Getting clown goby to eat

[Ryand63]

Ive tried garlic soaked pe mysis, brine shrimp, flakes and marine cuisine and won't eat yet for the past 4 days. Any suggestions?

 

[ArrowCrab]

Mine likes to eat flakes and bloodworms, and the occasional mysis.

Is he a new addition?; sometimes new fish will not eat for a few days due to the stress. Unless he is visibly getting skinny I would just continue to feed normally and with the garlic and hopefully he will start eating.

 

[Ryand63]

He is a new addition and is verryyyy skinny with a sunken stomach. I have him in a 10 gallon qt and he will not touch a thing

 

[EllieSuz]

A lot of stuff we feed is too big for them to get in their mouths. Mine has recently begun sampling pellets, but only if they've been crushed. He loves Nutramar Ova (prawn eggs), especially if he gets hold of a little clump of them. I feed that to my Mandarin every morning and make sure the goby gets some. Do you have some way of directing food directly to him? They get intimidated if bigger fish crowd around the food.

 

[Ryand63]

It's just him and a chromi in the qt. I use a syringe to spot feed and get it right by him and no luck

 

[ArrowCrab]

I'm assuming the tank parameters are all good in the QT? No ammonia or anything harmful? Could the chromis be bothering him at all? I know they're supposed to be gentler, but they still are damsels.

How did he look when you first bought him?

You might try feeding anything at this point. Small amounts of any kind of fish food you have in the house, finely chopped. Try the bloodworms as well, my guy loves them.

 

[Ryand63]

Live bloodworms or Frozen? And I wil try feeding anythign at this point that I have. When I bought him he was skinny as well but was active and what not. Just want himt to pull through!

 

[EllieSuz]

I understand why you want him to pull through. I bought this tank used and this fish came with the package. I wouldn't ordinarily purchase such a tiny fish, but he holds his own with the "big guys" and we love that little bit of yellow flitting around the rock.

 

[marcusbacus]

Mine is very shy and used to be hiding almost all the time in the beginning, he is now a bit scared by the new fish mostly one dottyback blue bar and is seen swimming out of its usual hiding places but it always ate small bits of flakes, at least, sometimes grains and FD artemia. It used to be hidden behind some coral or something then he would dart and grab a flake, it was almost the only time I could see him all day. When he was alone in the tank he used to do this same thing as now, although now he seems a bit more scared by the other fish and tries to pick up the food even faster. Give him some time, although as you mentioned that he was skinny when you bought it, it could already have some trouble eating then. It would be nice to know what food he used to eat as well.

 

[steve888]

He is a new addition and is verryyyy skinny with a sunken stomach. I have him in a 10 gallon qt and he will not touch a thing

I had the exact same thing happen to me with a yellow clown goby. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it in the store when I bought him but when I got him home I realized he was way too skinny. His stomach was very sunken just like yours' is.

I tried 5 different types of food (even turning off my pump and powerhead and putting food right in front of him) but he never ate a thing and ended up dying 6 days after I brought him home.

I've only been in the hobby for about 10 months but the lesson I learned from this is to carefully inspect any livestock you're planning to buy before you actually pull out your credit card.

I hope he can somehow pull through...good luck!

 

[gmate]

Mine always ate mysis and NLS pellets.