Brackish Water Goby

[pedromatic]

One day I scooped this little goby up while catching ghost shrimp to feed my fish in the canal behind my house (Middle River, Fort Lauderdale). I figured he would probably be gobbled up by one of the little monsters in my 90 gallon mixed reef tank. To my surprise he eluded the predators and has prospered. Originally about half an inch long, he's now a whopping one inch!

Seen here in actinic light.

Besides the curious half-eye spot on his dorsal fin, this little goby features a very unusual feature -- a fin on top of his head!


Here are some more pics and comments.

 

[jessp]

i always used to catch those when i live on the canal in hollywood. we could keep them in a 29 gal aquarium, we would feed them shrimp pellets.

 

[ReefWreak]

That's cool. He's in your full SW tank without any problems? Is he all silver?

 

[scubasteve247]

hmm yellow spot, thats kinda cool, i knew they had one but they were always ticked off when i caught them, really black and dark and i the spot looked like midnight blue.

they are such pigs and get so fat, lol.

 

[pedromatic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10882413#post10882413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
That's cool. He's in your full SW tank without any problems? Is he all silver?

I just threw him in, no acclimation, from brackish to full SW. 'Didn't expect him to survive, but he did. I do that with ghost shrimp all the time, a lot of the ones that don't get eaten are now living in my fuge.
During the day he's dark gray, at night he turns lighter with vertical stripes and roams around the tank.