Diamond Goby is sick

[meenamjah]

I got it a week ago.. was perfectly happy for first few days, but has been sick last couple days... it's lethargic, not sifting sand, and breathing hard... still eating, but not as well. Looks perfectly clean as well, no spots or anything.

Only other fishes are two clowns, and they're perfectly fine. Anyone got any ideas on what's wrong with my goby?

[bvlester]

sounds like a classic cyanide poisoning symptom, does he kind of just wander around and not pay any attention to you when you approach the tank? But you never know time line is right and some symptoms are right.

Bill

[meenamjah]

actually, he's a bit more jumpy than normal... darts away if I put my hand in the tank and stuff...

mostly just sits in his burrow or under some rock

[mr.wilson]

You need to move it to a quarantine tank and medicate it. Give the fish a freshwater bath in dechlorinated tap water, not RO/DI, for 2-5 minutes. make sure the temperature is matched and the water is well oxygenated. Then move the fish to a hospital tank with copper, formalin & methylene blue.

Methylene blue acts as an oxygen delivery system to aid in fish respiration. Formalin will treat a variety of parasites and fungal infections. Copper also treats parasitic infections.

It's hard to say what the exact problem is without seeing the fish, but it's probably gill flukes. If you are able to confirm gill flukes, a saltwater bath in 6 drops per gallon formalin for an hour with an air diffuser or small powerhead to keep oxygen levels from dropping. Hikari sells a product called Prazipro that contains praziquantel. It is an effective gill fluke treatment along with other external worms. It can be added to food for internal parasites, but your fish doesn't appear to have that problem.

[bvlester]

+1 on flukes noe that we know he is more jumpy than anything unlike what you said.

(it's lethargic, not sifting sand, and breathing hard... still eating) cyanide poisoning a fish will eat but he can not digest the food properly. I would use prazi-pro for the 7 day it is also reef safe I have used it in my tank the only thing I noticed was my Nem closed up. May have even shrunk a bit but when treatment ended he opened up right away and is now quite a nit larger. Prazi-pro work great on flukes and freshwater dips also work well. Do not use copper unless you know they have MV as it very hard on a fishes liver and stomach.

Bill

[meenamjah]

would it be a bad idea to use prazipro in the DT?

[meenamjah]

My heater had broken.. it was running full blast even though it was at lowest setting. temp was around 92 or so. Switched heaters, and Goby seems a lot better now. Still occasionally scrapes gills on the sand... is that normal?

[bvlester]

No that is not normal and yes you can use prazi-pro in DT I have a you have to take carbon out and I let the skimmer run to provide air in the water but I take the collection cup off it just flows back in to the sump. Other wise I would shut it off and add a air stone i=to the sump.
Copper almost always harms a fishes liver.
Bill