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Yellow Watchman Goby - Please help! Jaw deterioration, white jaw with hole


Zeus3409

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Hi, 

I recently (7 days ago) added a yellow Watchman Goby to my tank with a larger tiger Pistol Shrimp. They immediately paired up and are good buddies. I noticed that the goby had a kinda white lower jaw when I first added him, but thought nothing of it. Three days ago my fiancé and i noticed he had some stuff hanging from his mouth (looked like mucus and sand, but hard to tell because it was covered in sand). I figured he just took in to much sand and was trying to spit it up.

well, today I was just looking at him and noticed his jaw has a massive hole in it and looks like the lower jaw bones are split. He seems to be eating fine and acting normal, but I have no idea what to do or if he has some sort of disease. I also contemplated the idea he god have gotten nipped by one of the emerald crabs or hermits since he is very small. Any advice or identification is greatly appreciated. 

 

Tank (4 months old) parameters:

Alk: 9.1

Calcium: 465

Mag: 1395

phosphate: 0.02

salinity: 1.026

pH: 8.1

Nitrate: <5

Nitrite: 0.1

Ammonia: 0

 

Two juvenile Percula clowns

1 yellow Watchman Goby 

tiger pistol shrimp

1 fire shrimp

1 cleaner shrimp

handful of hermits

3 emerald crabs

handful of mixed snails

mixed lps/sps corals

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Can't make out details without white light on the subject.  Can you re-post pics either with blue lights off, white lights on OR with flash on?

 

As long as he's really eating well chances are that he'll recover, but your description of the injury sounds pretty grim.  (So better pics would really help.)

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Ok thank you. I will try to get some more pictures of the little guys under clear (white light). He is now on the other side of the cave and I can’t get a good shot. Here’s a couple more trying to get better light. It’s tough because I have the kessil 360xs and the tuna blue spectrum only let’s me really adjust clr and intensity (besides Red,Violet, Green). I’ll try a few pictures with flash. The hole you see in the picture is not his mouth open. It is where his jaw use to be and the part right under his upper lip are what i think to be the jaw bones of what use to be his lower lip split in two :(. Poor little guy. The bottom two pictures are too blurry to make anything out. 

 

If I can’t get better pictures tomorrow, I’ll pull him out and put him in the qt tank and snap some close ups, just don’t want to stress him out. Thanks!

 

 

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If he has a "massive hole" in his jaw, I recommend you QT & treat with an antibiotic. He would also probably benefit from either a 30 min Methylene Blue bath or 90 min Ruby Reef Rally bath en route to QT. 

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Ok, I will pull him and treat with antibiotics in QT. I will research these baths and head to LFS to grab something. Just got a little better lightening picture. 

 

Thanks!!

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Let us know which med you pick....not all antibiotics act the same way or treat the same things.

 

Maybe someone will advise what organism you're supposed to be targeting at least in theory so you can make the best choice.

 

May not be required reading, but you might find this interesting and useful:

CIR 84/FA084: Use of Antibiotics in Ornamental Fish Aquaculture 

...from University of FL.   The opening paragraph...

 

Quote

Antibiotics are very useful additions to any fish-health manager's toolbox, but they are only tools and not 'magic bullets.' The ability of antibiotics to help eliminate a fish disease depends on a number of factors: 1) Does the problem actually have a bacterial component? 2) Are the bacteria involved sensitive to the antibiotic chosen? 3) Are the proper dosage and treatment intervals being used? 4) Have other contributing stresses been removed or reduced?

It goes on to talk about different bacteria, optimal approaches, proper doses, etc, inlcuding particulars on specific antibiotics.

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Doesn't look like his Jaws deteriating really, more like his lower lip got damaged somehow. 

 

If he is eating well and behaving normal I wouldn't do anything and just keep an eye on it. 

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  • 9 months later...

Out of interestsorry I know this is an old thread  did this ever recover? And did you treat it ? There is one looks like this now in my lfs they asked me if I wanted him for free as they can’t sell him because of the visible injuries but I’m unsure on what to do 

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