Are you familiar with the little clown gobies. I like the green one and the yellow one. I was interested in putting ONE of the two in my tank. Do you have any knowledge/recommendation with keeping this fish in an sps tank? I have heard that they will hang out in the acro colonies like the commensal crabs do which is kind of cool but I have also heard that they can damage the colony when breeding. If I only by one there will be no breeding going on. Should I be concerned with adding this fish?
Clown Goby
- Thread starter kj5432
- Start date
kirstenk
23.5 Degrees
I currently have a yellow one that has irritated a few of my corals and they no longer extend their polyps. 
I am gonna have to remove it.
I have a friend that purchased a wild colony that came with a clown in it. Her's has never left that colony and it does fine.
Mine nips. They are hit and miss fishies and I have heard that the yellow may be more ify. YMMV
I am gonna have to remove it.I have a friend that purchased a wild colony that came with a clown in it. Her's has never left that colony and it does fine.
Mine nips. They are hit and miss fishies and I have heard that the yellow may be more ify. YMMV
Jeremy Blaze
Former Reef Addict
I will never place one in a tank with sps again.
Blugobi
New member
From everything I have read or heard they are quite a pest for SPS, they will nip at polyps and they like to lay there eggs on or near the coral, and will constantly be checking the eggs, therefore constantly rubbing on the polyps...it will stress your SPS. Not worth it...IMO
Geo
Geo
Orochimaru
1 of 3 legendary ninjas
no nipping yet but there is a lot of sitting on corals
MiddletonMark
Premium Member
I've not had problems with the Green Clown Goby I've had in my SPS tank for a couple years now. It perches, but doesn't nip or appear to do any damage.
I wouldn't put a yellow one in, though, as I've heard too many reports of them being problematic [nipping, etc]
I wouldn't put a yellow one in, though, as I've heard too many reports of them being problematic [nipping, etc]
scyphozoa
New member
Currently I have a pair of yellow clowns and also one green clown goby. None of them seem to do any apparent damage to the corals. The green goby has been in the tank for about 2 years now. As for behavior, the two species are very different!
Yellow clowns tend to hang out in view more often above the rocks and are more aggressive. They also seem to be less picky when it comes to food types and food size. It was difficult to get the green goby to eat initially and it took a while to fatten & color him/her up. (Mixing live baby brine w/other food types seemed to help) When I had my yellow pair in my 20 gal quarantine one of the two constantly picked on the other fish. The dominant fish grew in size while the other was small and skinny. I added the small yellow one to the main display 1st and after two weeks it grew to the same size the other was. I expected some aggression when I added the other yellow goby but it never happened (....I think the larger size of habitat had to do with this).
Lately one of the yellow clowns (I am not sure which one because they look identical now) has taken to diving at my copperband butterfly if it comes close to its claimed coral. It only does this to the docile butterfly--the tang and others it leaves alone.
Before I purchased the yellow clown pair several years back I had a single yellow clown in the tank that died for unknown reasons--this is the one pictured in my gallery (I have left it there in case others that visit the fish disease posts may need to look at the pic of its lesion). This fish also never harmed my corals.
Yellow clowns tend to hang out in view more often above the rocks and are more aggressive. They also seem to be less picky when it comes to food types and food size. It was difficult to get the green goby to eat initially and it took a while to fatten & color him/her up. (Mixing live baby brine w/other food types seemed to help) When I had my yellow pair in my 20 gal quarantine one of the two constantly picked on the other fish. The dominant fish grew in size while the other was small and skinny. I added the small yellow one to the main display 1st and after two weeks it grew to the same size the other was. I expected some aggression when I added the other yellow goby but it never happened (....I think the larger size of habitat had to do with this).
Lately one of the yellow clowns (I am not sure which one because they look identical now) has taken to diving at my copperband butterfly if it comes close to its claimed coral. It only does this to the docile butterfly--the tang and others it leaves alone.
Before I purchased the yellow clown pair several years back I had a single yellow clown in the tank that died for unknown reasons--this is the one pictured in my gallery (I have left it there in case others that visit the fish disease posts may need to look at the pic of its lesion). This fish also never harmed my corals.
HippieSmell
Occupy Reef Central
I have a citron goby that nips and perches. I had a few frags recently stn and it would pick at the the receding areas. Don't know if it had a harmful effect or not, but I doubt it helped any.
Flyfisherman
New member
I had one of each in a tank with SPS. They were both relentless in their attack on my coral polyps. The only good thing about them is they are easy to catch. What a shame as the yellow clown goby was my favorite fish.
Stoney Mahony
New member
Not that easy to catch in a tank full of SPS. I had to siphon my yellow one out but their quick. Mine nipped from the moment he went in. There cool for softy or LPS tanks but I would keep away if you have SPS.
