Help...Diamond Goby wasting away

[caay]

Hi..I am new to the forum, but need some help. I have a diamond goby and he is wasting away to nothing. He does come out and sift the sand but is so skinny I keep expecting to find him dead every morning. I have a 29 gallon Bio-Cube with a clown fish and cleaner shrimp. I am feeding flake food and frozen brine shrimp. What am I doing wrong? I have recently had a problem with red slime algae, could that be it? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[birdsnest]

I have noticed the same with my orange spot goby. Even though he eats well and is happily paired with a pistol shrimp he is still on the skimpy size in the belly. I think the main reason for our issues is that we both have small tanks, mine is a 30g, and that there is not a large enough sand bed to provide enough macro fauna for them to feed off of all the time. I feed frozen rotifers, hikari pellets, coral frenzy zoo plankt, all soaked in selcon which the goby will eat daily but I feel it is missing on all the pod's and such that should be avail. all the time.

 

[boehm742]

birdsnest is dead on here. Simply isnt enough sand to sift in a 29.

 

[nater]

might want mysid shrimp? my catalina coby goes for the small mysid shrimp.

 

[revhtree]

Try to use a little pellets that sink to the bottom, to see if he will eat.

 

[ReefBoy87]

From my experience with diamond goby's i've learned flake isn't the best food for them. Whenever I've fed flake, he grabs it but it sifts right out of his gills. Brine shrimp might be too small and not nutritious enough for the goby. Orange diamond gobys do have a reputation of starving themselves, but there are tricks. I agree with rev and try pellets. I'll sometimes throw some ORA glow pellets in my goby's borough so it's there for him to eat later. Mysis is good for them too...if he doesn't eat it when you throw it in, just shoot some with a baster into his hole and he'll get to it.

Hope this helps!

 

[donkeys4hire]

Well mine decides it would be better on the table next to the tank. It jumped out...

 

[jaytizzle]

Flake isn't the best food for any fish. Flake may sustain fish but is not a good long term food source. Also frozen brine is a waste of time. That is like potato chips for fish as it holds little to no nutritional value. If you must feed brine then freshly (24 hr) hatched brine is best as the egg sac is still attached and holds some nutritional value.

Now back to topic - Sorry to hear about your goby. That tank just isn't big enough. Birdsnest was right about there just not being enough sand. Hopefully you can get him eating prepared foods. I really like NLS Thera A pellets and a meaty frozen food for a good combination (I use Rod's food but frozen mysis or any meaty mix will work well).