Male Peacock Goby Won't Eat

Crossfire · Jan 17, 2012

A day ago I bought a male and female Peacock Goby, and the male has a bad case of "nemo" fin, and he hides all day long and is very shy compared to the adventurous female. Didn't feed them yesterday, but today I gave my fish some bloodworms, and while the female only got one (wouldn't eat them off the bottom) i did drop a little freeze dried brine shrimp in there, the female had a good time going around and nibbling here and there and she got a fair share...while the male cowered in the corner. I even went so far to stick my hand in the water with brineshrimp inbetween my fingers and the female got some but he just hovered. Then I took 1 or 2 NLS pellets and let them sink next to him, he went after them for like 5 miliseconds, but then ignored them and continued to hover. Eventually, he took a mini nibble from a brine shrimp floating by, and he now hides in the top corner of his tank....Any ideas on what this lethargy is from? Maybe its about his bad fin....

thereverendturtle · Jan 17, 2012

He's just shy. Try adding more caves. Do you have access to live blackworms? I had to start mine on those.

Crossfire · Jan 17, 2012

thereverendturtle said:
He's just shy. Try adding more caves. Do you have access to live blackworms? I had to start mine on those.

I have one rock cave, and one semi wooden cave. The female spent some time in the rock cave, and I got her to nibble on some new life spectrum. But he won't go near the cave, always hangs in the upper corner of my tank. He's also started rubbing on plants, and I know its not ich because no other fish are doing it, and he shows no symptoms. I added some StressCoat and he's stopped for now. None of my LFS sell live food, and the only one that does only sells live food for corals :sad:

thereverendturtle · Jan 17, 2012

Scratching is one of the earliest signs of ich. What's your water temp? Sometimes if you can, turning the temp up 3 or 4 degrees is enough to stimulate a fishes appetite. Mine actually like spending time in my plants as well.

Crossfire · Jan 17, 2012

thereverendturtle said:
Scratching is one of the earliest signs of ich. What's your water temp? Sometimes if you can, turning the temp up 3 or 4 degrees is enough to stimulate a fishes appetite. Mine actually like spending time in my plants as well.

I don't think its ich, i've read that scratching is also a sign of stress, and he does seem pretty stressed. If I raise my temp more, it might cook my shrimp. I've had one of my fish scratch or "flash" once or twice every like 3 months when he didn't get his share of food...at least, I hope its not ich...he was fine at the store....i cant go through ich again! last time i had ich, wiped out almost my whole stock and nearly killed my beloved loaches...now that I finally have a mated pair of sparkling gouramis and peacock gobies....noooooooooooo :no:

thereverendturtle · Jan 17, 2012

It could be stress and I do have perfectly healthy fish that like to scratch. That being said healthy fish can go a week or more without eating. Just keep trying. Hunger is the best spice.

Crossfire · Jan 17, 2012

thereverendturtle said:
It could be stress and I do have perfectly healthy fish that like to scratch. That being said healthy fish can go a week or more without eating. Just keep trying. Hunger is the best spice.

Ok thanks for getting that off my chest, now I can go to bed without a panic attack :crazy:

I just hope he doesn't starve before he does finally decide to eat. Still worried about his little fin. I'll do a water change tomorrow and just toss in some extra stresscoat to calm him. Plus, due to my feeding attempts there a little food pile in the corner of the tank, but I think the loaches and shrimp have already taken care of that :shifty:

thereverendturtle · Jan 17, 2012

Don't have a panic attack, they're not as fun as they sound. Just keep trying I'm sure he'll be eating something by this weekend.

the_lock_man · Jan 18, 2012

thereverendturtle said:
Don't have a panic attack, they're not as fun as they sound. Just keep trying I'm sure he'll be eating something by this weekend.

Agreed. They are known to be timid fish, so give him a while to sort himself out, see where things are at the weekend.

Crossfire · Jan 18, 2012

the_lock_man said:
thereverendturtle said:

Don't have a panic attack, they're not as fun as they sound. Just keep trying I'm sure he'll be eating something by this weekend.

Click to expand...

Agreed. They are known to be timid fish, so give him a while to sort himself out, see where things are at the weekend.

Ok so something new has happened...
He's not as shy anymore, he's ventured to the other side of the tank..Even checking out the cave, and swimming to the top...but his swimming is concerning me. i dont know if its because of his fin, but he does a little short sorta sideways burst instead of fluid swimming....and whenever he gets near the amazon swords while swimming he'll stop swimming and just let himself sink onto the sword...and he lays there motionless for a few minutes, then goes swimming off again..... :shout: