Five-lined Clown Goby literally /only/ eating BBS. Dither fish/teacher? Sacrificial SPS?

[Tired]

I got a clown goby via LA's Diver's Den. You know, the place that says they'll send you healthy fish that are eating? I got an underweight clown goby, not eating, with a bacterial infection disguised as ich. I got him eating BBS in the quarantine tank, got him starting to put weight on, and then put him in my tank full of copepods. Figured he'd fatten up on copepods.

He did not. He lost weight, and kept losing it until I started filling the tank with BBS on a daily basis.

I've been feeding him BBS for a month and a half, and I've been trying to get him to eat anything else. I've tried mysis, freeze-dried cyclops, frozen cyclops, frozen BBS, frozen adult brine shrimp, and teeny chunks of krill type plankton. Yesterday, he finally ate a single frozen adult BBS, showed interest in another, and then ignored everything else.

I've just given him a bunch of BBS, and watched him eat. He's very enthusiastic about the BBS, but I think I've figured out why he didn't get fat on copepods. He's not eating copepods. There's a swarm of 'em in the corner he's hiding in, and he was ignoring those in favor of the BBS. They're very slightly bigger than the shrimp he's eating, and they move a bit differently, but otherwise they're pretty much the same thing. So I have no idea why he seems to be ignoring them entirely.

He's not in good body condition. His lateral line is sticking out, his stomach is sunken, his face is angular when seen from the front. I'm giving him BBS daily, from a slow feeder thing so he can hunt them for a few hours straight, and it's just not doing the trick. I don't know if they're too small, or what, but this isn't keeping him healthy. I want to get him to eat something heartier, like mysis chunks, so I can fatten him up properly. Also so I can get him onto an auto-feeder rather than having to feed him several times a day myself.

Is there any point in getting a similar, compatible fish to demonstrate for him? I know some fish species, particularly in freshwater, can learn to eat prepared foods by seeing other fish eat prepared foods. Any merit in adding a trimma goby, so he can see that one eat, maybe learn from it? I'm assuming adding another clown goby (green, maybe) would go poorly; I know different species of clown gobies can be combined in larger tanks, but this is a pico.

If I get some sort of cheap branching SPS from my LFS (maybe a monti or something else that should do OK), is he reasonably likely to nibble on it? I've read that they'll annoy branching SPS and eat the slime that results, and I'm willing to sacrifice a couple frags in the name of getting him fattened back up.

Do I catch him back out and put him in a mostly-bare QT tank? I got him fattened up in there, with BBS constantly in the tank. Trouble is, that's stressful, and I don't know if I'd ever get him eating prepared foods in a stressful tank. At this point, I think I'm going to give him a week, and if he doesn't start eating something else I'm going to put him in QT again.

Alternately, are there any of those mesh breeder boxes that have mesh small enough to contain BBS? This seems like maybe the best option.

I'm really not sure what to do about a clown goby who I'm pretty sure isn't eating copepods. I'm also really hoping that it's not going to turn out that he's about 6 months from dying of old age anyway, since these lil guys don't live long. I've never put so much trouble into a fish in my life.

Don't suppose anyone has a tank they keep stuffed full of BBS at all times that they'd like to add a clown goby to. Fry-raising tank, dwarf seahorse tank, that sort of thing. He's cute! He just doesn't know how to eat foods. Sir, how did you survive in the wild.

 

[MnFish1]

I got a clown goby via LA's Diver's Den. You know, the place that says they'll send you healthy fish that are eating? I got an underweight clown goby, not eating, with a bacterial infection disguised as ich. I got him eating BBS in the quarantine tank, got him starting to put weight on, and then put him in my tank full of copepods. Figured he'd fatten up on copepods.

He did not. He lost weight, and kept losing it until I started filling the tank with BBS on a daily basis.

