Help! New Clown Gobies wont eat

[noman]

Hey there, this site is great! Sorry for the long post but here goes.

I got a 12g nano for Xmas. so my tank gets cycled, tests come out and finally came the first day for fish. so we went out and picked me up a small maroon clown fish with purple tip anemone, a cleaner shrimp, some turbo snails, and some hermit crabs

with a good month of testing they were very healthy and my water still tested great, no outter ich (can't tell if they got internal), very peaceful, and very interactive with us.

then my wife saw some yellow clown gobies that were very tiny so we picked up a pair.

They all get along great but its been 4 days and they haven't eaten anything! (although their colors are getting better since when we first got them) I've been stressing out ever since.

I've tried making the flakes smaller and even live brine shrimp with the pump off.
then algae tabs (someone from a LFS recommended I try some and gave me a free tab) but that didn't work

(how do these yellow clown gobies fair in high flow tanks? I've gotten a pump upgrade and a surface skimmer mod
when I turn off the pump for feeding live BS they seem to be more active but when the pump goes back on they
just stick on the glass and swim every once and awhile)

so I searched the internet for help and some people have recommended Garlic guard. the only problem is I've only seen it recommended for bigger fish so far. I picked up a bottle and now I'm lost. I want to make sure I don't do anything bad to the tank.

So my questions are

1.) do I just soak the flakes in this 1 min before I feed them or just dip it in right before? instructions were vague.
2.) should I change the pump back to the original equipment gobies seem more active with pump off.
3.) any other methods of feeding small yellow clown gobies? I've heard newly hatched BS work but I cant find them at any LFS
4.) would you recommend flakes or the live BS for soaking.

Thanks for helping out a rookie

Dave

[bjolly]

try frozen cyclopeeze. it's very small and my yellow clown goby loves it.

they may actually be eating without you realizing. My goby isn't as obvious when he grabs food as my other fish. I don't really see him grab the food, if that makes sense, but he is eating.

[dead beat reef]

frozen plankton frozen krill spray dried plankton my yellow clowns
eat very small bits of food. I mix all three in a small water bottle
with water form tank than feed. they wont touch flake or brine
shrimp plankton they like.

[janakaybravo]

Mine are little pigs. They love frozen mysis shrimp. I soak it in Kent's garlic extreme. Also the cyclopeze is a good thing to try at first. They will learn to eat bigger things as they get more confidence. I also feed Liquid Life to the corals and the little gobies eat all they can. Sometimes I turn off the pumps to feed the corals and it just floats down. I don't leave the pumps off but 15 minutes at the most.

Also they like to live in SPS corals, but will live in any branchy corals, even soft corals. They will feel more comfortable hiding in coral branches.

[noman]

sorry for the late reply guys but thanks!

so after looking at stores for frozen cyclopeeze i found a small bar for $30.00 at a fish store about 25 miles away... the small stores around here didn't have them.

so finding this price ridiculous I went and asked my favorite LFS for advice again.

he told me to try a $5 packet of formula 1 frozen food.

so i get it take it home and drop one in

low and behold one of them start eating it!

I'm so happy right now. right after he did that he started going for the flakes. and now him and my clown fish are side by side eatting flakes.

however I have another problem now.

the clown goby who is eating now is being very aggressive to the other one now.

this is weird because before this they were always near each other.

it seems now he goes out of his way to go bother the smaller one. and now the small one wont even come out and just hides all day so he doesn't eat.

any advice before i give him to my friend so he doesn't stress to death?

P.S. I've learned that yellow clown gobies don't get along with smaller fish of the same species so now I'm sad from what this book says it looks like I'll have to give the smaller one to my friend.

If this is the only solution can you tell me a fish that isn't boring but gets along with the clown goby? the LFS I bought the clown goby from had firefish goby in the same tank and they seemed like they got a long however so did the two gobies I got.

would these two get along? or is there another combo I could get.

also is there a way I can keep these two and some how keep peace?

thanks again guys. you've been so much help

[Angel*Fish]

Sounds like 2 males to me - if that's so you're going to have to remove the one that's getting picked on :(

[janakaybravo]

My two get along, but there's a dominant one. I've heard that they will form pairs and do the sex change thing like clowns, but the bigger yellow clown goby will be the male. Anyway, my smaller one holds her own but does stay more out of sight. I have two sps colonies, and one stays in one and the other one in the other one. The bigger one will go after the little one if she comes out too long. But then I'll see them hanging out together sometimes. Hopefully your little one will stand up to the big one. I have a big tank though so that might make a difference.

On the firefish, I had one with my yellow clown gobies until he jumped. My experience is yellow clown gobies get along with everyone but each other. I have some large fish that don't bother them either. A royal gramma would get along, false perc, and a number of others.

[fishfanv]

firefish should be fine with a clown goby. make sure you have a tight fitting lid, as jana said, they are jumpers!

[ACBlinky]

Glad you got them to eat, these guys can be really picky. I work at a LFS, we lose more to starvation than we sell, and our marine manager feeds well - a variety of frozen foods soaked in garlic and vitamins, three to four times a day.
IME these fish are small on size, but can be BIG on attitude - mine terrorized a 2" maroon easily ten times his weight. The maroon wasn't shy, she killed three other fish (the reason I traded her in), but was clearly dominated by a little goby <1" long! Any time she came near his favourite fox coral, it was WWIII - he would bite her, ram his head into her side, and generally harass her until she left. Again, and again, and again. Poor dumb maroon just wanted to host in the coral, couldn't figure out why it kept attacking her!
JMO, but from the sounds of it, you may have to separate your two.

[noman]

thanks for everything guys! i went out and got a fire goby.

my larger clown goby and my maroon seem to be hanging out a lot lately.

but my smaller clown goby gets to come out to the front so thats ok with me.

the fire goby is getting shoved around (no biting tho) by the maroon but this happened for the first day with the clown gobys too and now they get along.

I'm just gonna see what happens over the week.

P.S. thanks again!

[noman]

well heres an update for you guys

my water is still testing great

my 2 firefish smaller yellow goby and my serpent star all share the same home and get along great

my maroon and my bigger yellow goby are like best buds and always swim together and even share the same host.

but if the two gangs see eachother its war (one sided with the maroon clown team winning).

im hoping with a little more time things will get better. sometimes i catch the two gobys next to eachother, but sometimes they are chasing eachother around. (same with the firefish and the maroon)

Thanks again guys

Dave

[PatrickB101]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6624430#post6624430 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noman
thanks for everything guys! i went out and got a fire goby.

my larger clown goby and my maroon seem to be hanging out a lot lately.

but my smaller clown goby gets to come out to the front so thats ok with me.

the fire goby is getting shoved around (no biting tho) by the maroon but this happened for the first day with the clown gobys too and now they get along.

I'm just gonna see what happens over the week.

P.S. thanks again!

u need to take the clown out of a 12gallon this is a maroon and it will stress out in a small tank. i wouldn't put a maroon in anything less then a 55gal unless u want it to unleash complete distruction on its tank mates. it will eventually kill everything more then likely has it needs more room. if u don't plan to upgrade in 6 month take him back get an perc or osc clown they will live much easier in a small space.