my yellow watchman goby died under the rocks

[pairenoid]

my worst fear came true, i only had him one day, drip acclimated for 1 hour


he seemed PERFECTLY fine, i fear my tiger pistol killed him or he got crushed by rocks

the spot he was dead in, i checked 100 times to find him, and just now i found him motionless, when i took him out i noticed his mouth was wide open, does this signify anything? his body looked fine

i hear if a pistol shrimp shoots a fish it will have a ring mark and i didnt see anything. Im scared to get another one, tbh the yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp combo is the number 1 thing i wanted when i started my tank

i am def going to try to get another, but around here they are all out of stock. Im extremely disappointed, i drip acclimated him good and when he entered the tank he seemed healthy and normal, retreating to a burrow and than standing guard. It wasnt until i woke up that i coudlnt find him but i tried not to worry since they can be hard to find

my best guess is that the goby entered the burrow while the shrimp was caught off guard and maybe they fought, i am in a pickle because now i dont know how to introduce a new goby into the tank without scaring the shrimp, its literally impossible to find the shrimp without changing my aquascape which is not an option as the burrow work is extensive, i dont want to interfere. I already messed up one half of my tank to retrieve the dead goby. Cant say i wasn't curious about the burrow under the rocks i picked up, i thought they would look a lot deeper XD

 

[obscurereef]

What are your parameters? It seemed you acclimated him correctly. I had a yasha goby and pistol shrimp pair and they mysteriously disappeared. I haven't found them to this day, but I drip acclimated them and my parameters were great. It might not be completely relevant, but some fish hide/die from too much stress or some other factor. Sorry for your loss, but don't stress too much about it b/c it's just something that can happen. Ripping up the tank wasn't a good idea, stressing your livestock and disturbing the sand/rock. If you have a good enough CUC, they'll take care of the dead fish. If it's about dead or hiding there's not really anything you can do.

 

[pairenoid]

i didnt want to pick up my live rock because of the burrow but i had to, in order to 100% verify the goby was 100% dead and not just sick

my parameters are either 0 or 25 ppm (very hard to tell right now ) and 0 nitrite and 40 ppm of nitrate. When he entered the tank he acted normal, did not seem scared in any way (i had a freshwater tank for a year before so i know what mostly how they act)

im going to try my hand again at it one more time, if it dies, i might just wait a LONG time before trying again. Is it a bad idea to close up all the burrow entrances ? i want to do it so he doesnt just swim in there and startle the shrimp, tbh i think the shrimp was the same size as the goby if not bigger, and the goby was pretty big

 

[obscurereef]

How old is your tank? When you cycled it did the ammonia reach above 4 ppm? 40 ppm isn't too high, and wouldn't kill that fish, but the ammonia would.

Doesn't matter if he was sick or dead, I really suggest not disturbing anything. When you have more fish (assuming you have just the shrimp in there), and move the rocks this could really scare them and they could get sick. Don't close up the burrows to the shrimp's home. That is where he's secure and it's not super common that the pistol would hit the goby. If you're worried about the next goby you're getting to get hit, put it farthest away from where the pistol's burrow is. Some really good advice that I've been told numerous times is to keep your hands out of the tank as much as possible, and don't disturb things. By this I mean changing the aquascape often or making things how you want them. If the goby was out in the open, then I'd say put it in a QT if you had one and try to treat it if it had a disease. Otherwise don't disturb it. Basically, trying to find out if it's alive or dead is just effecting the other inhabitants and increases stress level.

 

[pairenoid]

great advice thank you, i felt bad rearranging the rocks but i needed closure, now ill def not disturb the rocks. To be honest a snail was on it and it fell off as i picked it up and it hasnt moved since, but they rarely move. I guess it was a mistake XD. Ya im gona forget about getting another goby for a week or two i want my tank to settle and get 0 ammonia and nitrate

 

[pairenoid]

haha this is really funny but i just noticed that a blue hermit went from his shell to a very smaller shell and it just looked really funny seeing him trying to fit in there, what gives him the idea to switch? this shell has been sitting empty for 2 weeks and all the crabs touched it, but this guy is down grading his house!

 

[Beengirl]

That's funny about the hermit. They seem to just try on new shells randomly.
About the YWG, don't stress it too much. My pistol shot a fish once, it was obvious cuz half it's face was all grey/dead tissue from the shot. So if yours had no tissue damage, it wasn't the pistol. Don't close up all his burrows, wont do any good anyways, cuz he'll just spend all day tomorrow opening them again. Lol. Here's how you try again to pair him up with a YWG, it's easy really. I had my pistol a well or so, let him build his burrow and had 1 opening at that point. I acclimated the YWG and released him on the sand directly next to the burrow opening- which was partially closed by sand at that moment. The YWG immediately peeked into the partial opening, and then I immediately saw the pistol making the opening bigger so the YWG could get inside!! It took all of 5 seconds for them to pair, and they've been inseparable ever since. So give that a try when your tank stabilizes a bit more. Good luck!!

 

[pairenoid]

thanks for the tip, when i released my goby he chilled for 10 seconds than immediately went backwards into a burrow, after that he stood guard all day at the entrance, i was so happy :'(. I thought this is perfect he will pair with the shrimp, but it didnt work out. I really really really wanted that yellow goby, he was the perfect size and shape. O well, it only motivates me to acclimate better and keep better condition of my tank. Also, the crab is no longer in the shell so i guess he couldnt handle it lol