Diamond Watchman Goby wants to make a break for it

[Brieninsac]

Last week I bought a Diamond Watchman Goby who's been in quarantine since. He's about 3" long in a 10-gal. QT alone.

During the first couple of days he didn't eat much, which isn't surprising. However, on day 3 he started eating more and was more active. Then out of the blue he tried to jump out of the tank and hit the lid and sunk to the bottom. For the rest of that day he seem kinda out of it. The next day he started to come back around eating more and more active. Then he did the same thing again and sunk to the bottom being kinda out of it.

I'm concerned about him doing this again and if there is anything I can do prevent it from happening. I'm almost wondering if it would be best to just put him in the DT. I've read Gobies are less prone to Marine Ich then other fish.

What would you do?

 

[dweber618]

I just had the same thing happen with my Diamond Goby. I've never owned a fish so determined to bail out. Just walking by the tank would cause an all out panic where he would try jumping 3 or 4 times before settling down. Mine was also in a 10 gallon - thank goodness for the screen top I had on.

With mine I observed him for 2 weeks, then put him through TTM and a couple rounds of prazi. He was in QT a little over 4 weeks. It was shorter than I preferred - but he was starting to act more and more stressed and not eating the longer it went. I saw no indications of disease (which I realize 4 weeks isn't that long), however I made the decision to put him in the DT as he was starting to look skinny and was very visibly stressed out (pacing back and forth).

 

[dweber618]

I put him in the DT a couple of days ago - I've physically seen him one time, and he looked good. He's been very active though as every time I look in his area the sand is always different so I at least know he's been out and about.

 

[Xxero]

I have found that whenever the surface water is still, my Diamond Watchman gets more prone to leap.

You might add a little flow near the surface to produce some agitation. It seems to keep mine down below where he belongs. :bigeyes:

 

[Brieninsac]

I have found that whenever the surface water is still, my Diamond Watchman gets more prone to leap.

You might add a little flow near the surface to produce some agitation. It seems to keep mine down below where he belongs. :bigeyes:

I have a biochemical sponge filter in my QT in which the bubbles do a pretty good job of breaking the water surface. I don't think that's the issue in my case.

 

[marleesan]

To keep my diamond goby less stressed in quarantine I added a plastic container with sand from my dt