Watchman goby red spot on underbelly and lethargic

colossal_tater · Jan 28, 2020

Hey everyone! I got a watchman goby on Monday, January 20, so a little over a week ago as of posting. Since I've had him, he's been acting lethargic, only hanging around the sponge filter. Eating a little bit, but not with much gusto. Also, he's been breathing heavy, about 1-2 a second deep breaths. The kind of looking breaths when a fish is scared.

My first course of treatment was prazipro, because I happened to dose it the morning before I got him (I have clownfish in QT with him). I let that run until Friday, January 24. At that point, the goby still wasn't better. He was still breathing heavy and at this point I hadn't really seen him eat much. I also kind of noticed a little redness on his underfin closest to his gills. I really couldn't get a good look at it at the time though, so I just mentally noted it. So I decided to start treating with copper, thinking that the heavy breathing was a parasite in his gills.

On Saturday, January 25, I did a 50% water change and started dosing copper (copper power). I got copper up to 1.4 ppm as of this morning, January 28. That's when I noticed that the goby's underside was even worse (pictures below). What would be your course of treatment? Will he make it?

Here's my plan:
* Dose Furan-2 and Kannaplex per the instructions over the next 7 days (already did the first dose)

Should there be anything more here? Should I also do metroplex? Do I need to do water changes to remove the copper, or is leaving the copper okay?

Big G · Jan 28, 2020

Copper is suppressing the goby's immune system. I'd remove the copper and add the metroplex. Do you have a powerhead in the tank aimed up at the surface actively rippling the water's surface?

Lastly, have you noticed any aggression in the tank by the clown? They can be real nasty, and often after lights out. Could be stress related, as bacterial infections are usually secondary issues caused by injury, poor water quality, etc.

Speaking of lights out, I'd turn off any lights in the tank and only have ambient light in the room for awhile.

High quality frozen foods mixed Focus and with a bit of vitamin like selcon, zoecon, etc. are excellent. And I highly recommend adding a bit of Beta Glucan. It is a super immune system support additive. Health food stores sell it and of course Amazon.

Your pictures don't have a link to open.

colossal_tater · Jan 28, 2020

Big G said:
Copper is suppressing the goby's immune system. I'd remove the copper and add the metroplex. Do you have a powerhead in the tank aimed up at the surface actively rippling the water's surface?

Lastly, have you noticed any aggression in the tank by the clown? They can be real nasty, and often after lights out. Could be stress related, as bacterial infections are usually secondary issues caused by injury, poor water quality, etc.

Speaking of lights out, I'd turn off any lights in the tank and only have ambient light in the room for awhile.

High quality frozen foods mixed Focus and with a bit of vitamin like selcon, zoecon, etc. are excellent. And I highly recommend adding a bit of Beta Glucan. It is a super immune system support additive. Health food stores sell it and of course Amazon.

Your pictures don't have a link to open.

Thanks Big G! I don't have a powerhead, but I do have an air powered sponge filter and an air stone cranked up high. As far as aggression, the clown seems very docile. They hang out for the most part on different sides of the tank and when they're close together, I haven't seen him so much as look at him. When I've checked on them in the dark, the clown is just asleep at the top of the tank. But I'll keep an eye out!

I'll turn off the lights, and make sure to add some Focus in with my Vitachem. I've just been letting the food soak in vitachem, didn't think about Focus. Also, thanks for the tip on Beta Glucan! I'll look into that.

As far as the copper goes, do I need to shoot for 0ppm or is doing a 50-75% water change good enough to get the copper under 0.5ppm?

Big G · Jan 28, 2020

I'd want to remove as much copper as possible. Lots of problems with sub-therapeutic copper tanks suppressing immune systems in fish. It is a poison after all.

Do you have any cuprisorb? Great product you can recharge it over and over and over with simple muratic acid sold at hardware stores.

I usually do a big water change or two and then run cuprisorb. Takes a couple of days or so to get down almost zero.

colossal_tater · Jan 28, 2020

Big G said:
I'd want to remove as much copper as possible. Lots of problems with sub-therapeutic copper tanks suppressing immune systems in fish. It is a poison after all.

Do you have any cuprisorb? Great product you can recharge it over and over and over with simple muratic acid sold at hardware stores.

I usually do a big water change or two and then run cuprisorb. Takes a couple of days or so to get down almost zero.

No I don't have any cuprisorb, but I'll pick some up. I had been using carbon to remove copper, but I believe carbon would also remove the meds I'm trying to use. Am I correct in thinking that cuprisorb will only remove copper and not the furan-2, Kannaplex, metro I'm treating with? If so, amazing!