Yellow Clow Gobies not eating

[sean1]

I bought a pair of yellow clowns for my nano and they aren't eating. I tried cyclopeeze, mysis, and brine shrimp. Should I mix garlic into these foods?

[ACBlinky]

ycg's seem to be picky eaters, at least at first. It took me quite a while to get mine eating well, you might have to try feeding a variety of things until you find something that they really like. IME, once I found something my ycg went crazy for it wasn't too long until he was accepting nearly everything. Garlic can't hurt, and it did help entice my little guy.
Some things I tried that my ycg really likes:
- Cyclop-eeze
- frozen squid
- MarineGro pellets (smallest size)
He won't touch mysis, and brine shrimp are just too large - mine really only takes tiny pieces of food; he usually spits out anything larger than pinhead size.

[LTJGAlex]

I tried several different clown gobies at several different junctures in different tanks. None ever ate and most died within 2 days. I have to disagree with them being easy and hardy.

[RBTA]

This might be a reason why yours died. They could have arrived at the store emanciated and on its wway out when you bought it.

In the Home Aquarium

Gobiodon sp. have a tough time adjusting to captive care, since it is all too often that these fish arrive at our local fish stores emaciated. This is most likely due to the stressful transit period, which results in the fish not eating. Being a smaller fish, and having what appears to be a fairly quick metabolism, not many of these fish make it to the hobbyist tank without having been starved to some degree or another. To compound this problem, they regularly require live foods and special attention until accustomed to aquarium life. Frozen/thawed foods can be offered first, but if they are not accepted, be prepared to offer live food. Upon arrival of a new goby, special care should be taken to ensure large quantities of food are offered to the new arrivals without fouling the aquarium water. Live brine shrimp is the most available type of live food. Try to "gut-load" these live Artemia with phytoplankton if the possibility exists. Once the goby has accepted live food, they may slowly be weaned off the live food until they eventually are accepting frozen/thawed or prepared foods. Any of the commercially available foods suitable for a carnivore should be sufficient. Be sure to provide a varied diet, and that the food is small enough to fit into their tiny mouths.


Full Article: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/hcs3/index.php

[sean1]

Thanks for the info. I'll try these ideas and if they don't work I heard they eat acroporas. lol

[RBTA]

They don't eat acroporas they just clean away the tissue around part of a stony coral to make a nest and lay eggs. It doesn't hurt the coral and with good water conditions the tissue will grow back quickly.

[ACBlinky]

Originally posted by LTJGAlex
I have to disagree with them being easy and hardy.
I totally agree with you - the LFS where I work weekends promoted these as great 'easy beginner fish' and, as a beginner, I picked one up because they're a great nano-sized fish and I couldn't resist that cute little face.
These fish aren't 'easy' at all - I think mine's the only one out of the three or four we brought in that survived, and for a while I was literally feeding little bits of everything but the kitchen sink all day long because he'd only take a little food and then lose interest and so required as many feedings as I could give him just to stop him losing more weight. Four months later he's still skinny and has only just started taking food eagerly.

[lanamarks]

Just wanted to give some input that might help with feeding. Getting them to eat is the hardest part to keeping them. I killed my first one because I didn't realize they would be so hard but I think I've found a good way.

I had one green clown goby and just ordered another one. It came in very thin. I feed mine Golden Pearls - a mix of the brine shrimp size and rotifer size. They are about the size of a pin head. When I first get them I overfeed the tank quite a bit. I put a lot of the golden pearls in (it also helps that all the other fish eat them too - kinda a light snack).

It only took about a day before the new goby started eating. With all of those perfect sized particles in a cloud around them they can't hardly help but sample one. Then you can cut the feedings down because now they know what they are looking for and will dart around eating them out of the water column.

I plan on getting two more pairs of clown gobies because they are my absolute favorite fish in the tank. This new method has worked on both gobies and got them eating within a day. I've only had the new one for 4 days but the other one is getting fat with all the extra feedings I've been doing to get the other one ot eat!

Hope this helps someone!

[reef10]

I have had a green clown for about a month or so. He will not eat much of anything. The only confirmed food he eats is newly hatched brine shrimp. I have tried frozen mysis, flake, pellet, frozen brine w/sprilina. I will try to fatten him up on just the Baby Brine Shrimp while finding something else for him to eat. I think he would have died a while ago were it not for the extra effort that I have put into feeding him. NOTE: He is in QT and will remain until he is eating regular fare. Putting him in with all the other fish would just make feeding that much more diffcult because of the competion and ensure his untimely demise. I am going to try mysis soaked with garlic next. then ..???

[lanamarks]

I really would try the golden pearls. I got mine to eat within a day and that was in a 100 gal tank. I ordered mine from www.kensfish.com. I don't know if anyone else has tried this method but it worked for me. At first he was pretty lethargic but I watched them last night and both were eating like little pigs.

Also - if you know he will eat live brine maybe you could mix the live brine with something like golden pearls which is the same size and he would start eating some (if only by accident at first).