Yellow Watchman Goby - White Patches

[Cruz427]

I have had the goby for 8.5 years now. A few months ago I setup a tank at my new house and moved him. He has been doing very well a seems to be friendly with his newer tank mate a Blood Red Fire Shrimp. This shrimp seems to hangout in his cave with him. Over the past couple of months he has developed these white patches. They do not seem to be anything more than a discolored/irritated area (No Fungus, red color, etc.) They seem to appear, and slowly heal/dissapear and after a while others will appear. He still has a strong appetite and acts as he usually does. I’m curious what other seem to think about these spots. Is he bumping into the rockwork within his caves and tunnels and it’s causing irritated spots? Is the blood red fire shrimp picking at him?

Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have had the goby for 8.5 years now. A few months ago I setup a tank at my new house and moved him. He has been doing very well a seems to be friendly with his newer tank mate a Blood Red Fire Shrimp. This shrimp seems to hangout in his cave with him. Over the past couple of months he has developed these white patches. They do not seem to be anything more than a discolored/irritated area (No Fungus, red color, etc.) They seem to appear, and slowly heal/dissapear and after a while others will appear. He still has a strong appetite and acts as he usually does. I’m curious what other seem to think about these spots. Is he bumping into the rockwork within his caves and tunnels and it’s causing irritated spots? Is the blood red fire shrimp picking at him?

Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

These appear to be scrapes which they get often as they tend to dart into caves and crevices. Keep an eye on area for healing and not becoming red or sore which would warrant treatment using seachem Neoplex

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have had the goby for 8.5 years now. A few months ago I setup a tank at my new house and moved him. He has been doing very well a seems to be friendly with his newer tank mate a Blood Red Fire Shrimp. This shrimp seems to hangout in his cave with him. Over the past couple of months he has developed these white patches. They do not seem to be anything more than a discolored/irritated area (No Fungus, red color, etc.) They seem to appear, and slowly heal/dissapear and after a while others will appear. He still has a strong appetite and acts as he usually does. I’m curious what other seem to think about these spots. Is he bumping into the rockwork within his caves and tunnels and it’s causing irritated spots? Is the blood red fire shrimp picking at him?

Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

I see this skin issue a lot on newly imported gobies, but cannot account for them showing up in a long term captive.

These fish are well adapted for living in tunnels - they won’t get scraped up unless something caused their burrow to cave in or something like that.

I’ve never had one of these live this long - it must be close to “old age”. One disease of old fish that causes skin lesions is mycobacteria - fish TB. It is not treatable, but fish can live with it for quite some time.