Gobies Refuse to Eat

[teddscau]

Hey guys, I bought three firefish, a yellow clown goby, and a bearded goby last Tuesday. The gobies refuse to eat. The yellow clown goby looks like he really wants to eat, as hell put the food in his mouth, but he spits it out (I think) due to the texture. He'll put it in his mouth again, then spit it out.

I've tried him with:
New Life Spectrum 1mm pellets
New Life Spectrum Reef Micro-Feeder Powder
Hikari Micro-Pellets
Bits of Vitalis Marine Grazer pellets or whatever they're called
Calan-eeze
Freeze-dried mysis shrimp
Omega Spirulina Enriched Brine Shrimp
Omega Baby Brine Shrimp
Omega(?) Clam Eggs
Omega Blood Worms
Hikari Tubifex Worms
Can-o-Cyclops
Hikari Mysis Shrimp
Live daphnia
Live blood worms
Live microworms

He won't actually swallow anything, though. He seems to like the micro-pellets, clam eggs, Calan-eeze, and freeze-dried mysis shrimp the best, but he won't swallow them. What else can I do? I have the gobies and firefish in a 29g quarantine tank right now, and I started treating them with PraziPro yesterday in the hopes that I could get them in my 90g as soon as possible, since I'm sure they'll start eating once they're somewhere more comfortable. I did put in a couple of pieces of live rock, bleached acropora, and this artificial liverock cave thing for them to hide in.

The temperature is 74°F, pH is 8.2(?), alkalinity is good, but the ammonia was 0.5 yesterday, so I did a 50% water change. I really appreciate your help.

 

[Ghost25]

My clown goby likes to rest on coral especially Acropora but also Sinularia and Montipora. They will pick at the coral a bit. I feed LRS reef frenzy and Reef Chili. It took a few days but he eats the smaller particulate in the LRS reef frenzy.

How is the color looking? If it's got good color I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[outssider]

I had a yellow clown goby thrive for years eating nothing but my acropora. He did damage to the coral....I did the irish jig when he died...unfortunately he had a long life for a goby.....

 

[mynorrodas]

I had a clown goby for 1 year and I´ve never seen himeating. Suddenly he started eating NLS pellets but I had to crush and put in water the pellets for a little time before feeding.

 

[Valentini89]

Try soaking your chosen food in some "entice" that you may be able to pick up at your LFS. Mine carries it.

 

[NO3]

He might be too busy keeping up on the Stanley Cup Finals..... I saw you were from O'Canada

Anyways....

I've always had really good luck going to my local grocery seafood counter and buying fresh mussels. I've seen many of fish take right to diced up mussel meat. I recently had a very picky CBB not eating. When mussel meat went in he was like "what?!?" with a big ole smile

 

[teddscau]

Thanks for the advice, guys! I even tried him with food soaked in ginger (my freshwater critters go into a frenzy over ginger), but the little guy's wouldn't swallow it. I caved and put them in my 90g last night >_>.

Anyways, Yellow's found a couple of acros he likes and is eating their polyps and perching on them. I'm thrilled he's eating, even if it's coral polyps. Not sure where the bearded goby is.

I've left the firefish in quarantine and I'm going to add them to the 90g after they're done their...fudge, what's the term for a preventative treatment? Prophylactic? Yeah, once they're done their prophylactic treatment of PraziPro.

I used to quarantine aquatic critters for a month before adding them to my display, but over the years I've found that doing such an extensive quarantine doesn't really prevent disease. If the fish are still healthy and full of energy after a week in quarantine, it usually indicates that they aren't carrying anything, since I typically get my critters from stores over an hour away from me. If the stress doesn't cause any illnesses to flare up after a week in quarantine, they're added to my displays.