Green clown goby won't eat

[James5214]

Do you guys have problems with your clown goby eating? He hasn't ate since I got him on Friday. But he climbs all over a rock and is active no signs of stress or heavy breathing. Should I target feed him with a baster? He won't go after pellets or mysis. Any tips

 

[Impala67]

Do you guys have problems with your clown goby eating? He hasn't ate since I got him on Friday. But he climbs all over a rock and is active no signs of stress or heavy breathing. Should I target feed him with a baster? He won't go after pellets or mysis. Any tips

Do you feed live or frozen? If you can try I would do some live brine shrimp or maybe you could soak some mysis shrimp in some garlic juice no way he turns those up!!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

They should be micro pellets or else it won’t fit in it’s mouth. But if it’s wild caught it might not go for pellets.

I always had good luck with frozen cyclops or can cyclops. It should go for live baby brine shrimp as well.

 

[Starganderfish]

Arrgghh. Yeah Clown Goby’s are a huge pain in the but to get eating. I’ve gone through three greens, a Citron, and now a yellow. One of the greens ate fine immediately and was happy for months but died with an unfortunate salinity swing. The Citron and other two greens wouldn’t eat and succumbed after less than a week.
My current yellow is tiny, seems to have a pretty emaciated and sunken belly and isn’t super active. Tends to cling to the back wall and move around occasionally. Doesn’t seem interested in food much at all.
I reached out to the online shop I bought him from and asked what they were feeding. A mix of baby brine, mysid and lobster eggs. I tried and it didn’t get a huge response from him.
Currently I’m mixing tiny amounts of different stuff and using a pipette to gently squirt some right at him, and doing this 3 or 4 times a day. I’m trying frozen brine, mysid, black worms, lobster eggs or rotifers. Give a little bit of one, then a bit of something else a few hours later. I’m also mixing batches of a couple of different ones and trying that occasionally.
I’m hatching baby brine shrimp every couple of days and squirting some of those right at him, hoping that the movement will attract his attention.
5 days in and he’s still alive. I think he may have grabbed the occasional morsel when I fed him (hard to tell because he stays at the back behind the rock) but really can’t tell.
I’ve got some Seachem Garlic Guard coming today that I’m going to try - garlics supposed to make food more tempting and trigger a feeding response.
I dosed a fresh batch of Copepods the same day he arrived so there should be some tiny critters in there he can eat if he’s tempted by those.
Clown Gobies are awesome little fish and they’re one of a very few fish that are suitable for small Pico tanks so I keep trying them but it’s saddening. The purple firefish in the same tank also got off to a slow start but after three weeks he’s happy and feeding well. Keep hoping the Clown Goby will learn good habits from the firefish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Clown bobies themselves are bashful. Thinking of the size of the fish, imagine the size of its stomach and it will be able to eat. Some can be difficult to feed and may need target feeding at first.
Some foods are :
Spirulina brine shrimp
Pods
Fush eggs
Chopped mysis shrimp
LRS fish frenzy

 

[James5214]

I have the new life spectrum threa A with garlic pellets they are ,5mm-.75mm in size. They seem tiny didn't think they were to big. I have tried frozen PE mysis I got from LFS but those jokers are huge even my clowns had a problem trying to gulp them down. I have a brine shrimp hatchery i will set that up this morning and get it started. I don't want any fish that could turn down some live baby brine. I mean he isn't glass surfing or anything he has his rock he likes and swims all around it and over it but I just want to make sure he eats.

 

[Starganderfish]

Just keep giving small amounts of tiny food near him a couple of times a day. Eventually he will hopefully start to eat something. They’re just stubborn shy fish. Good luck

 

[James5214]

Yea every time i free I make sure to drop a small pinch literally Infront of him. So I will just keep at it and hopefully he starts eating

 

[Impala67]

Clown bobies themselves are bashful. Thinking of the size of the fish, imagine the size of its stomach and it will be able to eat. Some can be difficult to feed and may need target feeding at first.
Some foods are :
Spirulina brine shrimp
Pods
Fush eggs
Chopped mysis shrimp
LRS fish frenzy

Lol bobies lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

Lol bobies lol

Darn spell correct as usual
Gobies

 

[James5214]

Brine shrimp hatchery up and running so hopefully he eats those if not I give up cause what fish can resist love bbs

 

[James5214]

Also here's a video of all my inhabitants the goby decided to come out some and be apart of the video lol

 

[bruno3047]

BBS is my staple food for small newcomers. Never fails, unless the fish is sick.

