YWG with dark spots. Disease?!

ATXreefer

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Yellow Watchman Goby has been displaying stressed behavior the last several days. Swimming erratically against the glass and surface of water, left his burrow with pistol shrimp, now looking pretty lethargic. I noticed some small spots on it that appear dark reddish/brown for the first time yesterday above it’s lip and now today there is one mid way down the body, but no longer on the face. All other fish and inverts are acting normal. Has been eating pellets and music consistently through yesterday afternoon. Haven’t tried feeding today.
PH: 8.0
Temp: 77
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: undetectable

Edit: Just deleted the photos after realizing they're really dark, will get better ones when I'm home from work
 
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Jay Hemdal

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Yellow Watchman Goby has been displaying stressed behavior the last several days. Swimming erratically against the glass and surface of water, left his burrow with pistol shrimp, now looking pretty lethargic. I noticed some small spots on it that appear dark reddish/brown for the first time yesterday above it’s lip and now today there is one mid way down the body, but no longer on the face. All other fish and inverts are acting normal. Has been eating pellets and music consistently through yesterday afternoon. Haven’t tried feeding today.
PH: 8.0
Temp: 77
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: undetectable

Edit: Just deleted the photos after realizing they're really dark, will get better ones when I'm home from work
Pictures would help (maybe) but sometimes, these small fish are too difficult to photograph.
How long have you had the goby?
Has the fish been treated with prazipro?
Once these leave their burrow, they can go downhill pretty fast....

I'll be offline for the night in a bit, but back here tomorrow morning......

Jay
 
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ATXreefer

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Pictures would help (maybe) but sometimes, these small fish are too difficult to photograph.
How long have you had the goby?
Has the fish been treated with prazipro?
Once these leave their burrow, they can go downhill pretty fast....

I'll be offline for the night in a bit, but back here tomorrow morning......

Jay

Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting a decent picture of the little guy as he's been hiding in the rocks toward the middle/back of the tank. For what it's worth, all of the fish in the tank were dosed with Prazipro twice, seven days apart. All fish were fed food soaked in metro and prazi for three weeks and I watched everyone eat that food every day. Although I don't have the best view, I'm not seeing the spots anywhere on the fish. Are there any parasites/diseases that fit the description from earlier? The goby has still not returned to its burrow with the shrimp (which I'm certain is still alive because of the frequent snapping). Also performed a 25% water change yesterday evening and will be running carbon through a reactor to clear any potential contaminates out of the water that may be bothering the fish. Kind of an odd situation
 
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Jay Hemdal

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Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting a decent picture of the little guy as he's been hiding in the rocks toward the middle/back of the tank. For what it's worth, all of the fish in the tank were dosed with Prazipro twice, seven days apart. All fish were fed food soaked in metro and prazi for three weeks and I watched everyone eat that food every day. Although I don't have the best view, I'm not seeing the spots anywhere on the fish. Are there any parasites/diseases that fit the description from earlier? The goby has still not returned to its burrow with the shrimp (which I'm certain is still alive because of the frequent snapping). Also performed a 25% water change yesterday evening and will be running carbon through a reactor to clear any potential contaminates out of the water that may be bothering the fish. Kind of an odd situation
Sorry, without good symptoms to work off of, it is difficult to even make an educated guess as to what is going on. This species is prone to developing an issue that shows as diffuse light colored patches on their skin. I haven't had the chance to get one of these affected fish in-hand, but it appears to be caused by a primary bacterial infection. The smaller spots you are seeing isn't the same thing though.

As a side note: soaking food in metro can NEVER work. What happens is, Metronidazole is very bitter/metallic tasting. If the fish eat food soaked in it, your dose is too low. If the dose is correct (5000 ppm) it is so bitter that even if you try to mask the taste, most fish will avoid it.

Jay
 
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ATXreefer

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Sorry, without good symptoms to work off of, it is difficult to even make an educated guess as to what is going on. This species is prone to developing an issue that shows as diffuse light colored patches on their skin. I haven't had the chance to get one of these affected fish in-hand, but it appears to be caused by a primary bacterial infection. The smaller spots you are seeing isn't the same thing though.

As a side note: soaking food in metro can NEVER work. What happens is, Metronidazole is very bitter/metallic tasting. If the fish eat food soaked in it, your dose is too low. If the dose is correct (5000 ppm) it is so bitter that even if you try to mask the taste, most fish will avoid it.

Jay

In regards to the metro food soaking, just wondering how food soaking works when using API's General Cure. It's been awhile since I looked at the formula, but my recollection is that it's made up of roughly 75% metro and 25% Prazi. In my case, I mixed the metro and prazi powders (both with Seachem Focus) into separate concoctions with pellets and selcon. I don't have any way to measure the ppm of the doses, but used Humble Fish's recommended ratios. I want to make sure I do it correctly the next time I quarantine.
 
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Jay Hemdal

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In regards to the metro food soaking, just wondering how food soaking works when using API's General Cure. It's been awhile since I looked at the formula, but my recollection is that it's made up of roughly 75% metro and 25% Prazi. In my case, I mixed the metro and prazi powders (both with Seachem Focus) into separate concoctions with pellets and selcon. I don't have any way to measure the ppm of the doses, but used Humble Fish's recommended ratios. I want to make sure I do it correctly the next time I quarantine.
That won't work either, for the same reason. Here is my article on medicated food:


It explains that soaking food in medication leads to a totally uncontrolled dose. It is no different than your physician throwing a handful of pills at you and telling you to swallow whatever ones you can catch (grin). I wish I could "undo" this bad advice, but it is so prevalent, it will never go away.

Take a look at the container of Focus - the back label says to use it 5:1 focus:medication, yet medications are all dosed orally by weight of the fish, and are NOT the same. Even worse, if you then read the bottle of focus it says use a 1:1 ratio!

Another Reef2Reef member @threebuoys has developed a medicated food calculator. It is complicated, but it is really the only way to do this correctly. Here is the link: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-weight-calculator-medicated-fish-food-mix-calculator.814591/

Jay
 
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ATXreefer

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That won't work either, for the same reason. Here is my article on medicated food:


It explains that soaking food in medication leads to a totally uncontrolled dose. It is no different than your physician throwing a handful of pills at you and telling you to swallow whatever ones you can catch (grin). I wish I could "undo" this bad advice, but it is so prevalent, it will never go away.

Take a look at the container of Focus - the back label says to use it 5:1 focus:medication, yet medications are all dosed orally by weight of the fish, and are NOT the same. Even worse, if you then read the bottle of focus it says use a 1:1 ratio!

Another Reef2Reef member @threebuoys has developed a medicated food calculator. It is complicated, but it is really the only way to do this correctly. Here is the link: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-weight-calculator-medicated-fish-food-mix-calculator.814591/

Jay

Thank you for the links to updated info. Really appreciate the help, Jay!
 
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