Clown Gobies

[ldzielak]

No Acros in the old 33g, My QT (33g resurected) has only a few rocks. It's not medicated, except for Garlic Extrem soaked food. I only have 5 Acros from Darren, maybe I will have to frag one, later before I move him over to the main tank.

I have not medicated the QT since some reading said copper does more damage than good on Gold Rims.

Darren had the Balck Clown in his system, so I assume it was ok.? I have not seen him picking at the Acros, but he sure hangs out in them all the time.

Lee

[Acro]

Here's what the author of the article on gobies in the latest reefkeeping.com article had to say about the gobies in question.
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...909#post822909
I beleive you'll need to be logged into rc to read it.
Sure would have been nice if he said that in the article. I wonder how many people are or have gone out and bought the yellows after reading the article? I don't know the long term effect on a fully stocked acro tank but I would geuss the goby would be alot harder on a mixed or lower stocked system with acros in it. With some of the responces here, I'm not to sure even if the authors answer is all that good of one. As it's clear some of our experiences reveal that they do indeed eat food. That of coarse is not my own personal experience but others state this. Sounds like it could be the angel of the goby family. Some do some don't kind of answer. Is their anyone else that has not responded to this thread with experience with these gobies. Also has anyones experience changed to date?

[One_Divided]

Jamie, thanks for the info!

Mine does seem to get excited when I feed the other fish. He'll nip at food floating by, but won't leave the acro. I don't feed a whole lot, yet he seems to be fat as can be, every day..

I also lost one of my nicest acro colonies lately and I suspect the goby might be partially blame. This colony had grown from a frag I got back in january and was always a healthy, fast grower. Right after adding the goby, it's polyp extension seemed to get very infrequent. Even to the point where I saw none at all. About a week ago, I noticed the colony was slowly starting to receed from the base.. I checked all my params.. all the same as usual.. did a water change.. added more current in the acro's direction... tried gluing over the reccession line.. Nothing worked. My suspician is that the colony was getting bugged to death by the goby. By not extending it's polyps, it slowly starved. I did give some frags out of the colony, in hopes that they will recover.

[jb1974]

I guess I am lucky I came across this thread now, as I was going to put in an order for some yellow clown gobies from J&L. I have 2 green clown gobies (G.histrio ?) that have been a great addition to my reef. They stay in one acropora millepora have nested many many times and always do their deed in the same spot they cleared away each time so the acro is unaffected. They don't nip at polyps and I take a turkey baster and blow in some shredded mysis 3 times a week which they eagerly eat. I guess I will just stick with the gobies I have, or add more of the green ones only...darn...as I really wanted some of those yellow ones I wouldn't want to think about how hard they would be to catch!

[One_Divided]

Just an update. It's been two weeks since my tank transfer and removal of the goby. The sps that were being harrassed before the move are now doing great. Some of my acros had shown no polyp extension in the day becuase of that damned goby. Now I am seeing full extension 24/7.

Transfer went great by the way, I will have pics as soon as my camera is done being repaired (for the second time).

[Samw]

Finally got rid of my 2 yellow "Acorpora Eating" gobies yesterday. Thanks Tigger for taking them off my hands. My Acroporas are extending again after months of being closed.

Definitely not recommended for Acropora and SPS tanks. They don't need to be nesting to eat polyps. Mine had been eating my Acropora and Millepora. I believe both of mine were males. Too bad, they were cute little guys.

[Acro]

Sam,

That's good news. How did you manage to get them? I still havn't got my one out. I try every so often with no luck. Very agressive little buggers.

[Samw]

I have a small tank and small Acroporas. During night time, they like to sleep in the small acroporas. So they were easy to catch then. I just left the lights off, put a net in front of them, and use my hand to coax them out of the Acropora and into the net. One time, after I caught one, I put it in a breeding trap and it jumped out of the trap back into the tank the day after.

Most recently, I had to catch them during early evening while they were awake and they were much harder as they hide among the corals. Luckily, I had a large Cactus coral unattached to the rockwork. I turned off the lights and went after them. One at a time, they darted into the cactus corals for safety and I just lift the cactus coral into a net and scooped them out along with the coral. It did take me about an hr of frustration before I figured out that trick though (scaring them towards the Cactus).

[Acro]

Thanks Sam, you da man. I'll give it a try.