Clown goby... fidgeting? Pacing?

[Tired]

I haven't had a clown goby in years, and I had pretty bad hypothyroidism at the time, so I don't remember much. I have no idea if this is normal behavior for a clown goby. 

 

My five-lined clown goby has a perch on top of a Dragon Soul favia. Occasionally, it'll hop up, dart a few inches in one direction, twitch its fins, dart a few inches in another direction, twitch again, maybe dart and twitch another time in a third direction, and then settle back onto its perch. I don't think it's going out to grab food, because it's not just darting out to get something and then going back, it's going in multiple directions for seemingly no reason. 

 

Is this just a thing clown gobies do? I assume it's doing some little fishy thing for some benign reason, but I want to check that it's not an expression of stress or itchiness or whatnot. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

I’ve never had a five lined, but did have a yellow clown goby that exhibited similar behavior to what you’re describing. 

[Tired]

Okay, good. I'll mark this down as probably normal, then.

 

Odd behavior. My trimma goby didn't do this- it would only move to catch food or to go elsewhere. Obviously they're not the same species, but they're the same general idea of fish. Maybe the clown goby's eyesight works differently, and it's having a look around? The tall head probably changes their range of vision, compared to something a little less flattened. 

[Tired]

I don't see what's sad. The goby is being a bit of a finicky eater, but otherwise seems perfectly fine. They're great little fish.