My Fire goby looks like he got punched in the mouth

[PB_Smith]

Poor little guy was just hanging out by one of his caves yesterday when the green brittle star "goosed" him and he turned and smashed the lower left side of his face against the glass...HARD.
He now has a bruise/blood on/in his gill plate and chin. he is still eating as of this afternoon and relatively active, but I can tell he's not completely himself.
Sadly I know there is little that can be done but wait it out.
I lost an Orbic bat once from the very same thing. Another fish barely nipped his tail and he turned and slammed into the glass so hard he popped his eye. Happened right in front of me.
He passed the next day. I raised him from dime sized up to about the size of a plate, excluding fins.

I sure hope my little guy will be ok.

 

[Sniperhank]

Do you have a picture? I've had fish slam into the glass before without issue...just want to make sure it isn't something else as you've stated it has occurred before.

 

[PB_Smith]

unfortunately I can't get a pic right now.
The Orbic I lost was about 25 years ago and it happened when I was feeding the tank.
It was in the corner going for food and got a nip from I think the Blue Tang I had and turned into the glass and smashed his eye.
I saw the goby smack into the glass as well (what are the odds?) and know that is what is wrong. Those little guys are pretty quick and can turn on a dime. That is what he did, the star touched his butt and he turned to dash into his cave, but turned into the glass and was clearly shaken by the encounter. Within a couple of minutes I saw it start to "bruise". His skin is translucent so it shows pretty clearly. The gills themselves are not inflamed from what I can see, just "blood spots" on the gill plate going down under his chin, exactly where he smacked the glass. Looks similar to if you get hit in the eye and get those little blood spots in the white of your eye.
If he becomes lethargic or stops eating then I will probably put him in quarantine and treat.

 

[PB_Smith]

He didn't make it through the night

Now I'm down to one Fiji Damsel. Only had three fish to begin with, traded the green chromis. I have a couple shrimp, brittle star and snails left.
Pretty certain it was from injury, but just to be safe I'm going to leave it as is for 6-8 weeks and keep a close eye on the damsel just in case it was some type of pathogen.


Darn, I was really getting attached to the little guy, the wife called him the "mermaid fish".