do I catch him back out and put him in a mostly-bare QT tank? I got him fattened up in there, with BBS constantly in the tank. Trouble is, that's stressful, and I don't know if I'd ever get him eating prepared foods in a stressful tank. At this point, I think I'm going to give him a week, and if he doesn't start eating something else I'm going to put him in QT again.
Alternately, are there any of those mesh breeder boxes that have mesh small enough to contain BBS? This seems like maybe the best option.
I'm really not sure what to do about a clown goby who I'm pretty sure isn't eating copepods. I'm also really hoping that it's not going to turn out that he's about 6 months from dying of old age anyway, since these lil guys don't live long. I've never put so much trouble into a fish in my life.
Don't suppose anyone has a tank they keep stuffed full of BBS at all times that they'd like to add a clown goby to. Fry-raising tank, dwarf seahorse tank, that sort of thing. He's cute! He just doesn't know how to eat foods. Sir, how did you survive in the wild.
He did not. He lost weight, and kept losing it until I started filling the tank with BBS on a daily basis.
I've been feeding him BBS for a month and a half, and I've been trying to get him to eat anything else. I've tried mysis, freeze-dried cyclops, frozen cyclops, frozen BBS, frozen adult brine shrimp, and teeny chunks of krill type plankton. Yesterday, he finally ate a single frozen adult BBS, showed interest in another, and then ignored everything else.
I've just given him a bunch of BBS, and watched him eat. He's very enthusiastic about the BBS, but I think I've figured out why he didn't get fat on copepods. He's not eating copepods. There's a swarm of 'em in the corner he's hiding in, and he was ignoring those in favor of the BBS. They're very slightly bigger than the shrimp he's eating, and they move a bit differently, but otherwise they're pretty much the same thing. So I have no idea why he seems to be ignoring them entirely.
He's not in good body condition. His lateral line is sticking out, his stomach is sunken, his face is angular when seen from the front. I'm giving him BBS daily, from a slow feeder thing so he can hunt them for a few hours straight, and it's just not doing the trick. I don't know if they're too small, or what, but this isn't keeping him healthy. I want to get him to eat something heartier, like mysis chunks, so I can fatten him up properly. Also so I can get him onto an auto-feeder rather than having to feed him several times a day myself.
Is there any point in getting a similar, compatible fish to demonstrate for him? I know some fish species, particularly in freshwater, can learn to eat prepared foods by seeing other fish eat prepared foods. Any merit in adding a trimma goby, so he can see that one eat, maybe learn from it? I'm assuming adding another clown goby (green, maybe) would go poorly; I know different species of clown gobies can be combined in larger tanks, but this is a pico.
If I get some sort of cheap branching SPS from my LFS (maybe a monti or something else that should do OK), is he reasonably likely to nibble on it? I've read that they'll annoy branching SPS and eat the slime that results, and I'm willing to sacrifice a couple frags in the name of getting him fattened back up.
Do I catch him back out and put him in a mostly-bare QT tank? I got him fattened up in there, with BBS constantly in the tank. Trouble is, that's stressful, and I don't know if I'd ever get him eating prepared foods in a stressful tank. At this point, I think I'm going to give him a week, and if he doesn't start eating something else I'm going to put him in QT again.
Alternately, are there any of those mesh breeder boxes that have mesh small enough to contain BBS? This seems like maybe the best option.
I'm really not sure what to do about a clown goby who I'm pretty sure isn't eating copepods. I'm also really hoping that it's not going to turn out that he's about 6 months from dying of old age anyway, since these lil guys don't live long. I've never put so much trouble into a fish in my life.
Don't suppose anyone has a tank they keep stuffed full of BBS at all times that they'd like to add a clown goby to. Fry-raising tank, dwarf seahorse tank, that sort of thing. He's cute! He just doesn't know how to eat foods. Sir, how did you survive in the wild.