SICK FISH? (green clown goby)

[stricknine]

I have a green clown goby that has been turning more pale by the day and is almost going pale white under the lights. All other fish are fine, params are usually fine, (I may test the whole gammit tonight to confirm), he is eating fine as usual (not a lot, few pieces of mysis daily), I have no idea.

... the only thing I can think of is I recently started rinsing my food (under tap water) to help with my phosphate problem. Is that a reason for going pale white?

Any Ideas??

Please Help!

 

[klepto]

Hmm-- sorry to hear about your troubles. I would recommend that you stop using tap water to rinse your mysis with. We resort to ro and ro/di units because our animals cannot tolerate all of the contaminants and phosphates in tap water- so rinsing your food in tap water will be somewhat counterproductive. Go with some ro or ro/di water to rinse with.

perhaps soaking your mysis in a vitamin like Selcon will help boost your Goby's vitality.

Have you added any new livestock that might be bothering him?

Sorry to not be of more help- and I think you should go ahead and test all of your parameters to allow the more experienced folks on here to offer you sound advice.

How often are you doing water changes? and when was the last? ..perhaps doing one soon will help things all around...

best of luck!

 

[stricknine]

Thanks for the reply!

I just figured the drop or two of tap water left in the strainer is a tiny amount compared to the 24Gal of SW (ro/di water w/ salt, I did purchase a unit but did not want to brew and store a batch to rinse food with daily), But I will to see if it rectifies the problem.

I havent been soaking in selcon for a few weeks as I was advised that might be contributing to my phosphate/algae problem. I might try to dose it again for a check.

Water changes 10% weekly, or if i miss it 20% bi weekly. I just changed 40% on the weekend, but this has been gradually progressing for a longer period than just recently. (I changed 20% to suck up algae and cyano, didnt get it all so I ran the tank for 2 hrs before doing another 20%)

Thanks for the tips, and Is there a better forum (fish hospital forum) I could post this in?

THANKS!

 

[stricknine]

...I also did add a spotted mandarin a few weeks ago, they have been hanging around eachother a bit but didnt sem to be a bother. I hear mandarins have a slime coat of some sort...could that be a problem??

Thanks.

 

[klepto]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13951135#post13951135 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stricknine
Thanks for the reply!

I just figured the drop or two of tap water left in the strainer is a tiny amount compared to the 24Gal of SW (ro/di water w/ salt, I did purchase a unit but did not want to brew and store a batch to rinse food with daily), But I will to see if it rectifies the problem.

I havent been soaking in selcon for a few weeks as I was advised that might be contributing to my phosphate/algae problem. I might try to dose it again for a check.

Water changes 10% weekly, or if i miss it 20% bi weekly. I just changed 40% on the weekend, but this has been gradually progressing for a longer period than just recently. (I changed 20% to suck up algae and cyano, didnt get it all so I ran the tank for 2 hrs before doing another 20%)

Thanks for the tips, and Is there a better forum (fish hospital forum) I could post this in?

THANKS!

Your welcome.
True- the few drops wont have a big impact in comparison to the volume of your tank (but your food is saturated w/ the tap water and the fish are consuming them regularly) - i just dont trust tap water when it comes to my reef.
I just use straight r/o myself- while rinsing in salt water is probably ideal, fresh r/o is fine imo.

wait-- so you stopped soaking your mysis in selcon close to the time when the goby started to lose it's colors... interesting.... I think going overboard with the selcon could cause some issues, but i doubt that stopping using it will end your algae problems.

Good to hear you are staying up on water changes.

What kind of skimmer are you running?

24 gallons for a Mandarin?? I thought I was risking it putting my mandy in my 50 (after my bro randomly purchased it). Is your mandarin trained onto frozen foods? Unless it is or you are breeding some super pods in that 24 im afraid your little guy will starve eventually.

-their slime coats are very thick (reducing the chances of parasitic skin issues) and I know that they lack scales, but as far as how the slime coats impact on your goby- im not sure.

there is a Fish Disease Treatment Forum that you could try.

Good luck.

 

[stricknine]

Thanks again,

I will work on the feeding regiment and see how it goes (selcon, fw/sw rinsing) I hate to say it but the tap water was just pure laziness. In my first days of starting the tank, I pre mixed and packaged a ton of food in mini ziplocs for daily feedings, and had no idea rinsing was an issue. Will clean up the remainder with ro/di and do the next food batch properly.

As for the mandarin, I did get lucky and pick up a frozen feeder. I had an overgrowth of pods, and flatworms reaching near plague proportions and thought he could thrive in the 24 while I set up my 72 where I was going to breed and suppliment pods, but he doesnt touch anything but frozen. At night I even saw pods crawling near and on (her) face with no reaction whatsoever, and she even stole a big piece of mysis from a hermits claws. Fat and healthy!

Thanks again.

 

[tmcgaughey]

weird info but my black clown goby will eat pods for 90% of his diet and he has been eating the crap out of them
i wonder if his buddy is out-compeating him for them?

 

[klepto]

Wow- thats amazing about your mandarin - pods crawling on her face huh!! thats too much..

I have a female Target Mandy as well - they are absolutely beautiful fish. I watched it accept frozen mysis at the lfs it came from... my bro hastily purchased at a later date and because it had been bagged (w/ out any insulation!) for over 3 hours (his doing) I didn't hesitate to release it in my reef (I thought she wasnt going to make it otherwise). Now of course i realize that ideally I should have quarantined her in order to get her properly trained over to frozen foods... my little female will exclusively prey only on live food now- but she has grown and colored up dramatically...

Thats great you are upgrading to a 72- I plan to head towards that direction myself!

I asked above- but what kind of skimmer are you running on your 24?

 

[stricknine]

Thanks TMC, feeding time is pretty agressive, everyone getting all theuy can in the session, and the goby is very passive, hiding all the time. Along with kleptos suggestions I may try to target feed if their appetite is that hefty.

Again thanks klepto, as for the skimmer... The cube I have is an aquaeuro biocube, came with a POS skimmer the size of a tall shot glass. I recently tried to modify the lid to add a rio nano with no luck, so I am buying a redsea prizm, slimline so it should fit-well I will make sure it fits. After I add the skimmer I plan to remove most of the mechanical filters in there. (sponge, ceramic cylanders, etc)

Thanks.