I've been feeding him BBS for a month and a half, and I've been trying to get him to eat anything else. I've tried mysis, freeze-dried cyclops, frozen cyclops, frozen BBS, frozen adult brine shrimp, and teeny chunks of krill type plankton. Yesterday, he finally ate a single frozen adult BBS, showed interest in another, and then ignored everything else.

I've just given him a bunch of BBS, and watched him eat. He's very enthusiastic about the BBS, but I think I've figured out why he didn't get fat on copepods. He's not eating copepods. There's a swarm of 'em in the corner he's hiding in, and he was ignoring those in favor of the BBS. They're very slightly bigger than the shrimp he's eating, and they move a bit differently, but otherwise they're pretty much the same thing. So I have no idea why he seems to be ignoring them entirely.

He's not in good body condition. His lateral line is sticking out, his stomach is sunken, his face is angular when seen from the front. I'm giving him BBS daily, from a slow feeder thing so he can hunt them for a few hours straight, and it's just not doing the trick. I don't know if they're too small, or what, but this isn't keeping him healthy. I want to get him to eat something heartier, like mysis chunks, so I can fatten him up properly. Also so I can get him onto an auto-feeder rather than having to feed him several times a day myself.

Is there any point in getting a similar, compatible fish to demonstrate for him? I know some fish species, particularly in freshwater, can learn to eat prepared foods by seeing other fish eat prepared foods. Any merit in adding a trimma goby, so he can see that one eat, maybe learn from it? I'm assuming adding another clown goby (green, maybe) would go poorly; I know different species of clown gobies can be combined in larger tanks, but this is a pico.

If I get some sort of cheap branching SPS from my LFS (maybe a monti or something else that should do OK), is he reasonably likely to nibble on it? I've read that they'll annoy branching SPS and eat the slime that results, and I'm willing to sacrifice a couple frags in the name of getting him fattened back up.

Do I catch him back out and put him in a mostly-bare QT tank? I got him fattened up in there, with BBS constantly in the tank. Trouble is, that's stressful, and I don't know if I'd ever get him eating prepared foods in a stressful tank. At this point, I think I'm going to give him a week, and if he doesn't start eating something else I'm going to put him in QT again.

Alternately, are there any of those mesh breeder boxes that have mesh small enough to contain BBS? This seems like maybe the best option.

I'm really not sure what to do about a clown goby who I'm pretty sure isn't eating copepods. I'm also really hoping that it's not going to turn out that he's about 6 months from dying of old age anyway, since these lil guys don't live long. I've never put so much trouble into a fish in my life.

Don't suppose anyone has a tank they keep stuffed full of BBS at all times that they'd like to add a clown goby to. Fry-raising tank, dwarf seahorse tank, that sort of thing. He's cute! He just doesn't know how to eat foods. Sir, how did you survive in the wild.

First - thanks for the details. It sounds frustrating. I'm assuming by 'BBS' you mean 'baby brine shrimp'. What confused me is when you said 'adult BBS'.

in any case - I'm curious - did you quarantine him - or freshwater dip? Could this be an internal parasite problem or fluke problem?

I don't think there is any reason not to keep feeding him the way you are - and I also don't think there would be any detriment to stopping the BBS and using something like Larry's Frozen foods - which releases numerous small particles.

Curious - what other foods have you tried?

 

[Tired]

Whoops, adult BBS aren't a thing. I meant frozen adult brine shrimp.

He went through the tank transfer method for what I thought was ich, and had healthy-looking poop the entire time. He's never had particularly bad colors or showed any signs of itchiness, and he gained weight while in a quarantine tank constantly full of shrimp to eat. I don't think he's sick, I think he's just not managing to catch enough BBS somehow. Even with the filter off, the shrimp go under things and get eaten by corals.

The thing is, he's underweight again. He's not getting enough to eat, even with BBS available for hours a day. Also, I really don't want to have a fish that I need to feed live BBS multiple times a day, even if it was keeping him healthy. Which it's not. If I wanted that, I'd get dwarf seahorses, not a clown goby.
I have chronic fatigue issues, and really want to get this guy eating something I can put in an auto-feeder. Even if it has to be one of those expensive frozen food auto-feeders. I formerly had a pico blenny and pico goby staying fat in this tank with a couple feedings a week, eating copepods, and that's what I was after with this guy.

