I have a 58gallon with 70 lbs live rock my current fish are a true perc and a yellow wathman with pistol shrimp. I am considering a court jester. From information I have gathered it seems to be really conflicting, are they easy or hard. I just dont want to put any fish in my system that I should not have. Any advice on this fish would be greatly appreciated.
court jester ?s
- Thread starter sds
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Peter Eichler
New member
Well, they almost never accept prepared foods. In fact out of hundreds of observed specimens I haven't ever seen one that appears to eat. I have seen them sift food through their gills at times but it didn't appear they were actually eating. So, you need an established aquarium that will provide it with natural food sources. They spend a good portion of their time sifting sand and will pick god knows what off rocks... I've never seen a gut analysis but I suspect a good portion of their diet consist of tiny worms, detritus, and tiny crustaceans. There are reports that they eat filamentous algae but from what I've seen they will pick things off of filamentous algae but not actually consume the algae.
So... if you have a sandbed, your tank is fairly established (6 mos. or so), and you're not a freak about keeping every bit clean they can be great little fish. They're peaceful, other fish tend to not focus aggressions on them, and they're fairly active. The Hector's goby is virtually identical and also a great addition given the correct environment.
So... if you have a sandbed, your tank is fairly established (6 mos. or so), and you're not a freak about keeping every bit clean they can be great little fish. They're peaceful, other fish tend to not focus aggressions on them, and they're fairly active. The Hector's goby is virtually identical and also a great addition given the correct environment.
Peter Eichler
New member
I really feel Scott Michaels is wrong about them on a few accounts. I don't think they eat the algae and simply eat tiny organisms they find in it. I've kept several of them alive and healthy for years with no noticable filamentous algae in various aquariums. I think an established sandbed is far more important than filamentous algae. Also, in almost every aquarium I've kept over the years I've housed a Rainford's or Hector's goby with one or more Pseudochromids (sometimes the Pseudochrmid is well established when the goby is added) and have never had an aggression problem. For some odd reason fish tend to leave these gobies alone IME.
I am not an expert, I can only speak from my experience with my goby. My tank was new when I got him and no hair alge. He readily accepted prepared foods from SFB saltwater multipack and swifted the sand. Now I have some hair alge and he eats on it all day and still eats prepared foods, he is fat and happy and never bothers any other fish in the tank. I have had him for a little over a year now, and he is one reason why I would like to always keep a little patch of hair alge in my tank. It is funny because when my tank was new I caught him nipping at the fan worms and I hoped he would die, but he no longer bothers the fan worms and appears to be extremely healthy. I don't think he is going to die anytime soon, unless it is from overeating.
Chibils
halide loyalist
+1. I have plenty of algae for him to chew on, but he's never picked at it save to get pods out of the base of the stalks. He spends probably 40% of his time hovering in the bottom third of my tank, 30% sifting sand (onto my monti cap!), and 10% picking pods off of rocks. Additionally, none of my fish have taken notice of him regardless of how aggressive they are toward each other.
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