Yellow Clown Goby will not put on weight

[TaliaShepard]

Hi all,

 

I've had a yellow clown goby in a 7 gallon AIO tank for close to a month now. He came in skinny and while he hasn't lost any weight in the tank, Mr. Grumpy Gills is still dag on skinny!

 

He's the only fish, his main competition are two hermits and they get their own food and leave him alone. I've been feeding once a day, he will pick at mysis and brine, turns his nose up at cyclopeeze, and doesn't look twice at pellets. He does eat the mysis and brine, but he's very picky about what he will eat, he spits out half of what he puts in his mouth, even tiny pieces so I don't think size is the issue. I've spiked his food with garlic and I turn the filters off when I feed. Behavior wise he seems fine, he has five spots he likes to perch on that he rotates around during the day and he will pick at the rockwork and glass so I imagine he is getting some pods from that.

 

He is not 'on the brink of death' emaciated, but he is clearly skinny and I'm out of ideas to get him to fatten up. I'm wondering if he's got some other health issue going on that there is nothing I can do about.

 

Is there anything else I can do to help this little fellow out? I'm having to walk a tight line between throwing enough food at this guy to get him to eat enough and not overloading my tank with overfeeding.

 

Thanks for any help.

[ajmckay]

I've had similar issues in the past - though you have a slightly better situation in that you have no other fish. Remember that eating is actually an appetite stimulant. Fish that eat well usually want to eat more and fish that don't eat well IME are more prone to "passive" eating. Do you notice any physical symptoms or odd behaviors?

 

Some suggestions:

1) Feed more of what it likes, and focus on the meaty stuff. For some of these fish that don't eat very aggressively I find that a custom seafood of chopped up table shrimp, scallops, etc.. is better than frozen mysis and stuff because you can feed "chunks".

2) Feed more than once per day. This is probably the biggest thing IMO - but depending on your schedule the most difficult to do. The good thing is that you may only need to do it for a few months until it's bulked up a bit. Even if it ate a little bit each time, 3x daily would likely be more than it's getting now. Use a baster or something to target feed and avoid excess food waste.

3) Parasites are pretty common in fish and sometimes they can cause a fish that's eating well to lose weight and eventually not want to eat. You can treat the tank with some praziquantel which is one of the few medications that I have dosed in my display tank successfully. It's simple to do and you may see improvements after treatment.

[TaliaShepard]

Thanks for the reply. Other than not gaining weight and being a picky eater he seems to be normal behavioral wise. He definitely has a feeding response, he's just very selective of whether he will eat something he goes after. I do target feed him and he will come over to the area I feed him in when the filters go off so I know he realizes it is time to eat and reacts positively to being fed.

 

I think you are correct that multiple feedings would be the next best thing to try, annoying with my schedule but doable. It's possible he just needs more food and more time to beef up. I will give the custom seafood blend a try

 

Parasites were a thing that had crossed my mind. I've treated freshwater fish only tanks with praziquantel before, but how does that work with a reef tank? I'd want to make sure I wasn't dooming the coral inhabitants to a watery grave.

 

Thanks again for the reply. I'm very fond of the little fellow so I do hope he starts to put on some weight.

[BulkRate]

If the fish is active & color good (vibrant yellow) and barring a parasitic infection, I'd try a couple of different foods:

 

Grind your pellet food up a little. YCG's like small bites.

Larry's Reef Frenzy (nano blend) is the go-to food for mine.

Lighty rinsed/drained masago (the orange dyed capelin roe from a sushi restaurant).

Decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.

 

Try broadcast feeding a tiny portion a couple times a day (less than half of what you normally feed) - my fish likes to hunt a few particular bites. Never know which will appeal until it's darting & striking, but once full it could be hit in the face with a steak and not react.

[TaliaShepard]

Thanks for the advice. I've given the capelin roe a try, but not the others. I'll give that a shot and see how it goes.

[lake985]

My little YCG loves blackworms as a treat. Any chance you can get your hands on some?

[FloridaReefguy]

I had a strange one that only wanted pods until he cleaned out the tank.