Gobiodon citrinus diet details

rgulrich

greybeard
Thanks for your great service and help all these years, folks. Here's an update on my observations of my little yellow friend /gobidon citrinus/ and his antics in my reef.

Could I talk you into updating your entry for the gobiodon citrinus
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+31+161&pcatid=161
to reflect the contents of these references re: “…may nip at the polyps of SPS corals…”? These references clearly state that acropora polyps make up the majority of the diet of these fish (much to my corals’ and my chagrin).

Again, please post a warning “use extreme caution with acropora” or some such in your description, detailing the fact that these fish really do eat acropora polyps. It’s not the act of laying eggs that causes the tissue to recede, it’s the fish eating the polyps (I have only one of these, and it isn’t laying eggs-it rather appears to be “marking” the corals after it takes a bite).

Do you have any suggestions on how to capture and remove one of these from a 180 gallon reef? I’ve provided a wide array of acropora corals for this fish to feed on in addition to the regular food I provide to the rest of the aquarium inhabitants, but it tends to focus on a particular coral at a time, stripping a large portion of the tissue before moving to the next a few days or week later. This leaves some rather unattractive scars in 2”-4” frags.

http://www.fishbase.org/trophiceco/...=2735&genusname=Gobiodon&speciesname=citrinus

http://www.napa-pana.org/private/modules/knowledgebox/io/file.php?entry=629&field=22
p. 20, para 6 reference their predominately feeding on acropora coral

http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/Bulletin/no25/no25004.html
Please scroll down to the gobiodon citrinus entry (about the last quarter of the doc) and review the stomach contents.


Cheers,
Ray
 
Rgulrich,

Thank you for your message. We appreciate the information you have provided, and have forwarded your suggestions for the Citrinis Clown Goby description to our Web Department for review.

To help trap this fish, you may need to use a conventional fish trap. We have an excellent one that causes less stress to the fish compared to using a net. This unit can be found here.

Mike S.
LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith
 
I, and the remainder of my acropora, are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the above fish trap, and hope that it is effective.
Ray
 
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