Pale, Agressive Yellow Coral Goby

[matthewpunger]

Hi there,

I was hoping somebody could help me, I've been searching on the net for a while trying to figure out what's wrong with the little guy, but not much luck...first here's my tank:

10g nano-reef - 5 months old
2 yellow coral gobies - food: brine shrimp, flake mix (they're picky)
1 yellow tailed damsel
1 camel shrimp
bunch of inverts
10lbs live rock, 15lbs substrate
xenia, polyps, mushrooms
2 coralife 50/50 10W bulbs, biowheel filter
regular water changes, salinity consistently 1.023

So the problem is the bigger goby is very pale and sometimes quite aggressive to its mate (i don't think they're a mated pair yet) and chases and nips at the little one. the pale one's color has been up and down for the past maybe three or four weeks. The damsel leaves them both alone and I feed them well with mixed frozen brine shrimp and new life spectrum flake food for added nutrients. I do a water change at least once a week and since he's been pale, maybe every 5 days. I'm guessing he's either stressed or going through a sex change which can't be that easy...

any ideas? thanks for any help,
Best,
Matt

[FBNitro]

Are you sure they're male/female and not just the same sex and different sizes? The same species of goby do not get along in a small tank like that.

Do clown gobies change sex? I hadn't heard that before. (I know clownfish do, when they are juveniles)

[matthewpunger]

yep, goboidon okinawae are bi-directional protogynous hermaphrodites . but, no i'm not sure if they are male and female, or just the same sex, but they are quite tiny. I had thought that they maybe needed a bit more room. i'm also sort of thinking that might be the problem. I was hoping that they might form a mated pair, since what i've read on them it seems quite easy...not so much me thinks...i've included a picture of when they were happy and cute...