Overactive Neon Goby?

[rabidric]

Hi

We have a neon goby who occassionally performs cleaning duties on some of the other fish but we've noticed that every now and then they have scales missing. Is he being over zealous in his attentions or could something else be doing this?

sorry if this has been asked before.

Ric

 

[SkiFletch]

My guess would be something else Ric. I've never heard reports of any cleaner animal getting overzealous and removing scales by accident, and certainly not repeatedly.

 

[Colin_T]

maybe a mantis shrimp or hermit crab trapped it in the rocks and got a couple of scales.

 

[rabidric]

Yeah I kind of thought that might be the case, but it's not just one fish and it's not all the time. Having said that the orchid dottyback seems to come off worst and that has even had odd little nicks in the fins. We've never seen or heard anything untoward in the tank despite many sessions staring at it under moonlights. I'll keep an eye out.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Cheers

Ric

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah I kind of thought that might be the case, but it's not just one fish and it's not all the time. Having said that the orchid dottyback seems to come off worst and that has even had odd little nicks in the fins. We've never seen or heard anything untoward in the tank despite many sessions staring at it under moonlights. I'll keep an eye out.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Cheers

Ric

Heh, you'd be surprised what can hide in there. A month ago I had a few fish with nipped fins and couldn't figure out why. My rock has been in my possession anywhere from 1-2 years and I've never seen anything strange in there... Just did a re-aquascape a couple weeks back and found a gorilla crab the size of a half dollar hiding in my rocks. Now that he lives in my sump I've had no problems with nipped fins...

 

[Colin_T]

dottybacks and coral gobies both spend a lot of time in among the rockwork. This would mean they are more likely to be attacked by something living or hiding in the rocks compared to other fish that spend more time out in the open.