Is My Quarantined Goby Safe to Release?

Brann

New member
Here is an interesting issue I did not really expect to have... I have a diamond goby I have been quarantining in my frag tank. Yes I know it not the best place to put him due to not being able to treat the little guy with meds due to the coral in the tank. I just seriously do not have a foot of space to setup another tank no matter how temporary it might be. With that said the frag tank has been up for almost 6 months and has pretty stable params that I check weekly.

Anyways... He looks to be in good shape and has been in the tank for near 4 weeks. I have seen him eating frozen food and pellet foods while sifting sand. However, he spends most of his time hiding out under a piece of rock in the tank and I some times I will not see him for a day or so. I know he has been active at some time because the sand is very clean and white :)

I had plans to release him into my main tank on week 4, but since I only see him every few days and he does not always come out when I put food in the tank I am wondering if something is wrong. I saw him last night and he seems to show no signs of being skinny or hurt and was sifting sand. He MIGHT have been breathing a LITTLE fast, but I might of just caught him finishing up sifting more sand. I know most fish you would see if they are not very active and sitting on the bottom of the tank.... but he is a goby after all :)

Can anyone give me any input if there is something I should check for or if maybe I should just wait? My display tank is working out very well and I do not want to risk it on any one fish. On the flip side I also do not want to keep this poor goby on lock down in my QT tank forever if he is just shy.

Thanks in advance,
-Brann
 
It is common for those guys to behave this way. Personally I won't put any fish in my DT's without treating with praziquantel first, but presumably you didn't plan on treating for anything and are comfortable with that. I would wait another four weeks, but if your frag tank doesn't have much to eat in the sandbed the goby may starve since he/she is only eating occasionally when you feed.
 
My goby has died and went mia... I assume it was the few crabs that keep everything neat in there :(

My best guess is he was not eating enough and starved which makes me very sad because he was doing ok for the first 2~3 weeks. I REALLY need a goby or something in my tank to stir up the sand. However, the risk of my main tank getting sick is not something I will be risking or even debating.

What is the best way to going about QTing a diamond goby since my method left me down $20 with a dead fish :( I would really love to hear some solid ideas, so I can start the QT process again.
 
QTing specialized feeders like that does seem quite challenging. I'm interested to see if anyone has any great ideas. Sorry about your goby.
 
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