Help! Goby has bristle worm hanging out of mouth!

Stacykirk88

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Woke up this morning and my 3 inch pink spotted goby has a quarter inch piece of a bristle worm hanging out of its mouth. It doesn't seem to be able to swallow it but I think it is going to be near impossible to catch the goby and will it hurt the goby to try and pull it out?
Anyone have experience with this?
 

Rjukan

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Woke up this morning and my 3 inch pink spotted goby has a quarter inch piece of a bristle worm hanging out of its mouth. It doesn't seem to be able to swallow it but I think it is going to be near impossible to catch the goby and will it hurt the goby to try and pull it out?
Anyone have experience with this?


No experience with this, but my opinion is definitely not to try and remove it yourself. The bristles are backwards facing and will be like barbs trying to remove the worm.
Unfortunately I think you just need to wait and see what happens.
 
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Stacykirk88

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No experience with this, but my opinion is definitely not to try and remove it yourself. The bristles are backwards facing and will be like barbs trying to remove the worm.
Unfortunately I think you just need to wait and see what happens.
I havent seen her come back out from thr burrow since I first saw her, she usually pips out when I feed but she didn't this time. Here's hoping she can swallow the thing.
 

Rjukan

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I havent seen her come back out from thr burrow since I first saw her, she usually pips out when I feed but she didn't this time. Here's hoping she can swallow the thing.
Fish are pretty surprising when it comes to something like this. I have a Frontosa who decided he wanted to eat a pleco, I found him with the pleco tail fin sticking out of his mouth and thought, well.. good job buddy, you're dead. Pleco fish have these very boney pectoral fins that point backwards and I figured it would rip his insides up. But sure enough a few days later I saw the pleco corpse and the Frontosa was fine and is still with me to this day lol. That was over 10 years ago.

Anyway, hoping the best for your fish!
 
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Stacykirk88

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She must have eaten it, I got impatient waiting for her to come out of her burrow, so I moved the rock and she dashed away in a cloud of sand before I could see her. But this morning she is back at her burrow no worm in sight and eating just fine. Thanks for all the positive vibes.
 

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Mine eats big fat ones all the time. And usually just like you describe with a big chunk hanging out of his mouth for a while.
It's always funny to see your fish first thing in the morning with a guilty look and a bunch of spines around it's mouth :eek: My Bicolour Blenny is def guilty!
 

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