Help! Sick Dragon Goby!

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djankiew

Registered Member
Apr 12, 2006
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Hello.
I need help with my Dragon Goby. She (?) was doing fine until suddenly one day she started to look thin. Now it looks like the spines on her back are coming off (it just seems like they're not there) and she is DANGEROUSLY thin. She eats, but one of the times I saw her eat, it looked like the flake food (I also give her brine, bloodworms, algae wafers too) it LOOKS like it came out the sides of her gills (does this make sense??). I just saw her eat brine shrimp today, so it looks like she's eating, but she looks REALLY BAD. I've done research and can't seem to find out what it is. I really don't want to lose her. I've read that you don't need to keep them in brackish water, and I have not, for at least 3 months, and she is (was) fine. I recently had the water tested when one of my fish died - and it came back OK. I have noticed alot of algae over the past month or so? Any correlation?
30 gallon, cleaned once a month, multiple fish - all seem to get along.
HELP PLEASE!!?? :thud:
 

Larissa

Katherine Hope
Jun 9, 2005
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brenham, tx
Are you keeping it in freshwater or brackish water?
 

Lobo.

sheep in wolf's clothing
Feb 24, 2005
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Nashville
ill bet it has to do with the fact that it needs brackish water...

another thing it might be is some type of internal parasite... but im not shure...
 

Sploke

resident boozehound
Staff member
Oct 20, 2005
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Matt
If its still in fresh water, that is probably the cause. Keeping brackish fish in freshwater habitats long term pretty much just kills them off slowly, even if you can't see the effects until the very end.
 

Sploke

resident boozehound
Staff member
Oct 20, 2005
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Sorry meant to add this as well. If you have another tank, I would try and put her in there and slowly start adding marine salt. Go to the pet store and get a hydrometer and some marine mix and over the course of a week, raise the salinity to about 1.005 or so. There have been a lot of stories with puffers, etc that people got in fresh water, and when they started adding salt saw an almost immediate improvement.
 

Mudfrog

AC Members
Jan 17, 2005
658
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Roanoke, VA
The problem with Violet Gobies is that very few actually know how to care for them and they end up posting incorrect information. In this case you heard they will live in FW, well yes they will live in FW but not for very long. These fish are strictly brackish. As long as you have him in FW he will not be healthy and therefore will not grow properly.

That being said how long is he and how long have you had him? Usually while VG's are small (under 7") they can be pretty thin, mine 2 biggest VG's did not bulk up until they reached around 8-9", now they are fat. I have another one that I purchased from Walmart and he's struggling as he was not getting any food (was in with cichlids), but he'll come around.

As for the problems you see physically with him, some pics would help, but I would slowly change him over to brackish and use some meds to fix his fins.
 

DaisyTattoo

AC Members
Jan 11, 2006
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Illinois
Yes, they are brackish and he definately needs to be in brackish water. You also said something about the food coming out of the gills, that is because they are filter feeder so that is normal behavior. If you dont put it in brackish water, it is going to die. They can live up to 10 years if taken care of properly. I also learned all of this the hard way as walmart sold my boyfriend one as a freshwater fish.
 

mooman

Scratch my belly Human!
Mar 8, 2005
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At the risk of ganging up, I will also add that once a month "cleanings" (I assume a waer change is being done) would put your water quality at the extreme bottom of the "OK" range and pretty far from "good"
 

djankiew

Registered Member
Apr 12, 2006
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Thanks

Wow - thanks everyone! Yes, the shop sold her as not needing brackish but everything I see/read says yes. They also adivsed me that 3/4 water change and cleaning once a month would be sufficient for a 29 gallon. This is not?
Nessie the VG started out fat but is wasting away suddenly. Not sure how old she is, but she's about 6 inches long. This may sound like a DUMB question, but will the other fish live in brackish water too? Thanks for everyone's help.
What's this about an internal parasite??? How would I know? :huh:
 

Mudfrog

AC Members
Jan 17, 2005
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Roanoke, VA
I didn't see what fish you have in your tank with it so I cannot say if they will live in brackish or not, but odds are they will not unless you have guppies or mollies or something to that nature.

If it is only 6" you best bet would be to try and find a 20 long and set it up as brackish water. Eventually it will need more then a 20 long but you have a while before that.

Can you take a pic of him? VG's are tend to be skinny as it is, I'm curious to see how skinny it is. Also be sure to feed it a staple diet of wardley shrimp pellets with an occasional algae waefer. This is what I fed mine and here is the difference. The top pic is when I bought it at 6" long, the second pic is 2 months later, 2" longer and a whole lot fatter.



 
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