Coral Croucher Gobies

[mollymonticello]

It's hilarious, I use tweezers to pick out the smallest pieces of mysis for him. He's so voracious! I think he will do well.

 

[alberthiel]

I saw a pair of Coral Croucher Gobies for sale on live aquaria. I thought they would be cool to have in my reef. I know they are venomous but are they actually good reef inhabitants?

Will they eat other fish or small shrimp?

And will they hurt other fish if they by accident touch them in the wrong place (spine)?
I wouldn't want my mandarin to accidently land on one and get injured.

The coral croucher is not a goby but part of the Scorpion Family of fish. Caracanthus maculatus is indeed a slow mover and kind of a lazy fish when it comes even to food and spot feeding is often needed although when fed California Blackworms of clam meat he seems to suddenly become more active and go for the food .. certainly an interesting fish especially since they can be housed in small tanks ... not aggressive except towards conspecifics, unless of course you have a mated pair but since even single ones are not always that easy to find, mated pairs are even more difficult to get. Nice fish though ..

 

[dubdlee]

coral crouchers

coral crouchers

Like other fish not each coral croucher is the same. I have heard some eat frozen right away and like many others have stated they are "shy" and need to be target feed and require alot of time and effort. I have also heard of them being hitchhikers on acropora frags, in which cases they usually stay with their "paired" sps and tend to rarely leave the branches when introduced to their new system. I thought that was interesting, kinda like a paired goby and shrimp i guess. Cool little fish!

 

[coral76]

Cute! I've never seen the coral croucher before now. He would be a perfect addition to my 55 gallon.

 

[squishifishi]

can they live in a tank without sps coral?

 

[Moort82]

can they live in a tank without sps coral?

Yeah they are happy as long as they have cover.