Watchman Goby acting Strange

[francis]

Hi everybody I have a yellow watchman goby that I've had for about 2+ weeks now but he has recently begin acting strange.

For the first 3-4 days I had him he was always on the sand in front of my tank and then moved into a hole in a rock where he stayed for about a week. I wasnt bothered when he was in his hole because I would see him still eat. Recently however he has come out of his hole and is always out but it seems like he spends a lot of the time at the water surface. I dont know what he is doing there and I was wondering if this was okay, also I do not have a pistol shrimp if that matters.

At night time he was again at the top then when I woke up he was in the back corner (brown and much darker color), then when I turned on my flourescent tank lights he came to the surface again and is now yellow.

Thank you for any help!

 

[carey]

What are your water parameters? Usually fish going to the top indicate ammonia or some breathing issue.

When I got my watchman last week the first few days he was swimming at the top of the water, really worried me, but after a couple days he has settled back down to the substrate in a burrow.

Fish sometimes change color under stress as well, are there any fish that could be picking on him?

 

[francis]

ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
pH - about 7.8
nitrates - about 10-20

There are no fish that harass him, I only have a small sebae clownfish and a watchman goby but they have never bothered him. Will check on him in a few hours when I get back home

 

[Ewatson249]

I can't account for the swimming on the surface but my YWG looks really dull almost brown when the lights are out. Always back to bright yellow in the day though.