Yellow Watchman Goby and ich

[bsimps02]

Unfortunately I picked up ich about a week ago and I am currently treating all my fish in a 55 gallon quarintine tank with coppersafe. Because it is a quarintine tank, I have placed no substrate on the bottom. My goby is not eating and has a stressed color and I need to act quickly. My question is:

1. Are gobies ich resistant? I have not seen any white spots and have heard that certain genus of fish are ich resistant. If gobies are, then I would prefer to move him back to my display tank.

2. Do gobies need substrate or is his lack of eating and stressed color a reaction to the coppersafe?

 

[leebca]

1. Gobies get Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans)

2. Silica substrate doesn't absorb copper and could be used. There is no marine specimen I can think of that can't be accommodated in a QT in a copper treatment.

You could consider putting the goby into a tank with substrate and doing a hyposalinity treatment; OR put the goby in a QT with silica substrate. You have options.

The goby reaction is most likely to the unfamiliar territory and inability to 'feel at home.' That is, assuming you are maintainiing the copper in the correct concentration.

Good luck! :rollface:

 

[bsimps02]

Thanks. The chelated copper concentration is set at 2.0 ppm and all other water parameters are on target as well, so I will try the silica substrate and see what happens.

 

[mikersx02]

Yellow Watchman Gobies are extremely hardy-

When I first got mine- he made it through QT only to get his bottom jaw snapped by an emerald crab- or putting to large of a piece of gravel in his mouth. Either way- he was really really stressed and impossible to catch. I knew he wouldnt make it- and eventually he disapeared and I didnt see him for 2 or 3 weeks.

One morning- I saw one of my last damsel fish (I hate those fish) dancing wildly in the corner of the tank. He cornered the watchman gobie and was attacking him. The gobie lost most of his fins- and still had his snapped bottom jaw.

I felt sorry for the guy- so i scooped him up and put him in my QT tank expecting him to die any day. Each day I woke up he was still there- he began to eat some formula one flakes on his 3rd day. By week 2- most of his fins had grown back. By week 3- his jaw was almost back to normal. (it was snapped clean off- but it seems to have regrown for the most part....odd)

So- after week 3- I caught the 3 remaining damsel fish and hauled their butt's back to the LFS store (they cycled my tank) and I tossed him back in. He immediately ran off into the rocks and I see him every once in a while.

Long story short- these guys are hardy- its hard to kill one.