Clown Goby Disappeared

[NMSREEFER]

My yellow clown goby has been MIA for two days. No traces of his body. I fear he has either hidden in the rock to die or been dragged under the rock to be consumed.

Set up
29 gallon bio cube
30 lb live rock
2 clown fish, one mandarin, 10 blue leg hermits, 3 large nasarrius snails, , 10 other snails. I forget the strain.

Has anyone ever seen a clown goby hide for days then re-appear?

I pulled out the chaeto and checked all the chambers. Also checked the floor behind the tank. No trace.

 

[NMSREEFER]

Tank also includes one open brain coral- his normal perch, a zoa colony and pipe organ.

 

[Reef Frog]

They are usually out front most of the time. Your clean up crew could consume him in mere minutes so if it died it's not surprising you didn't find it. They may hide for a while if there was a major tank disturbance or environmental change, so you might get lucky. Good luck.

 

[Betta132]

Your mandarin is probably going to starve in future, in a tank that size.

Yeah, the clown goby is probably dead. With that many cleaners, you'd never see its body.

 

[NMSREEFER]

I'm culturing pods for the mandarin and supplementing with frozen cyclops and mysis.

 

[NMSREEFER]

Thanks for the encouragement reef frog. I always feed plenty of small pellets, but the Goby never seemed to go after them.

 

[NMSREEFER]

I just noticed ph had dropped to about 7.5. Could that cause the death of a goby?

 

[POOLSCAPES]

I have three different types of mandarins in my three RSM130D. They have been doing well of feeding frozen Mysis and frozen Brine. I feed once a day with this blend. In early morning I feed pellets. I do not feed copepods at all. I did at first. Made no since with a six line wrasse in my tank.
The ph is fine. nothing likes a drastic change quickly. Clown gobies can go hiding for a long time. I didn't see mine for over a week. I told my friend he must of died. Then of course there he was there that night. Good luck.

 

[Reef Frog]

Thanks for the encouragement reef frog. I always feed plenty of small pellets, but the Goby never seemed to go after them.

My pleasure. I don't feed pellets. What else did you feed? I've found that YCGs feed enthusiastically on very small meaty food. Mine likes very small krill (arctic pods), fish eggs, cyclopseeze & very small shavings of reef frenzy. I have strong current and I dispense a small amount by turkey baster upstream of where the fish is perched so it can easily grab a bite. It seems that unlike other fish, it won't swim far to eat: the food has to be nearby.

Maybe these foods would work better for you if you make another attempt at keeping this fish, or yours reappears. Any luck with that? GL.

 

[NMSREEFER]

Thanks Reef Frog and Pool Scapes!

No sign of the goby yet. I live quite a distance from my lfs and made a trip today. My lfs said the goby should adapt to the coral frenzy pellets, so I did not use meaty foods daily. I picked up some Cyclops, Mysis, and roe. I also have a new batch of pods coming tomorrow.

I replaced the goby with a bi-color blenny. I think he will be more hardy. I will also start feeding frozen Mysis, Cyclops, or Roe daily in an attempt to train the Mandarin to eat something besides pods. I got a good fat mandarin, and so far he still looks good. I've had pods in the tank and the fuge since getting him, and started a culture separately. I don't think I want to get into culturing phyto and pods permenantly. Just preparing for a few months learning curve to get the mandarin adjusted.

Poolscapes, did you follow any special procedure to get your mandarin eating frozen? How do you present it to him? Do you put it in the water with the filters running?

Maybe the Goby will show up, but I kind of doubt it. When I fed pellets today the snails and crabs didn't come running like they usually do and I have a light diatom bloom. A dead goby could account for both.