Discordipinna griessingeri

[MDeth]

Discordipinna griessingeri - The spikefin goby - commonly "flaming prawn" although isnt a prawn.

 

Is this goby a shrimp goby or not?

 

Spikefin

"Also known as the Spikefin Goby, this bright Goby is one of several Shrimp Gobies and originates from the Red Sea and throughout the Marquesan Islands. If present, this fish will gladly share its sand bed burrow with a Pistol Shrimp of the Alpheus genus."

 

I asked Bob Fenner on WWM, and he said dont house them with the alpheus....I'm confused! I read that they are a shrimp goby on two online retailers....

[sandlot13]

online retailers will tell you a lot of things if it sells their livestock....

[MDeth]

im aware of that....but that doesnt answer my question

[Chupacabras]

You got an answer concerning an invertebrate relationship from Bob Fenner and you're still confused?

 

Edit: I thought they were shrimp gobies, too, but I'd take Fenners word on this over anything anyone on this board has to say about it unless they can post a picture of a symbiotic relationship with a shrimp.

[Izzue]

Wow... Nice fisheee

 

But 150 to stay in a hole...naaaa for me.

 

Izzue

[Tangman1218]

...unless they can post a picture of a symbiotic relationship with a shrimp...

 

 

Tang

[Reef Gator]

I always thought that was "flaming prawn goby" as in "bright orange - shrimp goby". But maybe it is "bright orange shrimp - goby". (as in it looks like a bright orange shrimp, not it's bright orange and pairs with shrimp.)

[supernip]

theyre smaller than the shrimps. I had a pair, it was anything but a shrimp goby

[Caesar777]

They're shrimp gobies, yes, but they're damned tiny (shipping size 1/4-1/2 inch, literally, and my adult is about an inch long), so most pistols snap them away.

 

Oh, and they hide about 99% of the time. A real waste of money, imo.

 

 

[supernip]

what proof do you have that they'd form mutualistic symbiotic relationships with shrimps?

 

http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary...me=griessingeri

 

Secretive and not associated with burrows or prawns

 

 

sorry not trying to cap on you, Im just saying

[Caesar777]

Well, mine tries to hang out with my bullseye pistols. They don't like him. Perhaps he's just lonely. Ha.

[Texsun]

Mine does use the same burrows as the pistol shrimp but I would say it is out of convenience/opportunism than it is due to some sort of symbiotic relationship between the two. Far different behavior than when I had a Yasha in there.

[Greenstar]

Anyone still have these guys? How are they doing?

[bobz]

I have two Griessingeri Gobies (Spikefin or Flaming Prawn - pick your favorite name!) that I am keeping in a nano. They are doing well and seem to be most active at dawn and dusk. They have been happily feeding on NHBS, Tiger Pods and finely chopped Mysis. I've only had these two about a month but they seemed to have settled in to the tank well. There are several pieces of Liverock and each has staked out a territory under overhangs of the rock. They appear to be both males as they have not exhibited any pairing behavior as of yet, but it may still be too early to tell. They do display and act definsively when they encroach on each others territory, flaring their fins and dancing around each other. One usually backs off and goes back to their corner. I have seen they eat some fairly large prey, fully grown adult brine shrimp and some larger pieces of mysis. They have a pretty large mouth for a small fish and they seem to be able to swallow some fairly large pieces of food. So far, they have ignored pellets or ground flake. They also hunt down amphipods and copepods when they find them on the rock or in the macro algae. I've watched them dart around the tank in pusuit of a amphipod trying to escape. Here is some video of them in my nano if anyone is at all interested.

I was hoping I could get a pair and try my hand at breeding them...I can't imagine how small the fry would be given the adults diminutive size! If I can keep these successfully for several months, I'll look at getting another two in the hopes of pairing them up. Any one out there keeping these little guys and have more data?

 

thanks

bob

marietta

[Shard]

I have one in my 28g HQI that I rarely see. However as far as I know he is still there. He lives inside the live rock and I think he is living off of the pods in the tank.

I recently purchased another today to go in my AP 12. At the price I got him for, who could resist? I only paid $28 at my LFS

[purplefirefish]

I have one in my 28g HQI that I rarely see. However as far as I know he is still there. He lives inside the live rock and I think he is living off of the pods in the tank.

I recently purchased another today to go in my AP 12. At the price I got him for, who could resist? I only paid $28 at my LFS

 

i got one today for $28

[E36 328i]

Picked up one today at my lfs for $35, I'm going to house him in my picotope, perfect size. I picked up a red banded pistol shrimp as well (Alpheus randalli).

 

I hope they can be nice to each other seeing as the consensus is that they don't utilize any sort of mutualistic relationship.

[Alcapown]

i got one today for $28

Wow, thats a steal. It is an awesome little fish.

[ajmckay]

Wow... this is a really old thread...

 

You got an answer concerning an invertebrate relationship from Bob Fenner and you're still confused?

 

+1

Now, from a description of the Gobiidae family:

Chiefly marine and brackish, some species are catadromous. Often the most abundant fish in freshwater on oceanic islands. Distribution: mostly tropical and subtropical areas. Pelvic fins fused into an adhesive disc, when well developed. Spinous dorsal present or absent; when present with 2-8 flexible spines and discontinuous with soft dorsal. Cycloid or ctenoid scales almost always present. Prominent head barbels present in some species. To 50 cm maximum length; most species below 10 cm. The largest family of marine fishes (possibly > 2,000). The smallest fishes (and vertebrates) in the world belong to this family. Mostly marine in shallow coastal waters and around coral reefs. Most are cryptic bottom dwelling carnivores of small benthic invertebrates; others are planktivores. Some species have symbiotic relationships with invertebrates (e.g. shrimps) and others are known to remove ecto-parasites from other fishes. Typically nest spawners with non-spherical eggs guarded by the male. Many are popular aquarium fishes.

 

So what may scientifically place them in the category "shrimp goby" isn't necessarily it's relationship with a particular species of shrimp. The taxonomy here is plain. There are thousands of goby species and some have symbiotic relationships with shrimp... Actually, the category "shrimp goby" itself is not a scientific name at all, but most likely something that was made up within the hobby in an attempt to identify some of these fish.

 

So in short, I agree that while these fish do in-fact belong to the same family as many of the goby species who do pair up with shrimp we call "shrimp gobies", this particular species is probably not a good idea to try to pair with a shrimp.

 

Good luck if you decide to get the fish though.