As it stands, it's looking like the only way I'd be able to keep his weight up is by putting him in a small, fairly bare enclosure, with nothing else to eat or filter away the shrimp. I'm giving him 6 days, and if I can't get him eating something prepared, he's going into a breeder box in the tank so I can stuff him full of BBS again. I hate to put him through the stress of catching him and being in a new environment, but that's probably better for him than not getting enough to eat.

I've tried dried (rehydrated) cyclops, canned (and then frozen/thawed) cyclops, adult brine shrimp, adult brine shrimp packaged with spirulina, bits of mysis, and tiny chunks of some sort of krill-like thing that the package just calls "plankton". I put in a little BBS to get him excited and ready to eat, then pipette individual bits of food in his general direction. No dice, except the one adult shrimp for some reason. He's all over the place after the BBS, he /wants/ to eat! He just doesn't seem to register that anything else is food.

I'm going to get some Garlic Guard and see if that'll do anything, I think.

 

[MnFish1]

Whoops, adult BBS aren't a thing. I meant frozen adult brine shrimp.

He went through the tank transfer method for what I thought was ich, and had healthy-looking poop the entire time. He's never had particularly bad colors or showed any signs of itchiness, and he gained weight while in a quarantine tank constantly full of shrimp to eat. I don't think he's sick, I think he's just not managing to catch enough BBS somehow. Even with the filter off, the shrimp go under things and get eaten by corals.

The thing is, he's underweight again. He's not getting enough to eat, even with BBS available for hours a day. Also, I really don't want to have a fish that I need to feed live BBS multiple times a day, even if it was keeping him healthy. Which it's not. If I wanted that, I'd get dwarf seahorses, not a clown goby.
I have chronic fatigue issues, and really want to get this guy eating something I can put in an auto-feeder. Even if it has to be one of those expensive frozen food auto-feeders. I formerly had a pico blenny and pico goby staying fat in this tank with a couple feedings a week, eating copepods, and that's what I was after with this guy.

As it stands, it's looking like the only way I'd be able to keep his weight up is by putting him in a small, fairly bare enclosure, with nothing else to eat or filter away the shrimp. I'm giving him 6 days, and if I can't get him eating something prepared, he's going into a breeder box in the tank so I can stuff him full of BBS again. I hate to put him through the stress of catching him and being in a new environment, but that's probably better for him than not getting enough to eat.

I've tried dried (rehydrated) cyclops, canned (and then frozen/thawed) cyclops, adult brine shrimp, adult brine shrimp packaged with spirulina, bits of mysis, and tiny chunks of some sort of krill-like thing that the package just calls "plankton". I put in a little BBS to get him excited and ready to eat, then pipette individual bits of food in his general direction. No dice, except the one adult shrimp for some reason. He's all over the place after the BBS, he /wants/ to eat! He just doesn't seem to register that anything else is food.

I'm going to get some Garlic Guard and see if that'll do anything, I think.

@Jay Hemdal I seem to remember (maybe not?) you mentioning that if a fish goes at the food but does not eat it can be a symptom of 'xxxx' - but I don't remember what that was - or if I'm misremembering.

 

[Tired]

No, he's definitely eating. He's just not getting enough food currently, because he's not very good at hunting and BBS are great at getting sucked up by things other than him. I'm hoping to get him eating larger food items, so he won't have to eat dozens of them to get any real nutrition.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal I seem to remember (maybe not?) you mentioning that if a fish goes at the food but does not eat it can be a symptom of 'xxxx' - but I don't remember what that was - or if I'm misremembering.

