White ‘Cap’ on Watchman Goby’s Head

[Apollo7235]

Hi there all,

Last night, my watchman goby didn’t come out to eat and this evening, I noticed she has a white ‘cap’ on her head. I couldn't see any other spots on her, but she was tucked back halfway into her burrow so it was very difficult to tell. I do not see any similar symptoms on the only other fish in the tank, a neon goby.

Aquarium Parameters:

Aquarium type: Reef to-be (hopefully), but only the e=Watchman, a Neon Goby, 2 Pistols, and some Nassarius snails for now.

Aquarium water volume: 38-gallons in the display, 20-gallon sump with around 12-15-gallons of water.

Filtration type: Aquamaxx FC-80 Skimmer and sump with MarinePure blocks and gems.

Lighting: 2 AI Prime 16HD Reefs running on the Saxby program.

The tank has been established for 3-4 months.





Parameters measured a few days ago:

Current Temperature: 80.1 - Coralife Probe Thermometer

SG: 1.025 - Refractometer

Nitrate: 12.3ppm - Hanna

Phosphate: 0.13ppm - Hanna

Alkalinity: 6.9dKH - Hanna

pH: 7.96 - Hanna

I have not yet lost any fish to this issue and the Inverts seem to be unaffected as does the neon goby. Before I fed the fish, her GBPM was 32. She is still eating, although less than normal. I have not tried any remedies yet.

I did not quarantine these two fish as they were my very first fish and I did not plan to add any more fish until they had gone 72 days without symptoms. They are the only fish in the tank and they came from the same place as the same time. I brought them both home on May 2nd and this is the first issue I've had.

 

[Apollo7235]

Bump

 

[BostonReefer300]

Hi there. I'm not a disease expert but perhaps @Jay Hemdal or @vetteguy53081 can opine. I hope it turns out to be nothing. Looks like your tank is coming along great. I lost track of your other thread when you were having problems with your DT, but you must have fixed it so great job! On your parameters, all look pretty good. Not suggesting you change anything, but from my experience, my corals like a cooler temp (77-78) and I find it easier to have Alk stability if I keep mine at around 8 dKH

 

[Apollo7235]

Hi there. I'm not a disease expert but perhaps @Jay Hemdal or @vetteguy53081 can opine. I hope it turns out to be nothing. Looks like your tank is coming along great. I lost track of your other thread when you were having problems with your DT, but you must have fixed it so great job! On your parameters, all look pretty good. Not suggesting you change anything, but from my experience, my corals like a cooler temp (77-78) and I find it easier to have Alk stability if I keep mine at around 8 dKH

I am working on the temp (Florida is soooo hot), and I am slowly working on raising the alk. Thank you for the response and the tags! Really hoping this is something treatable!

 

[Rmckoy]

I am working on the temp (Florida is soooo hot), and I am slowly working on raising the alk. Thank you for the response and the tags! Really hoping this is something treatable!

This is the dt or qt ?

 

[Apollo7235]

This is the dt or qt ?

DT!

 

[Rmckoy]

Hard to tell from the picture .
I can’t really see the white cap you’re talking about .

 

[Apollo7235]

Hard to tell from the picture .
I can’t really see the white cap you’re talking about .

It was really hard to get a good picture. If I tried taking it at an angle, it turned really blurry.

the white begins at the front of her head and goes all the way back to her dorsal fin and covers the entire top of her back.

 

[Rmckoy]

It was really hard to get a good picture. If I tried taking it at an angle, it turned really blurry.

the white begins at the front of her head and goes all the way back to her dorsal fin and covers the entire top of her back.

Weird ......

Try holding your phone against the glass .
it will zoom in and actually take pretty nice pictures .

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like a post-injury with flesh healing over. My concern would be the chance of bacteria forming or developing. I would highly recommend using Ruby Rally Pro for 10 days which should help clear this up and keep fish protected.

 

[Apollo7235]

Looks like a post-injury with flesh healing over. My concern would be the chance of bacteria forming or developing. I would highly recommend using Ruby Rally Pro for 10 days which should help clear this up and keep fish protected.

Okay, I'll get some of that right away, but I am struggling to figure out how she could have been injured? She is in the tank with a neon goby, some snails, and two pistols which both take turns hosting her.

Also, do I need to put her in a quarantine tank for this or can I dose it directly to the tank?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Okay, I'll get some of that right away, but I am struggling to figure out how she could have been injured? She is in the tank with a neon goby, some snails, and two pistols which both take turns hosting her.

Also, do I need to put her in a quarantine tank for this or can I dose it directly to the tank?

