Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Disease, Health and Wellness - by Kelly Jedlicki / Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris) / Latest Posts

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

Puffer Queen — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:14:06 GMT

Chad,

Any updates on your gobies?

Best of luck.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

leebca — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:38:01 GMT

I usually avoid pellets, sticks, and disks. Most manufacturers use wheat and land plant 'pastes' to bind the product.

The greens aren't used by your gobies. You can delete them.

Add frozen marine krill and frozen marine plankton to the mix. Try some shucked scallop too. Just be sure the size of the pieces are smaller than its mouth. Size is important to them.

A fish fighting for food could be a starving fish or a fish not getting the right nutrients. It isn't always a good sign to the aquarist.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

Puffer Queen — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:56:28 GMT

Chad,

I would follow the directions on the container.

As far as enrichments that I like that are usually available at LFS - Selcon, Boyds' Vita Chem, Ecosystem's Garlic Elixir. Wild Oats and Whole Foods have beta glucan.

There are many online vendors that carry these products as well. Under the beta glucan sticky there is an online vendor - haven't used this vendor so can't comment. Hopefully someone that has used them will chime in.

Please keep us updated.

Best of luck.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

ChadT — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:45:05 GMT

Kelly, I picked up the Jungle Anti-Parasite food like you mentioned. The directions say to administer for three consecutive days each week for four weeks, and not to feed anything else during the three days. Let me know if you think I should adjust this schedule.

To answer your question, no I do not currently enrich any of the foods that I use. What should I be adding and can I pick it up locally?

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

Puffer Queen — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:30:27 GMT

Chad,

The substrate and the refugium are great!

I definitely would deworm these guys. Just because one is fat, doesn't mean it doesn't or can't have worms......just the worm count hasn't increased to a number that the dietary intake can't keep up with.

The recommended diet for gobies is meaty - I would tend to give more meaty foods & less algae wafers, herbivore food.

Do you enrich your food?

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

ChadT — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:10:42 GMT

leebca, I feed my stock the following:

Formula 1 Flake

New Life Spectrum pellets

Algae Wafers

Shrimp pellets

Frozen Saltwater Mysis

Frozen Cyclopeeze

Dried Marine Algae sheets

One of the gobies looks exceptionally healthy with long fins, bright colors, and a plump round belly. It would seem like if nutrition was the issue both gobies would be in poor health. The skinny goby does not appear to be sick except that he is exceptionally thin. He is always out with his mate, constantly sifting the sand, and will fight with other fish(even his mate) on the sand bed or midwater for any nearby food.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

ChadT — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:52:37 GMT

Kelly, I have about a 2-3" of a fine silica based sand and another 1-2" of CaribSea 1-2 mm aragonite sand on top of that(somewhat mixed now). I also have a refugium in my sump with an aragonite substrate, piles of live rock rubble, and Caulerpa. There are numerous tunnels containing tiny red colored worms in the sandbed as well a constant supply of Mysis and Amphipods in the refugium.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

Puffer Queen — Wed, 31 May 2006 18:16:13 GMT

Chad,

I recommend praziquantel as my first choice of dewormers. I also prefer administering in the food versus adding it to the tank. The dose for praziquantel is 23 mg per pound of fish weight. (Noga - Fish Disease) Problem I see with you ordering the praziquantel on line is the volume that it comes in and your gobies weigh probably an ounce a piece.

There is a commercially prepared anti-parasitic pellet food available now. It is made by Jungle. The active ingredients in the anti-parasitic food are metrodinazole, praziquantel & levamisole. This may be a good choice for your small fish. Unfortunately with my large predators, this is not an option

I would follow the directions on the bottle and ONLY feed the medicated food during the treatment period. After the treatment, I would focus on improving the diet.

What type of substrate do you have? Is there a refugium or live rock in this tank?

Best of luck.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

leebca — Wed, 31 May 2006 17:19:03 GMT

I'm sure PQ will give you her procedure.

I've posted it on Reefland.com as a sticky.

Good luck!

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

ChadT — Wed, 31 May 2006 16:41:44 GMT

Thanks for the replies, can anyone point me to some info on deworming?

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

Puffer Queen — Wed, 31 May 2006 15:11:07 GMT

Chad,

I agree with Lee - intestinal worms is always a possibility.

Do you enrich their diets with any supplements?

What type of substrate is in your tank?

Just because a fish eats readily what is offered doesn't guarantee the fish will thrive or survive long term. The diet must meet the fish's dietary requirements. The diet for valenciennea gobies should consist of meaty foods that are vitamin enriched - crustaceans, frozen enriched brine shrimp, mysis, blackworms, glassworms, finely chopped squid, shrimp as well as the commercially prepared foods for carnivores just to name a few. They need to be fed several times a day. According to Scott Michael these fish are often difficult to feed/keep and "many slowly starve to death" He suggests to improve long term survivability that they need to be kept in a tank that has live sand and a well established refugium. Scott (along with I ) strongly suggest deworming your gobies (and all fish).

An invaluable reference book (inexpensive as well )on husbandry needs is Scott Michael's Marine Fishes.

Best of luck.

RE: Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

leebca — Wed, 31 May 2006 10:30:48 GMT

There's always the standby of one or both or neither having intestinal worms/disorder.

Or it could be that their diet is coming up short on nutrition.

Or both the above.

The foods you're feeding aren't adequate for a long term healthy life. More on that here:

http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/18767-feeding-marine-fish-fish-nutrition.html

Pair of Diamond Spot Gobies (Valenciennea puellaris)

ChadT — Wed, 31 May 2006 06:22:31 GMT

So I have nicknamed them Fatty and Skinny . Serisously though, I have had these gobies since around the end of last year and for a time both gobies were losing weight so I began to increase feedings of Mysis and algae wafers. One of the gobies has grown a bit and keeps a nice round tummy while the other looks as if it is wasting away. Both gobies have good appetites, so I am clueless as to why one of them fails to gain any weight even while eating seemingly just as much as the fat one. Do you have any ideas or suggestions Kelly?