The issue with these gobies is: They are really low value, cryptic fish. Collectors used to get 5 to 10 cents per fish. The price has gone up a bit recently, but not more than 75 cents. There is no way they can catch these for any sort of profit unless they resort to sodium cyanide. They squirt the cyanide into a coral head and net the stunned gobies as they emerge.

That in turn kills some of the fish outright, but others linger on (and a few survive). Some common symptoms of cyanide poisoning are feeding issues: not feeding, feeding but spitting the food out, not digesting what is being eaten, etc.

In the studies that I've done since 1984, the increased mortality from this exposure runs about 40%. Non-cyanide fish typically see about a 9 to 15% mortality rate through the supply chain in the first 40 days. Fish from cyanide regions run 45 to 60% - so subtracting the 15% for "normal" shipments, and there is a big problem.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

The issue with these gobies is: They are really low value, cryptic fish. Collectors used to get 5 to 10 cents per fish. The price has gone up a bit recently, but not more than 75 cents. There is no way they can catch these for any sort of profit unless they resort to sodium cyanide. They squirt the cyanide into a coral head and net the stunned gobies as they emerge.

That in turn kills some of the fish outright, but others linger on (and a few survive). Some common symptoms of cyanide poisoning are feeding issues: not feeding, feeding but spitting the food out, not digesting what is being eaten, etc.

In the studies that I've done since 1984, the increased mortality from this exposure runs about 40%. Non-cyanide fish typically see about a 9 to 15% mortality rate through the supply chain in the first 40 days. Fish from cyanide regions run 45 to 60% - so subjecting the 15% for "normal" shipments, and there is a big problem.

Jay

@Jay Hemdal Thanks - I thought this was mentioned before - but I wasn't sure what process it was.

To the OP - yes - sorry - I didn't mean to hijack the thread. Is your fish a new arrival?

 

[Tired]

Oh, please hijack the thread, if it's useful at all. Heck, even if it's not, as long as I get some answers at some point. Info's good.

Relatively new, yes, I've only had him a couple months. And I think this is the last wild-caught clown goby I'll ever buy; far too many "it never started eating" stories online. Putting them firmly on my list of fish that I think should only ever be captive-bred, if it's that hard to get them to not die after being brought in, and the cyanide thing just adds to that. I'm not against sustainable wild collection (since the mortality rate of being a wild fish is pretty dang high, what with all the predators and such), but a fish that can't reliably be gotten to thrive after import is not a fish that should be collected. Except maybe edge cases, handled carefully and going directly to someone who can get it to thrive.

The thing is, he CAN put on weight. When I had him in the quarantine tank for what I thought was ich, with tons of BBS available at all times, he gained weight until he looked normal. He's lost it since going into the display, but he's not incapable of getting enough nutrition.

Though- is it possible that he's at, say, 20% of the digestive capability of a normal clown goby? As in, he can digest food to some extent, but not enough to get as much out of it as he needs? That can happen with gut damage from celiac- you get someone who can be malnourished on a normal diet, because their digestive capability is way down. And it would explain some things I'm seeing here.

Do fish ever recover from cyanide damage? If the only way he's ever going to get enough to eat is by being in a bare container surrounded by food constantly, that doesn't seem like a very good quality of life.

How many BBS should a clown goby need to eat per day to be healthy? They're tiny, but I'm seeing him eat dozens of them a day, and he's losing weight doing it. And it's not like he's an anthias, constantly swimming around. People raise seahorses on these things, they can't be THAT low-value as food.

 

[Tired]

Okay, so I've just tried to feed him again. He ate exactly one piece of mysis shrimp, then ignored all the other chunks I tried to give him and went about eating BBS. He was enthusiastic about that one big piece, but now he won't touch them. I'd say maybe he was full, except that he's been eating BBS for the last five minutes, not slowing down, which is not what animals do when they're full.

I really am starting to worry about the possibility of him having organ damage interfering with his digestion. If I put him in a breeder box for a few months, keep him constantly stocked up with BBS so he gains weight again, is there any hope of him healing? I don't want to keep him in a little box full of swarming food for the rest of his tiny life.

