Yellowheaded sleeper Goby - EMERGENCY

[BrewDaddyDave]

So I had an algae outbreak and after scrubbing the tank and doing a water change (in the middle of it now) I noticed my goby is on the bottom, body twisted and breathing slowly.

was it all the algae I stirred up that’s hurting him? He had always looked skinny since I bought him and doesn’t eat when I feed the other clownfish. I see him occasionally sifting sand but am not sure if that’s enough nutrition.

Help!

 

[Karen00]

So sorry to see this has happened to your goby. I wouldn't think stirring up the algae would cause problems but if you were stirrring deep in your sand bed you might have released ammonia pockets into the water column. Also an algae outbreak seems to suggest parameters have gone awry. It might also be oxygen depletion if parameters are out of whack. I will leave suggestions to the experts but they will probably need more info about your tank so...
- Can you post your parameters
- How long has the tank been running
- Did you stir the sand bed
- How long have you had this guy
- Did you treat the tank with anything for the algae
- Do you have other inhabitants and are they fine (if you have others and they're fine it's probably not an issue with oxygen.

One thing I know about gobies is that they often don't deal with the whole capture and transport chain well and stop eating. If he already came to you skinny and he hasn't been eating well since you got him it's possible he was already stressed past the point of no return but that's why it helps to know how long you've had him.

 

[BrewDaddyDave]

So sorry to see this has happened to your goby. I wouldn't think stirring up the algae would cause problems but if you were stirrring deep in your sand bed you might have released ammonia pockets into the water column. Also an algae outbreak seems to suggest parameters have gone awry. It might also be oxygen depletion if parameters are out of whack. I will leave suggestions to the experts but they will probably need more info about your tank so...
- Can you post your parameters
- How long has the tank been running
- Did you stir the sand bed
- How long have you had this guy
- Did you treat the tank with anything for the algae
- Do you have other inhabitants and are they fine (if you have others and they're fine it's probably not an issue with oxygen.

One thing I know about gobies is that they often don't deal with the whole capture and transport chain well and stop eating. If he already came to you skinny and he hasn't been eating well since you got him it's possible he was already stressed past the point of no return but that's why it helps to know how long you've had him.

hey, so I have 2 mocha clowns that are doing fine and have been since I started the tank 3 months ago. I also have a couple turbo snails, 4 astreas, and 4 hermit crabs.

My nitrate is 10ppm and phosphate is .5 before water change. I think the algae is cyano. It’s red and covered almost the entire tank (walls, rocks, sand bed). There are also some green algae growing in the mix.

the Goby looked thin but more and more looked emaciated as time went on. He’s very shy and would sift sand here and there but would not take prepared food.

the LFS I got him from had him in a tank without sand and said he would eat the pellets that I feed my clowns. I’ve had him for 2 months

Also, I lightly stirred the sand bed to clean it during my water change.

 

[Karen00]

Can you post the full list of parameters such as ammonia, nitrites, ph?

I have never had luck with pellets for my gobies (other folks might have success but I haven't) so I don't even try anymore so unless you saw him eating pellets at your lfs I would be skeptical of this. Did they say they were feeding pellets? Do you know if they are wild caught or captive bred? Captive bred should have no issues with prepared foods like frozen but again I'm skeptical of pellets.

I only feed live or frozen. Mostly frozen now but sometimes it takes patience to get them to take frozen if they are wild caught. Most carnivorous gobies find their food by the movement of their prey so I often had to train my wild caught gobies by thawing the frozen food (brine, mysis) in tank water and sucking it into an eye dropper (purchased from the drug store if that helps) then I would shoot it out in front of them so it moves. More often than not they would leap at it. If the food settles I would use the dropper to blow it around in front of them to get the food moving again. I found when I first started if I just dropped the food into the tank and it settled they would just walk right by it. Once they were trained on the frozen then it was easy. I still dropper the food in but typically they find it even if it settles because now they know what it is.

So how old is your tank? You mentioned you had him for 2 months but is that how old your tank is? It might be too new to support his sifting ways so you'll have to supplement. Having said that he might have already been in an unhealthy state when you got him. Do you have any frozen food you can give him. I would say you definitely have to try the dropper method because he might be too weak to look for food on his own. I must say he doesn't look good. I have had a few like this. Two recovered. One didn't.

Also have you noticed any issues with the skin like white spots, etc or stringy poo? This is additional information that might suggest a parasite or disease. I don't see anything like this in the pic. He just looks thin but it's hard to see because he's so contorted.