Yellow Watchman Goby missing it tail

[Blennioidei]

Trigger warning: Injured fish

TLDR: Had a pistol shrimp and yellow watchman goby living together in a bristle worm-infested rock. Shrimp went missing, and the goby lost its tail.

Background:
I’ve had my YWG for about four months. At first, it lived alone and moved between several spots in the tank. It exhibited a strange behavior, swimming up and down the right side glass for hours before returning to its burrow. Sometimes, it would rest on top of the powerhead, which worried me. I suspected it was due to sudden light changes when switching the lights back on after darkness, so I changed my routine to only turn off the lights when going to sleep.

After getting a pistol shrimp, things improved. The two paired instantly and were often seen together. However, one day while feeding them, I noticed a large bristle worm emerging from their rock. The shrimp snapped a lot, seemingly at the worm. Over time, the goby started developing white spots, which I assumed were bristle worm stings. These spots were already present before we left for a two-week holiday. I set up traps but wasn’t successful.

Before the holiday, we noticed the pistol shrimp had gone quiet. I didn’t remove the rock since I thought the shrimp might be molting and didn’t want to disturb it. The rock also had bristle worms, aiptasia, and bubble algae, but I left it alone.

During the holiday, our tank sitter messed up, and the temperature spiked to 29°C (84°F) but was resolved within a day.

When we returned, their usual burrow was filled in, and I only saw the goby poking out from another side of the rock. The shrimp was missing. The goby seemed less active and only ate every two days. White spots were visible on its face, and I never saw the entire fish.

Recent Events:
Three days ago (11/15), we had a party, and the tank lights were switched on and off late into the night. On 11/16, I found the goby at the front of the tank (Picture 1) with its tail missing. It started its usual swimming up and down along the right side glass near a powerhead. The fish seemed able to swim but was slightly clumsy. After about an hour, it rested on the tank floor before starting the cycle again.

I decided to remove the rock while the goby was out, hoping to find the shrimp, but found nothing under it except some sand. I moved the rock to my sump and placed the goby in an acclimation box for monitoring. While in the box, it seemed to improve slightly and ate some food, though the wound on its tail looked redder. Unfortunately, the small box caused the goby to bump itself, so I moved it back to the display tank in a larger box.

Current Situation:
The goby is now in the display tank in a bigger box. It appears energetic and ate frozen food with garlic. I think there are fewer white spots, but its tail looks like it may have lost some skin. The wound is slightly red but seems to show some early signs of healing.

I’ve ordered an 8-gallon tank and methylene blue for a hospital setup, but I’m worried that antibiotics and the stress of moving might do more harm than good. My LFS only had Easy Life Voogle (an immune booster), which I’ve started dosing in the display.

Video here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-aR-vkJOmZ8avv2IizKNizD49H7rdPva?usp=sharing

Questions:

1. Should I proceed with setting up the hospital tank and treating with antibiotics, or should I continue monitoring in the display?
2. Would a 30-minute methylene blue bath be a better option to minimize stress?
3. Any other advice or recommendations for treatment and care?

Lifestock:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Pistol Shrimp(missing)
Bengai Cardinal
Scopas tang
Cleaner Wrasse
2 peppermint shrimp

Parameters:
Temp: 27 Celsius
KH: 8.5
PH. 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0 (dosing)
Nitrates: 20-25
Nitrit: 0
Calcium: 475
Magnesium: 1290
Salanity: 35-36



Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#fishmedic

 

[Sharkbait19]

Hi,
The exact same thing happened to my Aurora goby. I think treating it in a hospital tank wouldn’t hurt if you are able to. I was never able to pull mine out of the DT but it healed up just fine (though the tail never grew back). The goby did eventually die about six months later, likely due to impairments from losing its tail.

I doubt that these are the results of injury by a bristle worm. More likely, one of your other fish is being aggressive towards your goby—most likely the scopas tang, though the wrasse is also somewhat possible. In this case, the only way to prevent further damage is to identify and remove the aggressor. Otherwise you’d have to just hope that the goby will continue to stay out of the way, but usually the aggression doesn’t stop, and without a tail, the goby will be more vulnerable than ever.