 

[bruno3047]

Newly hatched brine shrimp nourish themselves internally from the yolk sac they are born with for about three days. After that, they start to eat externally. Phytoplankton is their main diet. Keeping this fish alive is obviously going to take more than you were expecting. But what I would do if I were you, I would hatch some baby brine shrimp and start feeding them phytoplankton after a few days to “gut load” them, and then feed them to your goby. In this manner, the nutrition value of each individual shrimp will increase and also the goby’s nutritional intake will increase. As an alternative to live phytoplankton, you might try some freeze-dried powdered planktonic food. I used to use a product called Phytoplan mixed into saltwater. You might also try powdered coral food like reef roids or goniopower to feed the brine shrimp. Good luck.

 

[Tired]

I'm feeding him BBS that are less than a day old. Isn't that going to be more nutritious than gut-loaded shrimp? Spirulina can't be richer than yolk.

Besides, there might be another problem going on. He's eating dozens (possibly more) of recently hatched BBS per day, and still not gaining weight on that. After finding out that clown gobies tend to be cyanide-caught, I'm worried about organ damage.

I have two things coming in the mail tomorrow; Garlic Guard, and a box of undyed pantyhose. If he doesn't start reliably taking prepared foods with the Garlic Guard involved, I'm putting him in a breeder box so I can keep him swarmed in brine shrimp without having to shut off my pump for hours on end. The pantyhose is to cover the box holes so the BBS don't leave.

 

[bruno3047]

I'm feeding him BBS that are less than a day old. Isn't that going to be more nutritious than gut-loaded shrimp? Spirulina can't be richer than yolk.

Besides, there might be another problem going on. He's eating dozens (possibly more) of recently hatched BBS per day, and still not gaining weight on that. After finding out that clown gobies tend to be cyanide-caught, I'm worried about organ damage.

I have two things coming in the mail tomorrow; Garlic Guard, and a box of undyed pantyhose. If he doesn't start reliably taking prepared foods with the Garlic Guard involved, I'm putting him in a breeder box so I can keep him swarmed in brine shrimp without having to shut off my pump for hours on end. The pantyhose is to cover the box holes so the BBS don't leave.

It’s not that the gutloaded shrimp are more nutritious collectively, but they might be more nutritious individually simply because they have more mass. In other words, one gut-loaded brine shrimp may weigh as much as two or three newly hatched day-old brine shrimp.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Oh, please hijack the thread, if it's useful at all. Heck, even if it's not, as long as I get some answers at some point. Info's good.

Relatively new, yes, I've only had him a couple months. And I think this is the last wild-caught clown goby I'll ever buy; far too many "it never started eating" stories online. Putting them firmly on my list of fish that I think should only ever be captive-bred, if it's that hard to get them to not die after being brought in, and the cyanide thing just adds to that. I'm not against sustainable wild collection (since the mortality rate of being a wild fish is pretty dang high, what with all the predators and such), but a fish that can't reliably be gotten to thrive after import is not a fish that should be collected. Except maybe edge cases, handled carefully and going directly to someone who can get it to thrive.

The thing is, he CAN put on weight. When I had him in the quarantine tank for what I thought was ich, with tons of BBS available at all times, he gained weight until he looked normal. He's lost it since going into the display, but he's not incapable of getting enough nutrition.

Though- is it possible that he's at, say, 20% of the digestive capability of a normal clown goby? As in, he can digest food to some extent, but not enough to get as much out of it as he needs? That can happen with gut damage from celiac- you get someone who can be malnourished on a normal diet, because their digestive capability is way down. And it would explain some things I'm seeing here.

Do fish ever recover from cyanide damage? If the only way he's ever going to get enough to eat is by being in a bare container surrounded by food constantly, that doesn't seem like a very good quality of life.

