New Fish from LFS has canker sore type white spots taking his body over

[Essense]

This is a new Black Clown Goby, named Moe. I noticed a white spot on him at the LFS and should have had a better judgement, but the shop looked at him after I pointed it out they said it was stress related. After asking if they should keep him for awhile to ensure he's okay they said, "No, notally not neccesary, he'll be fine". It is a very highly regarding LFS in my area and I didn't argue. I'm new to the hobby and have read a thosand times on these boards not to do what I did. Grrr. but moving on.

The white spot, now spots, is larger than ich and not raised on the body of the fish. It looks more like an open sore. The fish does not appear to be in discomfort, he swims freely and is not at the surface or bottom of the tank. He likes to hang on the back wall and chill in the crevices of my LR. I have not seen him eat in the past 3 days. I feed H20 Life Spirulina and Cyclop-eeze, he doesn't touch either. He also appears to have lost some of his deep black color, though this appears like it may be normal behavior for these guys after having the lights off for the night. They appear darker during the day while swimming around.

My water params are good. Amonia 0, Nitrite <.1 ( I noticed a slight raise here after adding 3 fish), Nitrates 25, PH 8.1, SG 1.025, temp 81F.

I'm doing a 20-25% PWC to help lower Nitrates and reduce any stress they may cause on they Goby.

The pictures should be better, but I can't get a good shot at the moment. I hope they at least help translate some of what I'm seeing here and can help with an ID based on my description above.

The pictures dont show it but the spots are getting bad, multiple and large and taking up over 10% of one side of Moe's body. I'd like to know if I should remove him right away to a hospital tank and/or if this is likely something fungal.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/atrayu19/IMG_0674.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/atrayu19/IMG_0677.jpg

[Essense]

Update

I just noticed he's eating. He's spitting the food out 2-3 times, swallowing maybe every third time he goes after something.

[Sk8r]

This is a hard call. A fish that has just started eating---maybe particle size is mattering---should not be disturbed. BUT a fish with that kind of progression on what is likely a bacterial infection, possibly vibrio---
Vibrio does respond to water quality. The problem is that it may have gone internal. If you've got him eating, keep at it. If you can get him very reliably eating a variety of things, then soak something in a Metronidazole solution and see if you can get him to eat that.

There's one other alternative: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12788. This is a fish food from Jungle that CONTAINS antibiotics, and is far safer for your tank, since it targets the sick fish internally. I would go for the antiparasitic, which contains Metronidazole, which is the broadest-spectrum treatment I know of, and WILL treat a bacterial infection, which is what I think he's got. If you have to smash it up fine to get any down him, try that.

[mrmore]

Could be a bacterial infection it could go away but if it is bacteria infection I recommend treating it. You do not need to quarantine, however you need to catch it and put some medicine on it ( I dont remember what it is called but it is in a little tube shaped like a fish) i have sucssfuly treated one of my clown fish with this, but I had a blue jaw trigger that died because I waited to long then could not catch him.

[Essense]

Thanks for the advice here guys, having something to move forward on helps tremendously. I will try the medicated antiparastic food and check a LFS for some of what you have suggested mrmore.

The small particulate size for new black clown gobies I have read is important to get them eating as a new addition, Moe is confirming this.

[Sk8r]

I use a mortar and pestle to grind up Tetra JumboKrill freeze dried medium shrimp, which everything loves, including the corals. Cheap, and the coral growth and fish health have been very good.

[Essense]

I use a mortar and pestle to grind up Tetra JumboKrill freeze dried medium shrimp, which everything loves, including the corals. Cheap, and the coral growth and fish health have been very good.

Thanks for the heads up on this, i'm looking to make a shorter (much shorter) list of the foods i'm working with at the moment.

Update on Moe:
I have the antiparasite and antibacterial coming through the mail, combo deal for the two made the purchase virutally equal to buying seperate. He's eating regularly at feedings now. I'm still using H20 Life Spirulina and Cyclop-Eeze, my other foods he ignores completely. He is still spitting out 3 times for every time he actually consumes something.

