Yasha goby acting weird

Bars · Feb 1, 2021

I've had this little goby for about a month and a half now and it's paired with a candy cane pistol shrimp. For the most part it did great, until I suddenly found her on the other side of the tank, far away from the burrow, just chilling on the sand bed. It looked otherwise fine and ate like a pig, but wouldn't leave that corner until I gently directed it in the direction of its shrimp buddy. This was about 2 weeks ago.

After that both the goby and shrimp had been very shy, only coming out to eat. Didn't really worry me, because I added and moved around a few corals, so I figured I just stressed them out.

This morning however, I found the goby stuck to the overflow guard. Still looking perfectly fine and it swam away as soon as I tried to move it (thought it was dead at first). Swam around a bit and didn't have trouble at all with the high flow. Went to take a shower and came back to her chilling in between a tiny gap between the overflow guard and the glass. Again moved her away and put some filter floss against the guard to prevent her from going in the overflow.

Few hours later now and she suddenly popped out of the rockwork, swimming around, eating, still looking perfectly fine. Any ideas what's going on here? Normally she just chills at one of the burrow's entrances. AFAIK the pistol shrimp is still alive, as I heard him yesterday. Both entrances to their burrow have been collapsed since yesterday though.

Other fish are a few flasher wrasses, tailspot blenny, midas blenny and azure damsel. Few hermits, an emerald crab, fighting conch, tuxedo urchin, a pack of nassarius snails and lots of other small, harmless stuff. Nothing bothered either the goby or the pistol shrimp.

Sharkbait19 · Feb 1, 2021

I hate to say it, but a healthy fish really shouldn’t get stuck to a powerhead. To me, it sounds like your goby is on its way out. Can you post parameters so we can see if it is ammonia-related?

Bars · Feb 1, 2021

Sharkbait19 said:
I hate to say it, but a healthy fish really shouldn’t get stuck to a powerhead. To me, it sounds like your goby is on its way out. Can you post parameters so we can see if it is ammonia-related?

Not the powerhead, but the overflow grating. It's also not that it gets sucked to it, as it had no trouble swimming away. It doesn't have any problem swimming around in the high flow areas either.

Anyways:
Alk 8.4, calc 450, magnesium 1480, salinity 1.025 and temp 26C. Nitrates at 20 - 25 and phosphates 0.1.

afishbestservedcold · Feb 1, 2021

I had a similar problem with my yasha and candy cane, though mine never really paired up because the pistol is a jerk. I thought the yasha had died until I pulled my sock out last week, it was in there for 4 weeks+ and was somehow alive and well. Put him back in the tank and he behaved similar to yours, in the corners and skittish, right near the wavemaker, avoiding pistol-town, and then a few nights ago he jumped. RIP.

I thought mine was traumatized from his time in the sock and thats why he liked the high flow but it could be with the pistols....Maybe the yashas freak out if they "break up" with their shrimp and need to get away. My only other fish is a rainfords goby (its a RS reefer nano).

I realize that is all completely unhelpful haha. If you can catch it i'd take it back and try another goby, thats my plan.

If everyone else is fine, including inverts, i dont see why the yasha would be affected by the "parameters"

Bars · Feb 1, 2021

afishbestservedcold said:
I had a similar problem with my yasha and candy cane, though mine never really paired up because the pistol is a jerk. I thought the yasha had died until I pulled my sock out last week, it was in there for 4 weeks+ and was somehow alive and well. Put him back in the tank and he behaved similar to yours, in the corners and skittish, right near the wavemaker, avoiding pistol-town, and then a few nights ago he jumped. RIP.

I thought mine was traumatized from his time in the sock and thats why he liked the high flow but it could be with the pistols....Maybe the yashas freak out if they "break up" with their shrimp and need to get away. My only other fish is a rainfords goby (its a RS reefer nano).

I realize that is all completely unhelpful haha. If you can catch it i'd take it back and try another goby, thats my plan.

If everyone else is fine, including inverts, i dont see why the yasha would be affected by the "parameters"

Thanks. I did see it try to jump a few times after I moved it from the overflow for the second time. Never seen her do that before. I have a securely fit cover though, so no way of jumping out.

Hopefully she'll stop acting up and return to her little friend. Haven't heard the pistol shrimp today at all and the entrance is still collapsed. I know my LFS doesn't order candy canes anymore because they crawl in their overflow chambers. I'm just hoping he's not chilling in there with the goby wanting to join him.

Guess I'll just keep an eye on them and try to see if I can have a look in my overfow.

TriggerFinger · Feb 1, 2021

You said it’s tried to jump and hangs out at the top by the overflow and on the powerhead; it sounds like it’s being bullied. My guess would be on a blenny.

Bars · Feb 1, 2021

TriggerFinger said:
You said it’s tried to jump and hangs out at the top by the overflow and on the powerhead; it sounds like it’s being bullied. My guess would be on a blenny.

Was one of my first thoughts as well, however none of the other fish bother it. I work from home, so all I do is look at my tank all day long. The times that it swam around freely it wasn't bothered and didn't look scared or anything.

When it was still with the pistol shrimp, it wasn't bothered either. It actually chased off anyone that came too close to their burrow.

I'll keep an even closer look on the tank tomorrow and see if she's being bullied

afishbestservedcold · Feb 1, 2021

TriggerFinger said:
You said it’s tried to jump and hangs out at the top by the overflow and on the powerhead; it sounds like it’s being bullied. My guess would be on a blenny.

it does sound like bullying but also sounds exactly like my wackadoo yasha and mine was just him and a rainfords goby for months. in my extremely limited experience, they are a wacky fish