I agree with @vetteguy53081 this looks like an injury. At least it isn’t a symptom of any of the common external parasitic disease. The fish seemed to be breathing a bit hard, but that may be due to the food. The goby didn’t seem too enthused over that big piece of gel diet, is it feeding ok?
Could the two pistol shrimp have gotten territorial and the goby got caught in the “crossfire”?
Jay

 

[BostonReefer300]

I haven't used Rally Pro yet, but it says it's reef safe. I plan on trying it out to see if it helps with dinos as advertised. Like most things with dinos though, probably too good to be true

 

[Apollo7235]

I agree with @vetteguy53081 this looks like an injury. At least it isn’t a symptom of any of the common external parasitic disease. The fish seemed to be breathing a bit hard, but that may be due to the food. The goby didn’t seem too enthused over that big piece of gel diet, is it feeding ok?
Could the two pistol shrimp have gotten territorial and the goby got caught in the “crossfire”?
Jay

Prior to feeding, she was breathing pretty normally; I think it may have been the food that had her breathing a bit faster. It was weird that she spit out that chunk of food. Usually, she will haul something like that off and stash it in her burrow.

I suppose it is possible that the two shrimp had a dispute considering recently I had an issue with the Tiger pistol 'floating' around the tank and missing an antennae. I moved him to a QT and he recovered fine, so I think that may have been the result of a lost tussle too.

The tank is 36" long and 12" wide; I had honestly figured that the two pistols (Bullseye and Tiger) would have plenty of space to stay out of each other's way. Should I remove one of them?

 

[BostonReefer300]

If they're actually fighting, you probably should re-home one of them. If another shrimp goby was in your plans, now would be a good time to get one instead of re-homing a shrimp. But then again, my answer to everything in reefing always seems to be "just buy something else"!

 

[Apollo7235]

If they're actually fighting, you probably should re-home one of them. If another shrimp goby was in your plans, now would be a good time to get one instead of re-homing a shrimp. But then again, my answer to everything in reefing always seems to be "just buy something else"!

Unfortunately, my bullseye is not considered a goby-hosting shrimp, although it does actually host my watchman. It took about of week of it shooting her in the tail over and over, but he finally accepted her. Now she goes back and forth between the two shrimp.

In theory, the Watchman should be protecting her Tiger, but I really don't know what goes on after dark. There is plenty of space and hiding spots, so I really don't understand why the two shrimp would be fighting.

If I have to, I guess I will move the bullseye to my Coral/Invert QT for a while, but I would really hate to do that. He's such a beautiful shrimp and he has just started coming out and making himself visible throughout the day.

The bullseye lives up in a rock while the Tiger rotates through burrows throughout the week. I target feed them both separately, so I doubt it's a dispute over food..

 

[Apollo7235]

Looks like a post-injury with flesh healing over. My concern would be the chance of bacteria forming or developing. I would highly recommend using Ruby Rally Pro for 10 days which should help clear this up and keep fish protected.

I agree with @vetteguy53081 this looks like an injury. At least it isn’t a symptom of any of the common external parasitic disease. The fish seemed to be breathing a bit hard, but that may be due to the food. The goby didn’t seem too enthused over that big piece of gel diet, is it feeding ok?
Could the two pistol shrimp have gotten territorial and the goby got caught in the “crossfire”?
Jay

Is there another product that would be as effective as the Ruby Reef Rally Pro? I am having a super hard time finding it where I can get it before this coming Friday and I would imagine I need it right away. I actually just placed an order with Marine Depot a few days ago and everyone was out of the stuff.

 

[Apollo7235]

I am still waiting on the Ruby Reef Rally and my poor goby is looking really horrible. She is breathing very rapidly and super sluggish. Her pistol literally pushed her out of their burrow.

Is there anything I can do? I am really having a hard time watching her slowly die. I have PraziPro on hand, but That’s about it aside from CopperSafe and the LFS’s aren’t much help.

Is there anything I can do?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I am still waiting on the Ruby Reef Rally and my poor goby is looking really horrible. She is breathing very rapidly and super sluggish. Her pistol literally pushed her out of their burrow.

Is there anything I can do? I am really having a hard time watching her slowly die. I have PraziPro on hand, but That’s about it aside from CopperSafe and the LFS’s aren’t much help.

Is there anything I can do?

Sorry, I just woke up and saw your post that the goby had gotten much worse, likely too late now, but the only last ditch effort would be to give the fish a 5 minute freshwater dip, but the fish won’t likely survive that.
In terms of damage control, assuming the issue wasn’t mechanical damage after all, what other fish are in the tank? You’ll want to watch those in case it was an infective problem.
Jay

 

[Apollo7235]

Sorry, I just woke up and saw your post that the goby had gotten much worse, likely too late now, but the only last ditch effort would be to give the fish a 5 minute freshwater dip, but the fish won’t likely survive that.
In terms of damage control, assuming the issue wasn’t mechanical damage after all, what other fish are in the tank? You’ll want to watch those in case it was an infective problem.
Jay

The only other fish in the tank is a neon goby who seems to be doing as well as ever. There are two pistols in there too, but I doubt that was the cause. The way the injury looks is as if she had scraped her head on one of the rocks while in or entering one of her burrows. Maybe there was a collapse while she was inside?

I guess I can’t know for certain.

Unfortunately, I don’t think she’ll survive that either, but if she does seem to start miraculously doing better, I’ll give it a shot assuming I can catch her.

Thank you for the help.