The white spots have not gotten worse over the past 2 days, but I wouldn't say they have gotten better yet. I'm now noticing fin rot on him that is getting progressively worse over the past 2 days. He swims with vigor and does not appear to be scratching or showing discomfort on the glass/LR/Sand. The fin rot is multiple fins and as bad as ~15-20% of the worst fin affected :(

When I get the food in from Jungle is it still advised to move forward with it's usage for treatment of fin rot? I also have Boyd Marine Vita-Chem, which as I understand it should help with fin regeneration but does not stop fin rot. Is Vita-Chem safe to use in DT?

I should add that I have a flametail blenny that may be to blame for fin damage on him. The flametail has shown a lot of aggression towards my snails (nipping the underflesh), but I have not seen him ever go after the Goby and I have observed them in very close proximity for extended periods of time with no issues. The fins on Moe are not white on the edges, they are just appearing to degenerate.

[Sk8r]

Vita-chem is like Selcon: should be safe to use in the DT. The medicated food should be safe: just don't over-feed it, for various reasons.
Crossing fingers.

[Essense]

Again, thanks for help and support with Moe, the black Clown Goby. I wanted to update for anyone with similar issues or veiwing the thread for whatever reason.

Here is a better, though still not great, pic of what he had that has since disappeared:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c224/atrayu19/IMG_0699.jpg

Moe is doing a lot better at this point, roughly 10 days since that shot. The white spots have stayed disappeared. He does have what looks like fin rot that began while the white spots were present and got worse while the white spots subsided, though the fin rot has stopped progressing and is getting better.

By the time the Medicated food I ordered got to my house, Moe had been eating H20 life spirulina for a few days with some vigor so I decided to not change the food given how difficult initial feeding behavior was. I used 4-5 drops of selcon on 1/3 a cube that was fed 2x daily. This was too much, but I didn't want to change anything while Moe was eating.

If something turns for the worse I will post back, though at this point i'm proceeding with caution and observing.

From personal experience I'd reccomend against multiple clown gobies in smaller tanks. I have one that is territoral over all my rock at this point. Gobies really like to perch, but one Goby is not letting the others perch. He doesn't bug the other inhabitants. After my purchase i've since read that this can be the case.

[Essense]

Not good update in regards to what i've been trying to overcome with Moe.

I really need to add a pic, but have been overwhelmed with some 12 hour work days and my router stopped working. I haven' found time/place to get pics up to a hosting site. What I'm seeing at this point are the white spots from my previous post pic, though more severe. Additionally i'm seeing small white sprinkles which look like ich, though i'm uncertain. The fish started with black pimple like bumps, very small, that appeared to be sending out small runs along the fishes body. It is these black bumps that have developed white heads, though there are still black bumps that are not white. It does not look good and I can assure you it looks worse than it sounds.

During this battle but after I observed the white spots went away, roughly a week or two later I noticed signs they were returning. At this time I fed my tank exclusively the Jungle foods medicated anti-parasite formula for 3 days. I had some difficulty getting the tank to eat this formula. I crushed up some pellets and left 2-3 pellets fully intact, but my fish from what I could observe were eating and spitting out without swallowing.

The fish do eat with a lot of vigor both crushed up krill and mysis shrimp along with spirulina. I add selcon once a day to feedings and I feed 2x daily. The fish generally give chase to eachother throughout the day, I have noticed their activity level die off with the recent sever outbreak of this disease though they still swim with vigor and do not hang out at the top or bottom of the tank. They still hang in the rockwork and on the back wall as has been their habit since day one.

Tank parameters are:
Temp: 77.5-79
SG: 1.024
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nirate: 5-15
PH: 8.1
Alk: 7.7 (slightly low, wondering if this may contribute to fin issues I observed during this ordeal)
Phosphate: 0.0 using Hanna Checker, has read 0.0 for my last three tests conducted over the past month.

Other thing to add is that all, every single one of my trochus snails have died. 15 total. This occured over a month period. I blame the flametail blenny as I observed him nip at trochus snails to the point where the trocus never showed life after.

I have 5 margarita snails that have been unaffected and are behaving normal over the past 3 weeks. My Coco Worm, Tuxedo Urchin, and Fire Shrimp appear very healthy. Bright colors and the Tuxedo has himself constantly covered with random items.