watchman goby lathargic?

[Slayer33]

So I added a watchman goby and a pistol shrimp to my tank a few days ago, they paired instantly and I haven't really seen signs of them since they burrowed under a rock.

 

Last night the goby was out without his buddy.. I noticed him while I was cleaning my glass with my magfloat. When I got near him he didn't even budge with the algae brush until I practically touched him.. then he would just move down to the other side of the tank.. after I was done cleaning I noticed him trying to swim to the top of the tank, then he faintly fell back to the sand bed.. he tried again near the back of my tank and he got sucked into my 240gph powerhead! I pulled him off after about 5 seconds.. then he swam back to the top and got stuck in the intake at the top of my tank.. again I pulled him off and he took off into the rocks and I haven't seen him since..

 

I don't think this is normal behavior... my tank pump is only 132gph and my powerhead is 240gph so nothing powerful really..

 

My tank is small, so I picked out one of the smaller gobies available.. maybe this was a mistake, my goby is maybe an inch long and is fairly skinny.. I tried to spot feed the goby/shrimp when I got them, just put some food near their burrow... is it just a weak goby? or perhaps there's something wrong with it?

 

between its getting stuck in the pump incidents, he looked like he was a gonner.. kinda floated oddly.. but after I pulled him off the last time he took off like a dart but haven't seen him since..

 

[Droy008]

Ya that doesn't sound too good.

Ordinarily watchman gobies are very resilient.

Is your little guy eating?

I had one of mine start acting funny on me, I started to treat his frozen food with Seachem's metroplex+focus. This seemed to really help get them back to normal.

Hopefully it can help you too.

[Slayer33]

I cant tell if he's eating.. that was my concern though.. I dropped a few Mysis pellets by him last night but he wasn't interested.. since he hides with the pistol shrimp where I can't see them, perhaps I can try to drop some Mysis shrimp.. I'm going to contact my LFS where I got him from today and ask what he is feeding his fish so I can get the same stuff..

[Clown79]

No thats not normal. Fish that usually get sucked in are usually unwell.

 

Watchman usually aren't fussy eaters and readily take prepared food. If he's skinny, not eating, and weak, i'd return him and get a bigger one.

[Slayer33]

Yeah, so I went to my LFS and he said maybe one of the corals stung him (hammer or torch), either way, he said he should've sold me a bigger one to begin with, but had forgotten about which corals I had. He gave me a bigger watchman, I dropped him in and he's happy already.. now he just needs to find the tiger pistol shrimp..

 

I still don't know where the little watchman goby went tho, I think perhaps I should look around the tank (outside) and see if he had jumped out when I had the lid off.. I'd like to return him if possible, but I don't think he is going to last after what I saw him do last night

[jbrfish]

I had a similar situation with my YWG when I first put him in the tank, he would swim up and down the sides of the aquarium, non stop and I think its because he could not find a place in the aquarium to settle down?....because of other fish already claiming territory . He got to a point where he got very thin, and I thought he was gonna die and was not interested in eating.

 

YWG got so skinny that he swam through the overflow bars....got him out though.

 

I could at times just scoop him up with the palm of my hand and would not try to wiggle away. I thought this is the tamest YWG, at this point I wanted to give it a chance to live.I started feeding mysis soaked in garlic with a turkey baster to target feed it. Now he loves the turkey baster.

 

But he would disappear for days and than show up again.

 

4 months later he is doing much better, now hangs out in the corner of the tank and and has gained weight and enjoys meaty foods (frozen mysis) and will eat flake food as well, but I have to shoot the food towards him otherwise will not actively go after it, is it possible for a fish to be blind?

 

I have read that Pistol shrimps will feed YWG. But my impression is that they don't eat as much as compared to Wrasses, because there not active swimmers. Except when swimming up and down the glass sides

[Slayer33]

Well... my new larger YWG is thriving and paired up with my tiger pistol shrimp a couple of days ago.. they've got a really nice burrow set up in my tank now.. I've seen both in and out and feeding which is great..

 

Downside is that I still haven't been able to find the tiny YWG since I peeled him off of the tank intake.. no sign of him whatsoever..

[Clown79]

If he died the cuc would have him cleaned up in 24hrs