Starving yellow clown goby. Need advice

[Chandaranga]

I would need some advice feeding my fellow clown goby. I made the mistake of buying without checking if it ate at the store.
It's been in my tank for almost 3 weeks now. He is skinny and I am worried.
I am not getting feeding response anymore.
He is the only fish in the tank. Other than a hermit crab his only companion is a cleaner shrimp.
If he wasn't so skinny looking I would not worry. There are a lot of live pods in my tank for him. But he just stays in the same corner. He will only swim around a little if I turn off the filter. But even with food floating, he doesn't go for it.
At first I got some feeding response with dried Cyclop-eeze but it looked like anything he would put in his mouth would get spited back out again.
Then I got some Arcti Pods (refrigerated) from Reef Nutrition on my LFS advice. He really went for it but same thing now"¦ just spits it out.
Now I don't even get any response with the Arcti Pods or Cyclop-Eeze.
Any suggestion?

 

[Chandaranga]

Tank is: 10g nano, HOB filter filled with cheato, 2 x 28W PC + actinic
Frogspawn
Candy cane
Torch coral
a few zoos
mushroowms blue and red

one snail, one hermit, one cleaner shrimp

 

[jayelblock]

Try hatching some baby brine shrimp. The activity of live food in the water column can sometimes stimulate a feeding response. If you can afford it and keep it alive, you might also buy a hardy sps coral, such as a green slimer. These fish are naturally found on sps, and some literature suggests that the mucous from these is part of the clown goby's diet. I also got a tiny clown goby that was thin, and now it is bordering on obese. Once they start feeding steadily, they don't stop. Keep me informed--I hate to hear about these fish doing poorly because they are such charmers.

 

[pktech]

I recently lost my citron - it was cute & healthy - pigged out when I first got it & soon stopped eating. Better luck w/ your guy!

 

[Chandaranga]

Thank you for the advice Jayelbloch. I will go get some brine shrimps eggs tomorrow.

As for the sps, I like the idea of providing my fish with a more suitable natural home. I was unsure due to light requirements for sps. I have 2x 28W 10000k 13" PC and 2 actinics over a 10g. Green slimer is an acropora right? Would it be sufficient lighting?

I guess I could put my 175W halide pendent over it instead. Let me know what you think.

Pktech: thank you for the kind words

 

[GoingPostal]

Have you tried anything else for food? Chopped up mysis, frozen brine or cyclops..scented with some garlic or selcon would be worth a try. Mine seemed to get the idea of eating from watching the other fish and competing but can't say that will work for yours.

 

[jayelblock]

Hydnophora is another coral you might consider. Mine grows quickly and well under T5, and it has a branching structure that my clown goby enjoys. However, I think purchasing a coral is a long-term goal. Let's get him eating first, and then we can upgrade his environment later.

Another thing to try is simply purchasing one scallop from the seafood counter at your grocery store. Freeze it and shave it with a sharp knife into tiny pieces. Fish usually go nuts for this.

Is it possible for you to post a picture of your tank?

 

[Chandaranga]

I will try the scallop again today. I tried that when I first got him but didn't get any response. It was knife minced while thawed. I will try to shave a frozen one, maybe my pieces were too big.
Other food I tried was chopped up squid, aqua trive pellets (cut in 2-3 pieces cause mine are 1.5mm), Coral frenzy.
That's everything I tried.

I will keep the garlic thing in mind. Do you have to use some concentrate from the fish store or can I just press some fresh garlic at home to get juice out? I have never used garlic.

 

[Chandaranga]

I will post a picture of my tank later today

 

[Chandaranga]

tank picture

tank picture

Here is my tank. Clown goby in bottom right corner.
(beside the coral squeleton I put in the to try to make him feel more at home)

 

[small alien]

I have never seen a fish that wouldn't eat Nutramar Ova Prawn Roe and that includes some pretty finicky folks. I would definitely recommend trying it. You can order from Drs. F&S if you can't get it locally though that overnight shipping is expensive. Good luck. Do your best and that's all you can do.

Just to confirm, you have NEVER seen it eat. Is that correct?

 

[jayelblock]

That looks like a fine environment for a clown goby.
Did you hatch any brine shrimp? Any luck with any of the other suggestions?

 

[Chandaranga]

I have already spent 2x more to try to feed that fish the last 2 weeks than what I paid for it!
My husband and a local reef store are telling me to stop throwing money at that little fish.
I was all ready to buy brine shrimp eggs but the store owner gave me a coral squeleton instead to try to make him feel more at home. He said I was beign good and humane but that I had already did more than enough. Something might just be wrong with it. This nice guy is not the one who sold me the fish...but if this one doesn't make it, I will buy my next fish from him.

Small Alien: I saw it try to eat but it only spitted out the food again. I was even wondering if pods were like sunflower seed...you know eat the seed and spit out the shell. But now he doesn't even go for food.

Jayelblock: I tried the scallop and it did nothing for it.

Oh something else I tried...I even took the foam media out of my filter to pick live pods one by one from it to release them in the tank.

 

[jayelblock]

Well, certainly that is a reasonable solution to the problem at this point. However, it's very difficult to watch a fish starve to death. You could try returning him to the store where you bought him to see if they could rehabilitate him. Is it that kind of store?

 

[Chandaranga]

Thank you for the suggestions

 

[JamesJR]

Have you considered that it might be infected with internal parasites? Many marine fish that are freshly imported can have internal tapeworms that infect the gi tract and cause them to get skinny. Have you ever noticed any long stringy stools from this fish?

I would probably quarantine the fish and treat him with something containing praziquantel such as Prazipro.

 

[Chandaranga]

JamesJR: can Prazipro be used directly in my tank? I don't have a QT tank....as this 10g is it. I have a 72g but it's in storage as we are doing home renovations. I missed having a tank so I set up this little tank. It never had any medications in it.

Will Prazipro hurt corals and my cleaner shrimp?

 

[Chandaranga]

I did a little reading and I think I got my answer. Medicate only in QT.

 

[JamesJR]

I have never used praziquantel in a reef tank.

 

[IFbettas]

FWIW, prazipro is reef safe. I've used it several times in fully stocked reef tanks with no negative effects.