Goby Question

[archer772]

Well I am getting ready to add 1 fish for now to my 30 cube and down the road a while I will be adding a couple Bangii's. I was wondering if anybody has an info for me on the Hectors Goby or Court Jester Goby like ease of care, feeding, compatibility and any potential problems with them. I have read that they will eat hair algae now I don't have any but would like something that will if it pops up on me so any first hand info would be great thanks.

 

[Fishieness]

They are a fine fish. Just gotta make sure they eat. Not like it's hard to get them to, IME. It's just that they can get lost in tanks. You just have target feed them to make sure they get enough. Keep an eye on them.
They will also dig around in the sand a bit. I've never had experience with them eating algae, however. They are omnivours, but I've never seen or heard of an experience where they can really compete with any other algae eaters. Although I've never had too much hair algae around.

 

[Amphiprion]

Supposedly, the diet is mostly filamentous algae in the wild. This is also the case with Hector's goby.

 

[Fishieness]

Supposedly, the diet is mostly filamentous algae in the wild. This is also the case with Hector's goby.

you learn something new every day. I thought they leaned more to the meaty side. :silly:

 

[Amphiprion]

I was kinda puzzled, as well. I have seen them take the occasional nip (as many other genus members, like A. phalaena also eat algae), but I wouldn't have imagined it would make up the majority, either.

 

[archer772]

That is exactly why I ask because I have found info that say they need suffecient amounts of algea and other info that says they eat the fauna that resides in the algea and I was guessing that was mainly pods.

 

[Amphiprion]

Well, they eat both, but algae seems to be possibly more important. Here's a link to a quantitative gut content analysis of A. hectori (very similar in most respects). A. rainfordi may not be quite as dependent, but they do eat algae and it is likely still very important in their diet. I wouldn't purchase one unless there was a place for it to graze.