How many BBS should a clown goby need to eat per day to be healthy? They're tiny, but I'm seeing him eat dozens of them a day, and he's losing weight doing it. And it's not like he's an anthias, constantly swimming around. People raise seahorses on these things, they can't be THAT low-value as food.

Key to that post - you've had him a couple of months. That makes my cyanide comments less valid (those usually show up within 40 days or so).

Jay

 

[Tired]

Key to that post - you've had him a couple of months. That makes my cyanide comments less valid (those usually show up within 40 days or so).

Jay

I mean, this has been a problem the entire time. He's never eaten anything other than BBS, and I don't know if he's needed tons of them the entire time, because I always had tons in the QT tank. He's been in the display for a month and a half, losing body condition the entire time despite a steady supply of BBS for all but the first week.
(He hid for the entire first week, and I didn't realize he wasn't keeping himself fed on copepods until he started coming out a bit more.)

If he does have cyanide damage to his gut, is that something that can heal up eventually?

What else can cause a fish that's eating an appropriate amount of food to not get enough nutrition? He doesn't have any symptoms of anything, and I'd imagine he would have just straight-up died as a baby if he had a birth defect or some kind of food intolerance interfering with his health.

What's getting me is that he has, twice now, taken exactly a single big piece of food. Then he stops eating the big pieces and goes after the BBS only. I have no clue why he's doing that.

It’s not that the gutloaded shrimp are more nutritious collectively, but they might be more nutritious individually simply because they have more mass. In other words, one gut-loaded brine shrimp may weigh as much as two or three newly hatched day-old brine shrimp.

Makes sense, but, if it comes to him just plain not eating prepared foods, I think I'm sticking him in the breeder box. I know providing him a ton of fresh BBS works, and it's simpler than trying to raise adult ones and hoping they get nutritious enough and big enough in time. If the Garlic Guard doesn't work, I'll fatten him up in the breeder box and try prepared foods while he's in there.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Since not all cyanide collected fish die, some can heal. It is however, a sliding scale and yours seems to be right on the edge.

Can you add Selcon to the BBS? That helps supply some essential fatty acids that BBS is missing.

Jay

 

[Tired]

I'll try and get ahold of some Selcon, sure. My LFS probably has it.

I think what I'm going to do is go ahead and put him in the breeder box in the next couple of days. I can put the favia he likes to sit on in there, stick in a small thing or two to hide behind, and make it reasonably nice. Then I can fatten him back up, and give him a few months of being completely swarmed by foods. Hopefully that does the trick for the poor little guy. I hope he's not suffering when he's able to get enough to eat.

I really do hate to stress him out by catching him, but I'm thinking that even if I can get him eating prepared foods, I'd have to feed him a dozen times a day to keep any weight on him. BBS in a confined space is way easier to feed; just grow a batch, strain it out of the thing, dump it in, and let him eat all day.

How large do five-lined clown gobies get? I'm hoping he's a juvenile and has a year or two left, as opposed to an adult who might die of old age in a couple months.

 

[Bucs20fan]

So in your post, I was looking at what you said about adding more fish. I can say that without a doubt, feeding response is greatly increased with other fish eating. This has helped tremendously with copperband butterflies for me, and Fear of missing out is a real thing with fish. I think Adding another similar fish that is easy to feed would actually help.

 

[Tired]

I think I might also try that, maybe a trimma goby or something, but I'd need to get it fully quarantined first. Or buy direct from either a pre-quarantining source or a fully captive-breeding source like BIOTA. I'll see if anywhere has anything in stock. I want a trimma goby anyway, and maybe it can encourage him to eat after I let him out of the breeder box.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Anything reasonable is worth a shot. I just know how it is and feeding response helped my copperband get onto frozen foods in two days.

