Yellow Watchman Goby

Trogdor

New Member
I purchased one over the weekend, Saturday to be precise. He made it until this morning. I have checked my parameters and ammonia - 0, nitrites - 0, nitrates - <10 (hard to tell when it gets below 10). Temp was around 81F. I'm kind of lost at what caused him to kick it. Here's how everything has played out...

I purchased him in midday on Saturday. I returned home and floated his bag for 15 minutes. Then I started the normal acclimation cycle, 1 cup every 10 minutes for a total of 3 cups then I let it sit for another 10 minutes to let the last cup distribute through the bag of water. I did all this while the bag sat in the water of my main then I scooped him and placed him in the tank. No LFS water got in the tank (except what is unavoidable on the net).

I have 2 clowns, and a six line wrasse in my 29g when I added him. The female clown harassed him a bit but I found a way to scare her from him so she eventually calmed down and left him alone. The six line never bothered the goby.

I added some dried (2 years it sat dry) live rock as rubble for him to burrow under since most of my live rock sits above the sand line. He did find a place under one of my existing pieces to call home. No other fish bothered him or could really get in the area that he was in.

He fed Saturday night on mysis shrimp. I fed Formula One and pellets on Sunday. I'm not sure if he ate Sunday night or not, he was well hidden but I turned on my pumps to push the food around the tank to help be sure that he got some under the rock. (1400 gph in a 29g tank is bound to move some food around)

I woke up Monday morning and found him in the corner of the tank. He didn't have any color to him (a light greyish look kinda like E.T.). Any ideas on what might have caused this? His breathing wasn't labored Sunday and he seemed content in his burrow. Could this have been nitrogen poisoning? I know that if I disturb the top 1" of sand that you can see nitrogen bubbles float up. Could he have inhaled some and been poisoned? I know I'm stretching here but I didn't even do a top-off on the tank before he kicked it.
 

johnanddawn

New Member
Trogdor said:
Could this have been nitrogen poisoning? I know that if I disturb the top 1" of sand that you can see nitrogen bubbles float up. Could he have inhaled some and been poisoned? I know I'm stretching here but I didn't even do a top-off on the tank before he kicked it.
what makes you think those are N bubbles and not O2 or even CO2??

my first thought is how long did the lfs have it and was it eating for them. i think a lot of times when these quick deaths occur it is because of the quick turn around and poor handeling from ocean to your tank - that is of course if everything else is good with your tank water. also a side note it is often hard to add new critters to an established display, acclimation is much harder for a fish when there is an established community in the tank
 

Trogdor

New Member
I was assuming that they were nitrogen because they are coming from my sand bed. It's an established DSB (almost 9 months old) and you can see the bubbles near the glass make their way to the surface.

He was at the LFS for less than a week and was eating fine there.
 

glory71

New Member
Trogdor, sorry about the loss of your fish sir. This type of fish is easy to keep. able to cope wide swings in pH, SG, or temp. Not ammonia and nitrite ofcourse - which you don't have. 1st question is - is the yellow watchman goby tank raised? How's the other fish doing? if the answer to 1st is that its wildcaught in the tropics particulary southeast asia and to 2nd - yes they are doing fine...then i suspect this:

http://www.petstoreabuse.com/cyanide.html

These collectors are destroying our reefs. They are like locust wrecking havoc to everything in their paths. Moving from place to place...country to country. Thank God to stricter enforcement of laws here in the US and in Australia. I wish the damage done in the Philippines will not be duplicated in other countries like Indonesia.
 

Trogdor

New Member
Thanks everyone for the information. I'm thinking that it was a combination of bio-load and the shape the fish was in when I got him. Even though he was feeding the first night. Anyway thanks for the help and support.
 
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