So how is the Clown Goby now? It moves more slowly compared to many fish, and
can starve if there isn't an abundance of food. You might even try newly
hatched (48 hours old) brine shrimp. Turn off the skimmer and the pumps for
that.

Cloudy water could be coming from Caulerpa going sexual. Do you get quite a bit
of die-off, where the branches turn clear and melt within 2 days? Keep your
caulerpa under 24 hour lighting and it won't do that any more.

Marc


purple tang wrote:

I have two problems going on. 1) Starving Goby and 2) Cloudy Water. Right
now I'm a little more concerned w/ problem #2, but would appreciate any
advice you have regarding the Goby. Hope this doesn't take too long to
describe but here are the details....

1) I have a clown goby that will have been in the tank 5 months as of next
week. When I bought him he appeared healthy. Sometime about a month ago I
noticed he had gotten a lot thinner. He eats everything I put in the tank,
but probably 4 times out of 5 he will regurgitate it back up. I see fish do
this a lot so I hadn't thought much about it until I noticed him being
thinner. There is a purple tang, lavender tang, cleaner shrimp, mandarin,
blue damsel, banded Goby, and ocellaris clown also in the tank - all look
healthy. All have been in the tank longer than him except for the banded
Goby. Lately I have taken extra care to make sure the Clown Goby is getting
a good portion of the food during feedings. I have fed him mostly mysis
shrimp and flake food since he's been in the tank. This week my LFS
recommended trying feeder guppies. So yesterday I bought a couple dozen and
put some in the tank. He could not catch them. So I decided to put him in
a smaller enclosed area to give him a better chance to catch them. The
problem was I couldn't find anything to put him in. Not thinking about
potential problems, I took a piece of tupperware and washed it off real good
and floated it in the tank. I caught the Goby and put him in there with
some guppies. This freaked him out too much and after about 3-5 minutes I
ended the experiement. A little bit later I noticed the tank water started
to get cloudy (see problem #2). Later last night, I also noticed several
white spots on the Goby - they look to be too big for ick - there are maybe
3-4 spots. So I will need to identify what that is and if its related to
his not keeping food down.

2) Sometime after the Goby in tupperware experiement I noticed the tank had
gotten cloudy. I was not concerned about it last night thinking it may have
been from the fish chasing some of the guppies around the tank. (the banded
green goby is a digger and he was all over the guppies in tight places where
they were hiding and stirring up the substrate (which is fine aragonite
sand)). I had also trimmed some caulerpa in the sump/refugium and that
usually causes it to get a little cloudy for an hour or so. This morning,
when I got up- it still appears just as cloudy. And the only thing I can
link it to is the tupperware floating in the tank (for under 5 minutes)? Is
anyone aware of some kind of reaction sal****er has w/ tupperware? I am
testing water quality and so far nitrates are 10 - which is about what they
have been the last 6 months). I have not tested ammonia or nitrite yet - (I
have to run to the store and buy some kits as I have run out of these two
tests) I'm thinking these are more likely to be the affected parameters.
All the tank inhabitants do look ok.

Tank:
75 Gallon
VHO lighting
20 Gallon Sump/Refugium w/ sawblade caulerpa
portein skimmer in sump - a "noname" brand
3 power heads
DSB
about 100 lbs of live rock
1 feather duster
1 brittle star
1 favia speciosa

Tank setup in current configuration for over a year. Any suggestions on
either issue is appreciated. I am most interested in knowing if I made a
mistake w/ floating the tupperware?

Thanks
Otto

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com