Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a violet goby about a week ago (four inches long). For the first two days he was fine, eating normally (I feed him blood worms through a syringe). The third day, he started hanging out near the top of the tank. I looked around on the internet, and thought it might be an aeration problem or an ammonia nitrate problem. I did a half water change and he was fine for a while, but the next day he was swimming around near the top again. Right now he's sitting on the bottom, but he looks kind of thin and I can't get him to eat. As I said, he's a four inch goby alone in a ten gallon tank (I'm going to get a bigger one as soon as I can). The water is approximately 1% salt (aquarium salt), and I used aquasafe water conditioner. The water stays around 78-80 degrees F. Substrate is gray coast calcite. Can anyone tell me what might be wrong?

are there any external signs of illness? try offering him a variety of foods being as they are omnivorous. Try finely crusing flake foods. test your water for PH ammonia Nitrate Nitrite salinity and carefully examine him for any spots growths injuries and check for a sunken belly. Post the info and I hope we can help you further. Lastly was your tank cycled before you added him to it?

Sadly, my goby passed away last week. I made an emergency run to Petsmart (where I got him) the day before he died and they said it was a nitrate problem, because the tank wasn't cycled properly. The other goby they had died two days before mine, though.
This can be helpful to people who are researching and looking into getting violet gobies, though. I researched for two days before I got mine, but I didn't quite listen when it said they were hard to raise, because I've had aquariums on and off my whole life. So, if you don't have much experience with aquariums, DO NOT get a violet goby. It's harder than just feeding them by hand and getting the right substrate.
I do have one more question, though, because the problem appeared in the one I bought and the one that stayed at the store. As I said, both died. They had black bulges inside them. I assumed it was because mine stopped eating, got too skinny, and it was his stomach showing through. Is that the case or was it something else?

Black blothes? were they skin discoloration or growths? If it was on the skin mine has a tiger stripe pattern from his gills back... don't know... And the hardest part of keeping a violet goby is getting a healthy fish to start with. I suspect that yours was not being as the other fish in the tank at petsmart died. what are you going do though? Also when you say yo had aquarium salt was it the salt for sick fish or the salt for salt water aquariums? This fish is from river deltas and estuaries. The need brackish wasterbetween 1/10th to 1/4 strength sea water strenghth is sufficent. Sorry for your loss don't give up on this wonderful fish please.

Apparently it was the salt they were using at the store, and it was the one they handed to me. Apparently it's... "Doc Wellfish's Aquarium Salt for Fresh Water Fish." So maybe it wasn't right. The black thing I'm talking about was... The only way I can describe it was a black ball inside the fish, maybe about the size of a small marble. I'm not giving up on violet gobies entirely. I cleaned out the tank and got some guppies. In a few years when I'm out of the dorms and have more money I'm going to get a bigger tank, let it cycle longer, and try again. Don't think I'll get the goby from Petsmart this time though...