My Clown Gobies
Clown Goby Photos and Videos

I wish I had time to write about the various species and types of clown gobies. Instead, I will just tell you about mine.

I wanted to get a fish for my 6 gallon reef tank. Some people said it could not be done while others suggested a clown goby since they are one of the smallest saltwater fish. On 9/27/08, Larry the green clown goby arrived in the mail from Live Aquaria. He did not look well in the bag, listed to the side and washed out. He seems kind of anorexic too. I tested his water that he came in, and the salinity was only 1.021 SG! I floated him for an hour and drip acclimated for 1.5 hours. During acclimation, he colored up (from more salt or may be less ammonia or more oxygen). In the tank, Larry mostly likes to hang out in my fake pink Acropora coral. He will sometimes zip to the surface or hang out in a corner of the tank and lay there. He is colored up nicely now but not very active. I think that is normal for clown gobies to mostly lay there and not do much. As of 9/29/08, I have not seen him eat yet. In addition to the usual fare, I put in frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp for him. Larry is about an inch long and will not grow much larger. He is called a green clown goby but is actually a mix of green, yellow, and red.

As of 10/22/08, Larry is still alive. I have yet to see him eat but he must have. The tank has worms and isopods to eat as well as the mix of frozen foods that I add. He still seems skinny. He does not do much but lay around.

I finally saw Larry eat for the first time on 11/13/08. Of course, he had to have eaten before. He was eating frozen brine shrimp this time. On 11/15/08, I added live brine shrimp for the first time since I got him. He tried to grab them but they kept swimming away so he was a little confused! He still looks very skinny. I add some mixed frozen foods every evening.

Larry continued to eat and liked to sit on the big green mushroom coral. Then, on 11/22/08, I did not clean the tank and feed him that night because I was in the ER getting IV fluids. I cleaned the tank the next day, and Larry was laying on his side. I found him dead on 11/25/08. I will miss him a lot.

I got another clown goby on 2/1/09. He is red so I named him Fireman. He is probably a brown clown goby as they have a red form. I am hoping he does better than Larry.

Update 3/3/09: Fireman is doing well. He squirts himself out of hiding within a large mushroom coral each afternoon when I put in frozen foods. He sucks up brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, etc. So, he seems to be doing well!

As of 12/2/10, Fireman is still doing well. Yipee!

On 6/29/12, a derecho hit us, and we lost power for three days. As a result, Fireman died. :-(
For more on the derecho, read my June pond blog and July pond blog.

On 7/17/12, I got a new clown goby for the 6 gallon tank. Rico was a yellow clown goby. He was anorexic but the only goby that they had, and I felt sorry for him. The kid said that the fish had been there a month and would not eat even live brine shrimp. I was hoping that Rico was just depressed being in a 6" x 6" cube with nothing (they have a bunch of them ganged together to display invertebrates). Well, Rico let me take some photos and then hid behind the live rock. I never saw him again. I presume that he died and then Scary ate him. Scary is a small crab and has not bothered the sexy shrimp which are smaller than he is. Rico was about as big as Scary. It is possible that Scary grabbed him unexpectedly. I will not put any more fish in this tank while Scary lives.

Photos are listed from oldest to newest. There are photos of my reef on my reef photos page. Some of those photos in the future may also show my green clown goby. I did not include all of those here on this page.

Larry on 9/27/08. This was the day I got him. Here, he is in the fake pink Acropora coral.

Larry on 9/28/08. Here he is at the front left of the tank's glass. The curved glass distorts what he looks like.

Larry on 10/4/08.

Larry on 10/11/08.

Fireman on 2/1/09, the day I got him, in drip acclimation setup.

Fireman on 3/2/09.

Fireman on 11/28/10. You can also see hair algae, coralline algae, and mushroom corals.

Fireman on 2/1/12 at the upper left of the photo. I was taking photos of the shrimp but the fish was sticking his head out from hiding in this photo!

6 gallon reef tank video some time in late June, 2012. You can see my zooanthids, mushroom corals, green star polyps, sexy shrimp, and red clown goby (when I say "Hey, Fireman" which is his name). The video ends on my 12 gallon reef tank.

Poor Rico, a yellow clown goby, was never seen again after I released him in the tank but I took these photos when I first put him in the 6 gallon tank on 7/17/12. You can also see corals in the tank.
Rico
Rico
Rico
Rico

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