Clown Goby Survive on only copedpods?

[andrewey]

I recently purchased a wild-collected yellow clown goby, but while in quarantine, it never ended it's hunger strike. I tried and all the usual frozen foods and collecting live food from my refugium but after fourteen days, he was growing thin and had not eaten any of the prepared or live foods.

As a last ditch option, I placed him in one of my mature coral only tanks, which is currently saturated with copepods. He's been in there for a month now and is starting to fatten up. The tank is teeming with tens-to-hundreds of thousands of copepods, so I have no concerns that he would reduce their population in any meaningful way, but do I need to worry about his nutrition? He's still not eating any frozen/prepared foods, but I wanted to see if anyone else had any long term success with a clown goby eating in this way?

 

[Rocks reef]

If he is eating, let him him eat. As far as nutrition, the copepods feed on algae and other small particulates in the tank. He is getting all the nutrition he needs. I'd focus on adding pods each month. You can also dose a little phyto each day to feed the pods if you want.

 

[andrewey]

Sounds good. Thanks for the reassurance- it's what I was thinking.

I don't think I'll have to add any pods- the population is at it's carrying capacity and based on his size/metabolism, I don't think he'll make even a 1% difference in the current population.