 

[Blennioidei]

Thanks, and sorry for your goby.

I never witnessed any agression from the tang or the wrasse, but the goby tried to scare them away sometimes, when they went to close to his burrow. Bot ofc, its possible, I will try to monitor that better

 

[MnFish1]

Questions:

1. Should I proceed with setting up the hospital tank and treating with antibiotics, or should I continue monitoring in the display?

You should set up a hospital tank - and if it and The other fish have not been treated, all should be treated with copper followed by Prazipro. you can use antibiotics with copper - just make sure they are compatible. It would surprise me if the tail regenerates

1. Would a 30-minute methylene blue bath be a better option to minimize stress?

No. It would likely have no effect

1. Any other advice or recommendations for treatment and care?

Quarantine and treat all of your fish before adding them to the display, make sure to leave the tank fallow while you're treating with copper, etc (ie.. no fish) - during that time you can use some bristle worm traps to get rid of whatever caused the problem. PS - it would be surprising for a bristle worm to do that - could you have a bobbit worm? it could also be one of the fish - as mentioned before - but that would also be somewhat odd for such a large injury

 

[Blennioidei]

Thanks. Sadly, I do not have those medications readily available in my country. I will look around for alternatives.

Do I really need to treat all of my fish? This seems to be an invidial injury. I am also thinking maybe it just get caught in the powerhead.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Trigger warning: Injured fish

TLDR: Had a pistol shrimp and yellow watchman goby living together in a bristle worm-infested rock. Shrimp went missing, and the goby lost its tail.

Background:
I’ve had my YWG for about four months. At first, it lived alone and moved between several spots in the tank. It exhibited a strange behavior, swimming up and down the right side glass for hours before returning to its burrow. Sometimes, it would rest on top of the powerhead, which worried me. I suspected it was due to sudden light changes when switching the lights back on after darkness, so I changed my routine to only turn off the lights when going to sleep.

After getting a pistol shrimp, things improved. The two paired instantly and were often seen together. However, one day while feeding them, I noticed a large bristle worm emerging from their rock. The shrimp snapped a lot, seemingly at the worm. Over time, the goby started developing white spots, which I assumed were bristle worm stings. These spots were already present before we left for a two-week holiday. I set up traps but wasn’t successful.

Before the holiday, we noticed the pistol shrimp had gone quiet. I didn’t remove the rock since I thought the shrimp might be molting and didn’t want to disturb it. The rock also had bristle worms, aiptasia, and bubble algae, but I left it alone.

During the holiday, our tank sitter messed up, and the temperature spiked to 29°C (84°F) but was resolved within a day.

When we returned, their usual burrow was filled in, and I only saw the goby poking out from another side of the rock. The shrimp was missing. The goby seemed less active and only ate every two days. White spots were visible on its face, and I never saw the entire fish.

Recent Events:
Three days ago (11/15), we had a party, and the tank lights were switched on and off late into the night. On 11/16, I found the goby at the front of the tank (Picture 1) with its tail missing. It started its usual swimming up and down along the right side glass near a powerhead. The fish seemed able to swim but was slightly clumsy. After about an hour, it rested on the tank floor before starting the cycle again.

I decided to remove the rock while the goby was out, hoping to find the shrimp, but found nothing under it except some sand. I moved the rock to my sump and placed the goby in an acclimation box for monitoring. While in the box, it seemed to improve slightly and ate some food, though the wound on its tail looked redder. Unfortunately, the small box caused the goby to bump itself, so I moved it back to the display tank in a larger box.

Current Situation:
The goby is now in the display tank in a bigger box. It appears energetic and ate frozen food with garlic. I think there are fewer white spots, but its tail looks like it may have lost some skin. The wound is slightly red but seems to show some early signs of healing.

