yellow clown goby losing color

[jessey]

hey folks,
i've had my goby in my 3 gallon pico for a week now. in that time, my 'trates got up between 15-20 ppm, and i lost my cleaner shrimp :/ anyway, though i assume he has eaten in my tank before then, yesterday was the first time i actually *saw* my little guy eat (he's been very shy... yesterday i finally got him to eat some mysis from my tweezers).

i did a decent sized water change and my nitrates are down to around 5. i still haven't replaced my cleaner shrimp... and my clown goby's coloring looks not so bright today and yesterday. i assume the cause is probably stress, but if so, what is stressing him? and what can i do to help him feel more 'at home' i've finally scrubbed the algae from the walls of the aquarium, so it actually *looks* nice, lol... but none of that means anythnig if its inhabitants are unhappy.

any ideas or suggestions?

jessey

 

[jessey]

as i'm looking today, i think his color actually looks a lil better than it did yesterday... but it's still not as vibrant as when i first brought him home. is this cause for worry, do you think?

 

[MrBungle]

mine is faded when I put the light on in the morning but he colors up within minutes. I feed mine tetracolor flake once a day and once a week I give him mysis or brine shrimp. he is always ready and waiting for food at the same time every day lol. I don't remember if you have a fuge on that tank or not.

 

[jessey]

no i don't have a fuge. i did have the empty eclipse filter running, which was sort of posing as a fuge, but it started acting up and i took it out (LOTS more space).

he is eating the granule food now, but he's still very shy. i guess i'll just give him time since i've only had him for a lil over a week!

 

[jessey]

worried about my clown goby!

guys, i'm pretty worried about my little guy. his color still fades pretty often, and he's skinny (like i can see the outline of his skeleton). he eats a *little* but obviously not enough! it's hard to get him to eat cause he's still scared of me.

today, he was resting on the bottom... which gobies do, of course... and my cleaner shrimp appeared to be trying to clean him a little. does this imply he's got some sort of parasite? and if so, what do i do?

 

[Mushroomman]

You could try to feed him cyclopeeze, its pretty small and he may go for it. Are you sure he is eating pellet, have you seen him do it

I wouldnt worry about the cleaner thing, my fish get cleaned all the time and they are healthy.

 

[jessey]

i will try cyclopeeze. i've seen him go after the pellets, i don't know that he can get the whole thing in his mouth though. and i have mysis and i've seen him go for that as well... again, it's hard to tell how much actually ends up in the tummy.

and that's a relief to hear about the cleaning; thanks!

 

[jessey]

disappearing clown goby... wtf mate??

over the last few days i was actually thinking my little goby was looking better - a bit plumper, etc.

but today... i can't find him?? there's really no where he could have jumped from (though i'm gonna double check around the tank), and it's not a big enough tank for him to be hiding from me!!

i picked up both pieces of rock to see if he had wedged himself underneath one of them, but still no sign of flounder... i guess my next move will be to try to sift through the sand a bit.

ugh, this is not my week at all.

 

[jessey]

i did sift through the sand a little, and still nothing. my mom and i decided collectively that my olive snail (a burrower who i never see, unless he smells mysis, lol) must be the culprit.. he must've sensed that my goby was either weak or dead, and pulled him under.

i do hate double-posting on myself, but i'm interested to see if others think this sounds probable.

i'm definitely going to ask to see the fish eat before i bring my next goby home!

 

[Lotus]

Sorry to hear you can't find him

A few snails will usually make short work of a corpse in a tank. As he was probably small, it probably didn't take them too long.

Definitely try to get fish that are eating at the store.