These little guys [rainford, court jester, old glory goby] are almost as bad as mandarins---you can never figure what they eat. The guides say carnivore and herbivore, and they sift sand for no-see-ums and pods, one thinks...while ignoring a perfect storm of cyclopeeze, mysis, pellets, you name it.
Mine, however, has taken to a spot where a crack in a windowshade let sunlight in---guaranteed red slime---on a patch of grape caulerpa I've been encouraging an urchin to annihilate.
And what does this fish do? He takes to munching the grapes, but only where they're covered with red slime. He sucks that down, then bites off the tiny roots, then gets the odd grape or two, and repeats the performance. He's too small to advertise as a red-slime fighter. His depredations of the red slime are minuscule, and the whole fish is an inch long...but it certainly leaves you wondering what they really do eat, and what he does with the caulerpa toxins.
Mine, however, has taken to a spot where a crack in a windowshade let sunlight in---guaranteed red slime---on a patch of grape caulerpa I've been encouraging an urchin to annihilate.
And what does this fish do? He takes to munching the grapes, but only where they're covered with red slime. He sucks that down, then bites off the tiny roots, then gets the odd grape or two, and repeats the performance. He's too small to advertise as a red-slime fighter. His depredations of the red slime are minuscule, and the whole fish is an inch long...but it certainly leaves you wondering what they really do eat, and what he does with the caulerpa toxins.