I’ve ordered an 8-gallon tank and methylene blue for a hospital setup, but I’m worried that antibiotics and the stress of moving might do more harm than good. My LFS only had Easy Life Voogle (an immune booster), which I’ve started dosing in the display.

Video here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-aR-vkJOmZ8avv2IizKNizD49H7rdPva?usp=sharing

Questions:

1. Should I proceed with setting up the hospital tank and treating with antibiotics, or should I continue monitoring in the display?
2. Would a 30-minute methylene blue bath be a better option to minimize stress?
3. Any other advice or recommendations for treatment and care?

Lifestock:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Pistol Shrimp(missing)
Bengai Cardinal
Scopas tang
Cleaner Wrasse
2 peppermint shrimp

Parameters:
Temp: 27 Celsius
KH: 8.5
PH. 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0 (dosing)
Nitrates: 20-25
Nitrit: 0
Calcium: 475
Magnesium: 1290
Salanity: 35-36



Thanks in advance for your help!

This is pure aggression and the aggressor needs to be identified and isolated. The tail, due to extent of damage may or may not heal properly and looks infected and should therefore be treated with seachem kanaplex or waterlife myxazin with a focus on ammonia levels

 

[Blennioidei]

Thanks. Never saw any agression, so I am a little bafled how will I unravel this. We do not have kanaplex here, but I will try to order it from abroad. Would the Sera Baktopur work?

 

[ravila101]

Looks like the YW was being bullied severely and by the looks of it. Bullying has been opening for quite some time, keep an eye on the other fish that tend to get too close to the goby meanwhile just keep the goby separated and in time I’ve seen gobies heal up nicely.

 

[MnFish1]

If you didn't quarantine your fish you should. Forget everone else's 'guesses'

 

[pardas]

Any update?

 

[Blennioidei]

Saddly the goby passed away.

When this post was made, I left him in the tank, and held him in an acclimation box, for a few months. He was actually healing nicely, regrow most of the tissue at the base of the tail, and around half of it fin(but it was never fully regrowth, it was like a quarter fin at best). I got him a new pistol shrimp, and they were kinda content in the box. I was just about to release them, when one night the top of the box come loose, and they get out. I did find the pistol shrimp under the sand, but the goby was nowhere to be seen. The next day I noticed something floating around the tank, and it was the goby, white and little bit puffed up. No real injury or anything, so I am a little bit lost about the cause of the death. My best guess is that the box was just next to my annemone, so maybe he get caught there, and did not have the strength/tail power to get free. It sucks, because I loved the little gobber. The pistol shrimp is living under a rock now, planning to get a new goby for him. My originaly agressive tang is a little bit calmed down, with the addition of other larger fish. Will see :)

 

[MnFish1]

Saddly the goby passed away.

When this post was made, I left him in the tank, and held him in an acclimation box, for a few months. He was actually healing nicely, regrow most of the tissue at the base of the tail, and around half of it fin(but it was never fully regrowth, it was like a quarter fin at best). I got him a new pistol shrimp, and they were kinda content in the box. I was just about to release them, when one night the top of the box come loose, and they get out. I did find the pistol shrimp under the sand, but the goby was nowhere to be seen. The next day I noticed something floating around the tank, and it was the goby, white and little bit puffed up. No real injury or anything, so I am a little bit lost about the cause of the death. My best guess is that the box was just next to my annemone, so maybe he get caught there, and did not have the strength/tail power to get free. It sucks, because I loved the little gobber. The pistol shrimp is living under a rock now, planning to get a new goby for him. My originaly agressive tang is a little bit calmed down, with the addition of other larger fish. Will see :)

Sorry to hear:(. FWIW - I'm not totally sure that giving a pistol shrimp helped (or hurt) - And good idea about the new Gobi - which I would quarantine

 

[Blennioidei]

Yeah, I am qt-ing everything wet that goes into the tank for some time. I do not think that had anything to do with the goby, but its always a good practice :) These deaths are the most annoying kind, because you dont really know what is the "lesson". Maybe just the fact, that we do not have full controll over our tanks