i found myself at a fish store the other day and was looking at fish tanks full of the same old same old clowns and damsels and blennys that they always have in stock when a court jester or rainford's goby caught my eye... so i asked the guy working there how much... he told me it was like $14 or something and i was feeling somewhat impuslive or perhaps even foolhardy so i told him to bag it up... now i got this fish in my tank and he wont seem to eat anything i stick in there now i know he would love to graze on some live rock and id be happy to let him but i have no live rock for him to graze upon... ive tried feeding him marine cuisine, tetramarine flakes, and emerald entree but he just isnt that eager to eat and looks skinny... so my question is ...what can i do to get my anorexic fish to eat? or is it that he wants to eat and the yellow tang in the tank is scaring him or w/e hes in the tank with a firefish yellow tang that are both quite small... also i have crushed coral instead of sand could it be he cant pick thru it well enough? sorry im being so long winded but id rather get a answer quickly...
Court Jester Goby
- Thread starter wade_vv
- Start date
First, it usually takes a few days for a fish to get over the stress of being in a new home. How long has he been in the tank? Also to, gobies are meat eaters, not flakes. With flakes, they sit on the surface of the tank, gobies dont eat from the surface. They like to burrow around in the sand, which might be a problem with the crushed coral. Do you have a lot of cover in your tank so he can hide. Because if he cant burrow in the sand to hide himself in danger, then he needs some type of nook or cranny to hide in and call his own. Try live brine, no fish can resist live brine and plus with it going all over the tank, then he should come out and eat. Anything else you might need?
alright yea i knew about them being meat eaters.. but i was tryin everything in my feeding arsenal that i had available.. aquireing live brine might slightly be a problem since i have no way of gettin that near by i should just buy the little hatchery kit and set that up for them... i dont know maybe i'll add some more cover that might help.. maybe ur right bout the stress of the new home... its only been since saturday or sunday... anyway thanks for the help
If you know where the goby likes to hide out you should try placing a shrimp pellet outside his hideout. When I first got my watchman goby he didn't eat anything either. I dropped a shrimp pellet near where he hides...after a while the shrimp pellet softened a bit and the "smell" attracted him where he eagerly gobbled it up! Try that. Shrimp pellets are cheap too so if it doesn't work...your not out too much. I also use the pellets as treats for my shrimps, emerald crabs.
HTH
~d
HTH
~d
Try to target feed brine shrimp that's been soaked in garlic juice (homemade or commercial brand) with a medicine dropper.
The medicine dropper while cause the brine to dance around a little perhaps causing feeding behaviour. The garlic is an appetite stimulant (works on me too!). Live adult brine would be even better but it's very hard to come by nowadays. You can also try frozen mysis (which is healthier than brine anyway).
The lack of fine sand could very well be a part of the gobies woes. Try re-arranging the scenery a bit and create lots of little caves down on the substrate. Also try dimming the lights.
I find that introducing fish into Q-tanks first by themselves in the dark allows them to build up some more confidence when they are finally placed in a display tank.
The medicine dropper while cause the brine to dance around a little perhaps causing feeding behaviour. The garlic is an appetite stimulant (works on me too!). Live adult brine would be even better but it's very hard to come by nowadays. You can also try frozen mysis (which is healthier than brine anyway).
The lack of fine sand could very well be a part of the gobies woes. Try re-arranging the scenery a bit and create lots of little caves down on the substrate. Also try dimming the lights.
I find that introducing fish into Q-tanks first by themselves in the dark allows them to build up some more confidence when they are finally placed in a display tank.