 

[James5214]

Good news guys. Had my bbs eggs running for around 36 hrs so this morning I got them out and added a big ol squeeze of them to the tank and off rip all my other fish went crazy they love them. My clowns and my RG and six line wrasse. But the green clown goby was still being difficult. I shot a small shot straight towards him and he swam away. So I was like no way he doesn't like fresh bbs. I sat back for about 10 minutes and I noticed him come out from the corner of the rock and kind of lunge towards something a few times so I'm hoping he finally stop being stubborn and got a few bites of brine. I will be giving another squirt of bbs after work. Just excited he finally ate after a few days

 

[Starganderfish]

Good news guys. Had my bbs eggs running for around 36 hrs so this morning I got them out and added a big ol squeeze of them to the tank and off rip all my other fish went crazy they love them. My clowns and my RG and six line wrasse. But the green clown goby was still being difficult. I shot a small shot straight towards him and he swam away. So I was like no way he doesn't like fresh bbs. I sat back for about 10 minutes and I noticed him come out from the corner of the rock and kind of lunge towards something a few times so I'm hoping he finally stop being stubborn and got a few bites of brine. I will be giving another squirt of bbs after work. Just excited he finally ate after a few days

That's great news! Clown Goby's are so small that even one or two little nibbles will help keep them going and hopefully build up an appetite. The other great thing about the BBS is they'll swim around the tank for ages if not eaten so even if he's slow to get moving or a reluctant eater, there'll keep wiggling around and tempting him.

My Yellow Clown Goby is also still hanging on. I'm feeding Baby Brine (fresh hatched and frozen), blood worms, lobster eggs, rotifers etc. I got some Garlic Guard but have no if it's helping. All my other livestock are voracious so they didn't need the encouragement. See the goby occasionally lunging at something after feeding so I assume he's grabbing the occasional morsel. Mines set up house behind the rock and tends to perch on the back wall, and has never really come out to the front of the tank but he's still there so I just keep tempting him.

 

[James5214]

Mine green clown is getting more comfortable by the days I believe he still gets very skiddish when I come up to the tank same as my six line wrasse. But this morning when I feed I saw him going after them bbs he was tearing them up! He has found his home at my biggest rock structure and he hangs around the backside of it alot but he has this one spot that's like a slit in the rock and he fits in it perfectly it's a small spot but he will poke just his little head out enough to look at me i think it's so funny lol. But I'm so glad he's finally eating. Hopefully your goby will loosen up as well and start eating more often. Happy reefing. Thanks for tips

 

[Starganderfish]

My yellow has started to emerge a bit and perch on my little Gonio! He's still really shy and spends most of the time hiding in the rocks but he's still kicking and seems to occasionally gulp up some food. He's a lot less greedy than my first Green who would eat whole frozen brine shrimp. This guy's tiny and seems to need tiny food. Rotifer's, lobster eggs and freshly hatched baby brine seem the best bet so far, but continuing to mix up the food so he doesn't get too fixated on one thing.

 

[BryznNguyen]

My yellow clown goby was also difficult to get to eat at first, but after a while he was able to eat frozen *with garlic flavoring*. Now he can eat the tds pellets because he watched my other fish and learned, I also recently got a green clown goby that only eats frozen right now but hopefully with time he will feel more comfortable to swim up when Im around the tank. The only thing that sucks is my YCG also eats my acan feeder tent...

 

[James5214]

My green clown goby still hasn't gotten use to the pellets so I'm still having to harvest fresh bbs but he goes crazy for them I posted a video of him attacking them lol but he still stays in his rock but is coming out more and more.often hopefully in a few weeks time he will be at home

 

[i cant think]

They should be micro pellets or else it won’t fit in it’s mouth. But if it’s wild caught it might not go for pellets.

I always had good luck with frozen cyclops or can cyclops. It should go for live baby brine shrimp as well.

That’s false IME, I have an Acicularis Clown Goby and he will take on anything that fits in his mouth and even in most cases, any frozen that’s larger.
Definitely try to get them feeding live then onto frozen - It also helps if you have a ton of microfauna on the LR. All of my gobies are eating frozen, some scavenge the left overs at night when its safe.

One of the many issues with Gobiodon is many species are sold under the same scientific name, green clown gobies can be Gobiodon histrio, Gobiodon ayoyagii, Gobiodon atrangulatus and even in some cases paragobiodon xanthosoma. Paragobiodon will not eat frozen and is a strict live eater. Gobiodon ayoyagii can be a slightly more difficult species however it’s not as difficult as what is mostly known as the Bearded goby genus which yes, includes the Panda Clown Goby (Paragobiodon lacunicolus).

If you can get a photo or video then that may explain what species it is and maybe even why it’s not eating. Photos/Videos explain SO much more than a description - Often said in the phrase “Photos are a million words” or something like that.