Yellow watchman goby white patches on body?

[Z0RN]

I purchased my yellow watchman goby a couple weeks ago from a fish store that keeps their tanks at a 1.020 salinity. When I picked him up, he looked great. Bright yellow colouring and seemed alert. After I brought him home, I floated him for about 30 minutes and slowly added my tank water to bring the salinity in the bag up to 1.025. I added him to my tank and turned the lights off for the remainder of the day.


Day 2 I noticed he had white patches all over his body. He actually seemed okay otherwise and ate food normally. But he was a far cry from the healthy looking fish I picked up at my lfs.

2 weeks later and nothing has changed. He has a healthy appetite, seems normal and active. But the patches of white, almost dead looking skin on his body hasn’t gotten any better. He also has a sunken looking belly despite being fed mysis everyday. I originally thought it was just stress from the rapid salinity increase, but now I’m not so sure. Thankfully it hasn’t spread to any other fish in my tank.

Does anyone have any idea what might be affecting this fish? Unfortunately I don’t have a quarantine tank, so crossing my fingers it’ll slowly go away on its own.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I purchased my yellow watchman goby a couple weeks ago from a fish store that keeps their tanks at a 1.020 salinity. When I picked him up, he looked great. Bright yellow colouring and seemed alert. After I brought him home, I floated him for about 30 minutes and slowly added my tank water to bring the salinity in the bag up to 1.025. I added him to my tank and turned the lights off for the remainder of the day.


Day 2 I noticed he had white patches all over his body. He actually seemed okay otherwise and ate food normally. But he was a far cry from the healthy looking fish I picked up at my lfs.

2 weeks later and nothing has changed. He has a healthy appetite, seems normal and active. But the patches of white, almost dead looking skin on his body hasn’t gotten any better. He also has a sunken looking belly despite being fed mysis everyday. I originally thought it was just stress from the rapid salinity increase, but now I’m not so sure. Thankfully it hasn’t spread to any other fish in my tank.

Does anyone have any idea what might be affecting this fish? Unfortunately I don’t have a quarantine tank, so crossing my fingers it’ll slowly go away on its own.

The salinity rise was right on the border of being to much of a rise, that could have killed the fish outright, but that it has lived two weeks after, it isn’t from that.
This species commonly shows this symptom after being acquired. I presume it is a bacterial infection, but I can’t confirm this because I’ve not had an opportunity to do a skin scrape and microscope exam on one of the affected fish.
Without a quarantine tank, you can’t really dose with antibiotics, and herbal additives don’t really work. You could dose the tank with Prazipro, it is reef safe. This will only work if the fish has flukes though.
Feeding the fish more often should be done to try and fatten it up a bit more.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agree- Looks like a bacterial infection and may have stemmed from rubbing or developed. Assure good water quality and treatment would be Seachem Neoplex in a separate treatment tank r ruby Rally pro in tank which will take a couple of days to start working

 

[Z0RN]

The salinity rise was right on the border of being to much of a rise, that could have killed the fish outright, but that it has lived two weeks after, it isn’t from that.
This species commonly shows this symptom after being acquired. I presume it is a bacterial infection, but I can’t confirm this because I’ve not had an opportunity to do a skin scrape and microscope exam on one of the affected fish.
Without a quarantine tank, you can’t really dose with antibiotics, and herbal additives don’t really work. You could dose the tank with Prazipro, it is reef safe. This will only work if the fish has flukes though.
Feeding the fish more often should be done to try and fatten it up a bit more.

Jay

Any idea if he stands a chance at surviving if I don’t do anything? I believe Prazipo is illegal in Canada. I’d hate to keep him suffering if he’s bound to die anyways with no treatment.

 

[Z0RN]

Run

Agree- Looks like a bacterial infection and may have stemmed from rubbing or developed. Assure good water quality and treatment would be Seachem Neoplex in a separate treatment tank r ruby Rally pro in tank which will take a couple of days to start work

Ruby rally pro is ridiculously expensive on Amazon. It will also take 2 weeks to arrive. Not sure it’s worth purchasing honestly, a new goby would cost me just as much.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Any idea if he stands a chance at surviving if I don’t do anything? I believe Prazipo is illegal in Canada. I’d hate to keep him suffering if he’s bound to die anyways with no treatment.

As long as it is eating well and you keep it well fed, it may recover on its own. If its feeding rate slacks off and/or the white patches get worse, that means the infection is progressing/worsening.

Hyposalinity works against flukes, but won’t help against bacterial infections, and may make those worse. You also can’t use hyposalinity with invertebrates.

Lack of good fish medications in Canada is a huge issue.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Run

Ruby rally pro is ridiculously expensive on Amazon. It will also take 2 weeks to arrive. Not sure it’s worth purchasing honestly, a new goby would cost me just as much.

Its starts at $8 on chewy who I believe ships to Canada.

 

[Z0RN]

As long as it is eating well and you keep it well fed, it may recover on its own. If its feeding rate slacks off and/or the white patches get worse, that means the infection is progressing/worsening.

Hyposalinity works against flukes, but won’t help against bacterial infections, and may make those worse. You also can’t use hyposalinity with invertebrates.

Lack of good fish medications in Canada is a huge issue.

Jay

It’s a shame Canada thought it was a smart idea to ban so many life saving medications for fish. As long as there’s hope he’ll get better on his own, I’ll keep him in there.

Thanks

 

[Z0RN]

As long as it is eating well and you keep it well fed, it may recover on its own. If its feeding rate slacks off and/or the white patches get worse, that means the infection is progressing/worsening.

Hyposalinity works against flukes, but won’t help against bacterial infections, and may make those worse. You also can’t use hyposalinity with invertebrates.

Lack of good fish medications in Canada is a huge issue.

Jay

I went to my LFS today and explained the situation to them, he suggested I do a freshwater dip on the fish for 2 minutes.

I just finished giving him a dip and I’m pretty sure there was a fluke on him! A tiny, white fingernail looking thing was left floating in the water. He’s acting normal again back in the tank. Hopefully that solves it and he can heal up back to normal.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I went to my LFS today and explained the situation to them, he suggested I do a freshwater dip on the fish for 2 minutes.

I just finished giving him a dip and I’m pretty sure there was a fluke on him! A tiny, white fingernail looking thing was left floating in the water. He’s acting normal again back in the tank. Hopefully that solves it and he can heal up back to normal.

Hope so, but one fluke won’t cause skin issues like that, you would more likely see dozens of them.
Jay

 

[Z0RN]

Hope so, but one fluke won’t cause skin issues like that, you would more likely see dozens of them.
Jay

How long would you wait before trying a second freshwater dip? Maybe 2 and a half minutes wasn’t long enough.

 

[Katrina71]

Do you have any probiotic food?

 

[Katrina71]

used this for a badly injured watchman stung by bta- full recovery

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How long would you wait before trying a second freshwater dip? Maybe 2 and a half minutes wasn’t long enough.

FW dips are usually done for 5 minutes. I would give the fish 24 hours to recover and then try a full dip. Remember though, this will only help if the issue is flukes.
Jay