New Gobie Pic

[spoondigity]

I have seen several posts concerning what type of gobie to buy on this site so I thought I would post what I bought. I have had this little guy for just over 2 weeks now. They go by several names. Usually called Orange Spotted Gobies and Pretty Prawn Gobies. The LFS called him a CandyBar Gobie but I don't think that is very common. He shares a ten gallon tank with a juvenile ocellaris clown and a cleaner shrimp. The cleaner has already taken to inspecting him from time to time. I left him lots of room to move around on the bottom and several places to hide. He also has some blue coloring that didn't come through on the pic. Really fun to watch and spends most of his time out and about on the substrate, occasionally posturing to the glass if he sees himself (until the cleaner comes along thinking the gobie wants to be cleaned and walks all over him, this tends to deflate his ego some). If anyone has considered what type of gobie they might purchase for their nano, I would recommend this kind just because they are more interesting to watch and much more visible than other options. They grow to 3" or 4" inches from everything I have read. Another nano reefer who has owned one for a year or so also recommends them so that sold me on it.

[SD619]

Is that some sort of sand-softing goby? I thought that prawn gobies were the ones that gulped up a mouthful of sand and filtered it through it's gills. It looks great, but I don't know if I would recommend it for tanks with DSBs.

[spoondigity]

This type of gobie doesn't get its food from sifting sand. They actually like meaty foods that float low in the water column so that they don't have to swim too high up to get them. He eats like a champ. He will occasionally pick stuff out of the sand but he doesn't actually sift unless he is moving substrate for his home. Also, these guys are considered low maintenance fish by every site/shop I have ever spoken to.

[flaunt]

looks neat, but i'd personally stay away from any goby bigger than a clown goby for my nano... especially one that moves sand. my dad had some kind of goby about 3" long in his 40g but he got rid of it after a few weeks because it always had to rearrange the substrate. it was pretty crazy how much sand that little thing could move. in a nano you'd be asking for trouble with a goby like that.

[Fant]

Thats a nice fish, Im holding out for a orange stripe goby.

[Sahin]

Nice goby.

[spoondigity]

Fortunately this guy just doesn't move a lot of sand. He spends the day hanging out on the substrate but doesn't dig. I definitely agree if you end up with something big that can really move sand it can be trouble, but the LFS and the reefer I spoke to all said they don't move more than a few mouthfuls to create a home and that is it. Apparently it just isn't a problem with this type of gobie from all accounts. That is what I experienced now with mine. There was a natural little space under the edge of one piece of liverock. He must have moved a couple of mouthfuls but you could hardly tell. This is the really odd part. He only goes into his little home occasionally. He seems much more content to hang out between rocks on the bottom out in the open.