HELP!!! My Gobie is STARVING to DEATH!!

[buster65]

I have a 30 gal tank - the gobie sifts normally, but has lost significant weight over the last 2 weeks. He eats Mycin shrimp, but hasn't gained his weight back. The other fish eat the food too quickly - it rarely gets to the bottom of the tank where he is. The gobie maybe eats 2-3 shrimp per feeding. HELP!!!

[alaskaknucklehead]

how long have you had your gobie?

[buster65]

about 5 weeks

[alaskaknucklehead]

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showth...=gobie+feeding

I saw you there, disregard lemme see what else I can find.....



What other foods have you offered him?

[alaskaknucklehead]

http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~nathan/gobie_care.html

[alaskaknucklehead]

I am hoping better help will be here soon. I think you will need to tell us more about your set-up? How long has your tank been running? What kind of gobie is this/pic? Was it eating before you got it? or any other info you can share.

[aussiereefer82]

G'day all,
I started off target feeding my 3 firefish when i first got them. I fed the other fish (clowns, coral beauty, yellow tang) normally but at the same time i fed thawed mysis soaked in garlic through a syringe and a rigid tube down to the bottom where they hung out. They soon got the idea and now feed with the other fish quite greedily.

Maybe try this, it worked for me.

[ofblong]

I was gonna suggest you target feed. thats the only way it will get enough food.

[buster65]

We have been feeding a half a cube of mysis once a day, and gobie seems to be doing well - although the algae is growing fast...

[cytranic]

You can have my copepods.. I have a month suppuly on my front glass

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by buster65

I have a 30 gal tank - the gobie sifts normally, but has lost significant weight over the last 2 weeks. He eats Mycin shrimp, but hasn't gained his weight back. The other fish eat the food too quickly - it rarely gets to the bottom of the tank where he is. The gobie maybe eats 2-3 shrimp per feeding. HELP!!!

You're lucky that your goby is eating frozen food. I am assuming that this is some type of sifter like a sleeper or yellow headed goby, is this true? Do you have a deep sand bed? How large is the tank? Did you acquire this as a juvenile, or do you have its mate if it is an adult? All of these can be stumbling blocks to successfully keeping this fish in a system.

Assuming that all these are adequately addressed, keep in mind that these are not the quick feeders that more motile and active fishes are in the open water column. These fishes will require target feeding and isolation from competition in a mixed species tank with active, more aggressive feeders. Many have suggested that these fish will not be able to compete with more active tankmates, and for this reason, should only be housed as specimens in a species tank or as members of a tank of very low competition feeders (seahorses, firefishes, ranfordii gobies or some similar spp of small basselets, etc.) Some aquarists have success by physically separating the goby burrows from the rest of the tank temporarily by the use of a plastic divider or by using eggcrate grid during feeding, but for most folks, this is too much effort, and these poor fishes die of malnutrition.

Best to either place them as part of a system without large numbers of fishes (like a quiet DSB lagoonal system) or to build a specimen tank for these fish, as they are not really good selections for tanks with large, competitive populations of fishes.

[krackel]

mine likes brine shrimp, which arent very nourishing, he does eat them however. And I also noticed mine does not eat mysis shrimp. Refugiums help make food for those gobies, you can also buy little vials of copeopods <(is that how its spelled?)

[Flatfish]

It's pretty rare but I have had gobies that will come up into the water column to feed. Most like to move the sand around all day. I don't know what else you have in your tank but here's what I've done. Most of you faster fish will go after floating foods first. So the trick is to get food on the bottom while the others are darting around for floaters.

Luckily the sand sifting gobies like meaty foods. They'll eat peices of shrimp, clam and oyster no problem. These foods aren't really the best for them, but in small chunks will sink right to the bottom.

I make a frozen mush in a food processor making sure that I don't grind it to fine. I add sea weed, mysis and mix in a liquid vitamin supplement. Then I freeze it.

When I feed I will thaw the food in a little tank water and break it up with my finger. I drop a little in to get the tank occupants excited. The gobie is usually the last to come out. When it's out I dump more food in not over the gobie but in its area. I usual have four or five chunks hit the bottom pretty quick. The brittle stars are out by now an looking for a peice or two. If I step back form the tank the gobie will get adventurous and find a meal or two before the stars get to it.

I did had a six spot gobie that would actaually go to the surface after floating food. That's pretty rare. After donating a few gobies to the cat's fish jerky collection I've finally settled on a banded bullet. It keeps my sand bed moving an seems to want to stay in my tank. Bullet gobies are sand sifters but seem to be more active than other gobies. They will snatch drifting food no problem.

Good luck!