Yellow Watchman Goby showing red flags

IE Reefer · Jul 12, 2022

I was on vacation last week while my parents were taking care of my tank, once I got back they told me that the YWG and my Mandarin Dragonet haven't been eating even though the food is up for grabs. The Mandarin is very skinny even though I added a crap ton of pods in my DT, but I transferred him to my sump in hopes of the fish to eat the pods. But, I'm more concerned about the YWG since he's been acting very abnormal such as being out of his hole and not eating when the food is literally in front of him, also the week before this last week I noticed that the fish had a possible bacterial infection. I'm not sure what to do or how to treat it but I really hope to save both of these fish.

Jay Hemdal · Jul 12, 2022

The fish may not have related issues. The mandarin may just be starving, they are prone to overrunning pod populations in just about any size tank.

The goby seems to have some scrapes on its head. Could it have gotten startled? Sometimes, people taking care of tanks don't know things like bumping the tank, cranking all the lights on, etc. can cause the fish to dart around.

In the end, there just isn't much to go on here. Take a look at this post and see if there is any background info you can supply that might give us more clues:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

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Jay

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
The fish may not have related issues. The mandarin may just be starving, they are prone to overrunning pod populations in just about any size tank.

The goby seems to have some scrapes on its head. Could it have gotten startled? Sometimes, people taking care of tanks don't know things like bumping the tank, cranking all the lights on, etc. can cause the fish to dart around.

In the end, there just isn't much to go on here. Take a look at this post and see if there is any background info you can supply that might give us more clues:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Regarding the scrapes, there have been times when I walk into my room and the goby will dart into his cave and behave normally, but how he's acting now is like a completely different fish. I had previously posted a concern about the bump on his head to which other reefers responded that it's most likely a bacterial infection and it will either go away or kill the fish, with my knowledge I'm assuming that this "infection" has somewhat affected its behavior and/or its way of thinking. When I feed my fish I usually turn my whites on max, when doing this every day my fish have recognized it and will all come to the surface/come out of their caves for food; when I did this today, the goby didn't do anything and, as stated before, won't even try to eat any passing food right in front of his face. I will try and post parameters tomorrow once I get the chance to.

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
The fish may not have related issues. The mandarin may just be starving, they are prone to overrunning pod populations in just about any size tank.

The goby seems to have some scrapes on its head. Could it have gotten startled? Sometimes, people taking care of tanks don't know things like bumping the tank, cranking all the lights on, etc. can cause the fish to dart around.

In the end, there just isn't much to go on here. Take a look at this post and see if there is any background info you can supply that might give us more clues:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Also to note, my parents told me that the goby was swimming up and down against the side of the tank but whenever he was going down it seemed like he was falling down instead of swimming. I recognized this behavior where he would chase his own reflection by swimming up and down, but never where he was "falling".

Jay Hemdal · Jul 13, 2022

IE Reefer said:
Regarding the scrapes, there have been times when I walk into my room and the goby will dart into his cave and behave normally, but how he's acting now is like a completely different fish. I had previously posted a concern about the bump on his head to which other reefers responded that it's most likely a bacterial infection and it will either go away or kill the fish, with my knowledge I'm assuming that this "infection" has somewhat affected its behavior and/or its way of thinking. When I feed my fish I usually turn my whites on max, when doing this every day my fish have recognized it and will all come to the surface/come out of their caves for food; when I did this today, the goby didn't do anything and, as stated before, won't even try to eat any passing food right in front of his face. I will try and post parameters tomorrow once I get the chance to.

Excessive startling response in fish can sometimes be a sign of underlying issues, but without some other clues, I can't say what that might be.

Jay

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Excessive startling response in fish can sometimes be a sign of underlying issues, but without some other clues, I can't say what that might be.

Jay

Just noticed that the fish is acting even weirder, I'm going to start up my hospital tank so that I can observe him closer without anything else trying to get at him which is what I'm suspecting. Here's a quick video of how he's acting right now.

Jay Hemdal · Jul 13, 2022

IE Reefer said:
Just noticed that the fish is acting even weirder, I'm going to start up my hospital tank so that I can observe him closer without anything else trying to get at him which is what I'm suspecting. Here's a quick video of how he's acting right now.

Well, the fish is breathing o.k, (not too fast or deeply). It does have some odd fin damage that I can't account for - either some chronic bacterial issue, and/or another fish attacking it, or self-imposed damage from its flighty behavior.

Jay

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Well, the fish is breathing o.k, (not too fast or deeply). It does have some odd fin damage that I can't account for - either some chronic bacterial issue, and/or another fish attacking it, or self-imposed damage from its flighty behavior.

Jay

it also seems as if he's inflated, here are some pictures of him from the past for reference (Closeup being the most recent of last year, fake coral decorations in the background being oldest). I'm assuming it might be a bacterial issue, anything that I could treat him in the hospital tank? The only medication I have on hand currently is proxy prispo, but other than that I'll have to get it.

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Excessive startling response in fish can sometimes be a sign of underlying issues, but without some other clues, I can't say what that might be.

Jay

What other information can I provide you with for you to better understand the issue?

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Jul 13, 2022

IE Reefer said:
What other information can I provide you with for you to better understand the issue?

Look at post #2.

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Reef tank
29g DT, 37g total volume
Filtration: sump (skimmer, refugium, UV sterilizer, mechanical filtration)
2x AI prime on schedule
Age of tank: +2 yrs
Water params: will get them soon
No fish lost
No invertebrates
Goby is not eating for +1 week (mainly fed him the semi-whole shrimps from Rod's food each time I fed him, might have caused him to not eat), everyone else is fine
No medications have been applied yet

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Well, the fish is breathing o.k, (not too fast or deeply). It does have some odd fin damage that I can't account for - either some chronic bacterial issue, and/or another fish attacking it, or self-imposed damage from its flighty behavior.

Jay

I don't think it could be another fish since he's established his dominance towards all other fish who might threaten him.

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

#fishmedic

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Jul 13, 2022

IE Reefer said:
#fishmedic

Jay is on the fish medic team...

IE Reefer · Jul 13, 2022

Erin1971Texas said:
Jay is on the fish medic team...

I was hoping to reach out to any other available medics to hear their thoughts

IE Reefer · Jul 14, 2022

I was able to finally put the goby in the hospital tank and after a closer look at the guy, my assumption is that he has fin rot, what do you guys think? Here's a closer video of the fish:
I put a nice little chunk of shrimp right in front of him but he wouldn't budge at all and he's been like this for over a week, anything I can do for him or will he eventually starve himself to death?