 

[Tired]

Alright, he's in the box. He's staying in there until he both starts eating non-live foods and gets fat. There's enough space that I think he'll be fine for awhile; clown gobies aren't exactly active fish, and he's stayed mostly in a six-inch-square portion of the display tank anyway.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/419966150902808577/1004567137978949722/IMG_9383.jpg

I got this berry box, with included strainer, at Container Store. It's six inches square by four inches tall, so not a bad size for a lil fella. I also got a two-part golf ball display case; those two U-shaped halves slide together to make a cube. The display case is to use as a support, with the box resting on it.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/419966150902808577/1004567278198734918/IMG_9386.jpg

My brother has this really simple soldering iron. Nothing but a wall plug, a piece of metal that gets hot from being plugged in, and a handle for it. You can melt holes in things with it, and, with considerable patience (this took a good 30 minutes just to cut those little pieces out), you can use it as a sort of terrible knife to cut/melt plastics. Best done outdoors, or, if you're in Texas in August and it's 102F outside, in your well-ventilated garage.

(Though this plastic is the same stuff they use in water bottles, so it's not too nasty anyway.)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/419966150902808577/1004567390274736208/IMG_9393.jpg

I got some pantyhose to use for this, but it had a really strong floral scent when I took it out of the package, so as a backup I used this mosquito mesh. It's folded double, so it should contain BBS. I tied it in place with fishing line, which was a pain in the neck due to fishing line being wildly uncooperative, then cut small plastic frames out of a couple of takeout container lids and secured those in place with more fishing line to trap the fabric tight against the container. Didn't want him to wiggle between the fabric and container and get stuck.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/419966150902808577/1004567421354528838/IMG_9396.jpg

There he is! He gets his favia that he likes to sit on, a cave to hide under, and a not-quite-cave with an open top in case he wants a hiding place he can see out of. Also some chaeto. If I see him seeming to need more hiding places, I'll try to add more things, but I was trying to have as few places as possible where BBS could get caught or otherwise vanish. I expect to need to add another couple of hidey-holes.

The box is resting on top of the acrylic supports, and then you can see there's a couple bits of hard-to-bend wire (think it's aluminum?) acting sorta like clamps to keep it from wandering out of the corner. Not pictured is the terribly ugly lid I made with a muffin container lid, to make sure he stays in there.

There's tolerably good water flow in there. Hopefully enough to keep the favia happy- it might need to be put directly in front of one of the windows. So far, the BBS collect in that bottom left corner for some reason, which is convenient. This was taken before I dumped the BBS in. I've got a hatchery dish that uses a simple plastic maze to keep the eggshells out, while allowing the BBS into a strainer that they're drawn to by light. I plan to just keep a load of BBS in here at all times, so he can't help but get fat.

One bristleworm and one micro brittle made their way into this box, hiding under the favia plug. I'll probably pop a dwarf cerith or two in there once it starts growing a bunch of algae. Other than that, he's the only mobile critter in there, so there's no competition for the food. Don't think the favia will care about the brine shrimp. But this does mean I can try and fatten the favia up on meaty foods without 6 bristleworms immediately swiping whatever I give it.



I hate catching fish. I felt so bad; he went from kinda uneasy, avoiding the net and the plastic spoon I was trying to herd him with, to moving in increasingly stressed, jerky ways and darting for cover every chance he got. Had to move things all over the place, bonked some corals with rocks trying to quickly uncover and catch him, and terrified the poor thing. He's scared of me again. I wish I had some way to tell him what I was doing- I'm sure he'd be all for this plan of putting him in a place with food that won't vanish.
He did start eating as soon as I put the BBS in, though, so I don't think he's too stressed. Last I checked, he had his face in the shrimp corner and was gobbling them down.



Upside, I found the pom-pom crab that I thought was dead! Turned out that was just a molt that, for some reason, didn't have the carapace easily hinging up off the top like crab molts usually do. It's found a crevice underneath a rock, and I found it when I flipped the rock trying to catch the poor goby. I have a little video clip now of it smacking my tongs with one of its anemones. Funny lil critter. I'll need to make sure it gets food under there, though it does eat bristleworms sometimes.