Shredded Fin

[Kiboshed]

Bought this little guy today from Petco.

Hectors Goby.

Really it was out of pity and I have always wanted one of these fish.

They had him in a tank with 4 Tomato Clowns and didn't think he would make it another 24 hours. Been in there about a week. He is in a very peaceful tank now.

He seems very active, hunting and pecking at the rockwork. Mostly swims with his pectoral fins. I really hope he makes it. He is still small so I assume he is young.

Can his fin recover? Besides just feeding him well and keeping him in a peaceful environment is there anything else I can do to help him heal?

 

[Ben.QLD2]

It will heal, just give it time and keep an eye out for bacterial or fungal infections.

However, when you say you bought it today, hopefully that's not true and you actually put the fish through a QT before putting in your DT.

I'm not in the USA, but I haven't read good things about the chain store you mentioned and fish commonly having diseases.

Having said that, any fish from anywhere should have QT.

 

[Rjukan]

I like him! I would have picked him up too. Im sure his fins will grow back, but maybe not perfect looking.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Bought this little guy today from Petco.

Hectors Goby.

Really it was out of pity and I have always wanted one of these fish.

They had him in a tank with 4 Tomato Clowns and didn't think he would make it another 24 hours. Been in there about a week. He is in a very peaceful tank now.

He seems very active, hunting and pecking at the rockwork. Mostly swims with his pectoral fins. I really hope he makes it. He is still small so I assume he is young.

Can his fin recover? Besides just feeding him well and keeping him in a peaceful environment is there anything else I can do to help him heal?

This wont heal unless you find the aggressor which if not stopped will take it past the tailbone. If you know who is doing this, Isolate them now for at least 2 weeks and see if behavior resumes. If youre not sure,
set your cell phone on video mode for about 40 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor is a bully at feeding time.
Review the video and see who it may be
If it worsens, treatment will be in a separate tank using seachem Neoplex

 

[Ben.QLD2]

This wont heal unless you find the aggressor which if not stopped will take it past the tailbone. If you know who is doing this, Isolate them now for at least 2 weeks and see if behavior resumes. If youre not sure,
set your cell phone on video mode for about 40 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor is a bully at feeding time.
Review the video and see who it may be
If it worsens, treatment will be in a separate tank using seachem Neoplex

Offending fish were at the store.

 

[Tired]

If the base of a fin ray (which is made of bone) is still present, that ray will usually regrow to full length, or somewhere near it. Any spots where the rays are entirely gone won't regrow. He looks to still have all his fin rays, so it'll likely all grow back? Though he'll be fine if it doesn't- they do mostly use their pectoral fins.

Clean water and peaceful environment should do the trick just fine, though do keep an eye out for infection or fungus.

Hector's gobies get to about 2" long, and do best in mature tanks, as they swim around foraging constantly. They go after pods and algae, sift the sand a bit, and will eat a decent bit of hair algae for their size. Mine likes cerith snail eggs. Lovely little fish. Peaceful with anything that doesn't look almost exactly like them- so no other Hector's, and no Court Jester gobies.
You might notice the eyespot, and the real eyes being covered in stripes. That's so they can attempt to pretend their tail end is their head, to throw predators off. They'll even briefly swim backward sometimes while puttering around.

 

[Kiboshed]

If the base of a fin ray (which is made of bone) is still present, that ray will usually regrow to full length, or somewhere near it. Any spots where the rays are entirely gone won't regrow. He looks to still have all his fin rays, so it'll likely all grow back? Though he'll be fine if it doesn't- they do mostly use their pectoral fins.

Clean water and peaceful environment should do the trick just fine, though do keep an eye out for infection or fungus.

Hector's gobies get to about 2" long, and do best in mature tanks, as they swim around foraging constantly. They go after pods and algae, sift the sand a bit, and will eat a decent bit of hair algae for their size. Mine likes cerith snail eggs. Lovely little fish. Peaceful with anything that doesn't look almost exactly like them- so no other Hector's, and no Court Jester gobies.
You might notice the eyespot, and the real eyes being covered in stripes. That's so they can attempt to pretend their tail end is their head, to throw predators off. They'll even briefly swim backward sometimes while puttering around.

Excellent input. Thank you. I have hundreds of pods and plenty of algae for it to forage on.

He must be about adult size then cause my Firefish is considerably larger and my Blenny is easily twice its size. Those plus a CuC are his only tank mates, very peaceful tank as long as everyone avoids the Blennies hidey hole.

 

[Tired]

Sounds like a great tank for him. Mine seems to pretty much ignore the occasional bit of territorial posturing from other fish, so assuming that's standard, yours likely won't care too much about the blenny.

The one issue with these guys is they can be difficult to get onto prepared foods. Though that's not an especially urgent task in a tank with plenty to eat. In larger, well-established tanks, they may never really need to be fed prepared foods at all.

 

[Kiboshed]

Thought I would share a happy update.

Here he is a week later. Showing noticable tail regrowth. Should be 100% in another 2 weeks at the rate its growing.

Happy and eating well.

Still haven't thought of a name for him yet. Maybe some famous fighter for ironic humor.

Thank you all for your input on this fish.

 

[saltcats]

What frozen is he eating for you? Did you do anything special to get him to take it? There's a sad looking one at my LFS that I'm thinking of picking up this weekend... I have a firefish in the same tank who eats great and I'm hoping that will help the hector's feel inspired to try some as well.

 

[Kiboshed]

What frozen is he eating for you? Did you do anything special to get him to take it? There's a sad looking one at my LFS that I'm thinking of picking up this weekend... I have a firefish in the same tank who eats great and I'm hoping that will help the hector's feel inspired to try some as well.

I give him a very diverse diet, but it seems to never turn down frozen mysis.

I did nothing special besides just sticking to my feeding routine.

Having a healthy amount of copepods, amphipods, and variety of algae in your tank is very important as most of its diet will be from foraging it's surroundings.

 

[Uncle99]

Sometimes less is better.
Nice happy ending…..thanks for the update!