Hi all,
Yesterday was a disaster. When getting home from my LFS I drip acclimated two new juvenile engineering gobies. Did a lot of research on them and figured they would be a great addition. When adding the first one it instantly swam into the pistol shrimp/YWG den and got shot up and battered pretty bad in a matter of like 10 seconds. It managed to escape but it was badly damaged and stunned (most of the tail ripped off to the bone and several deep cuts) and died later in the evening. I did not know a small pistol shrimp could do so much damage but I'm starting to think the same happened to my yellow coris wrasse which I haven't seen after adding him 3 weeks ago... He also immediately buried himself in the sand besides/against the den. Anyways, the second goby stayed out of the den but got attacked immediately by my cleaner wrasse. I figure because the engineer goby looks very similar with the juvenile color because my cleaner wrasse does harass the new comers often but just to clean them a bit so he is all up in their faces but this time it really attacked (hard). I managed to capture the goby and now its in a fish trap with some sand and rocks and I don't really know what to do next. It has some small sores from the cleaner wrasse attacks but seems fine besides that. Shall I keep him in there so they all can get used to each other. Fatten him up a little and wait for the colors to change and the aggression to drop. Or do I need to set up a quarantine tank and put him in there, or even return him to the store? Besides that, shall I try to get another juvenile engineer goby so it will feel more comfortable so he/she can pair up with him/her?
As of the pistol shrimp accidents. Maybe I just got really unlucky because my pistol shrimp is not a hunter but he is very territorial. Next time I'll add the fish in the other side of the tank so they do not bury themselves next to/in their den. Never thought that small guy could kill a fish in seconds..
Yesterday was a disaster. When getting home from my LFS I drip acclimated two new juvenile engineering gobies. Did a lot of research on them and figured they would be a great addition. When adding the first one it instantly swam into the pistol shrimp/YWG den and got shot up and battered pretty bad in a matter of like 10 seconds. It managed to escape but it was badly damaged and stunned (most of the tail ripped off to the bone and several deep cuts) and died later in the evening. I did not know a small pistol shrimp could do so much damage but I'm starting to think the same happened to my yellow coris wrasse which I haven't seen after adding him 3 weeks ago... He also immediately buried himself in the sand besides/against the den. Anyways, the second goby stayed out of the den but got attacked immediately by my cleaner wrasse. I figure because the engineer goby looks very similar with the juvenile color because my cleaner wrasse does harass the new comers often but just to clean them a bit so he is all up in their faces but this time it really attacked (hard). I managed to capture the goby and now its in a fish trap with some sand and rocks and I don't really know what to do next. It has some small sores from the cleaner wrasse attacks but seems fine besides that. Shall I keep him in there so they all can get used to each other. Fatten him up a little and wait for the colors to change and the aggression to drop. Or do I need to set up a quarantine tank and put him in there, or even return him to the store? Besides that, shall I try to get another juvenile engineer goby so it will feel more comfortable so he/she can pair up with him/her?
As of the pistol shrimp accidents. Maybe I just got really unlucky because my pistol shrimp is not a hunter but he is very territorial. Next time I'll add the fish in the other side of the tank so they do not bury themselves next to/in their den. Never thought that small guy could kill a fish in seconds..
