Probably a silly question :)

I have an emerald crab in a 20H with 2 ocellaris clowns, court jester goby and a ton of snails. he's really good at keeping the rock clean, but he does occasionally pull off a zoa polyp from the colony if it is loose. pretty nifty critter to watch. just dont stick your hand near his hiding spots. they fear no hand. I shrieked like a little girl the first time I made that mistake :lol:

haha, I have a 20 long...and we both have a t5ho dual lamp...my tank is 12" deep...I have been thinking this was never enough light for my set up...but I guess with the corals you keep...I should be just fine!! and with another fixture I could probably keep sps, too.
 
I wouldn't suggest a cleaner goby, they only have short life spans in our tanks, in the wild they can live a long time. this is one fish that should be left in the ocean till more data on what they need to survive is made.

I was under the impression that their lifespans are just short, how long do they live in the wild? These guys are captive bred too so I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "we need more data".

EDIT: I just did some quick research, their lifespan seems to be the same in the wild too so now I really have no idea what you're trying to incur. They were also the first marine fish to be successfully bred in captivity.
 
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yeah, sorry I was thinking of the cleaner wrasse not goby

Oh, yea, I've heard very few success stories with cleaner wrasse. They only eat parasites, once they eat all the parasites (or clean all the fish, depending on how you look at it I suppose :p) they tend to starve and die. Once in a blue moon I hear a story of someone (usually a member on this forum) who was able to get one to eat prepared food and was/is able to keep it for many years.

Honestly though, the Neon Cleaner Goby has to be my absolute favorite fish in my 90 gallon tank. Full of personality, always out and "glows" in the actinic lighting. Their ~2 year average lifespan honestly breaks my heart but I think I'll always try to keep one in my tank, so awesome.
 
oh, yea, i've heard very few success stories with cleaner wrasse. They only eat parasites, once they eat all the parasites (or clean all the fish, depending on how you look at it i suppose :p) they tend to starve and die. Once in a blue moon i hear a story of someone (usually a member on this forum) who was able to get one to eat prepared food and was/is able to keep it for many years.

Honestly though, the neon cleaner goby has to be my absolute favorite fish in my 90 gallon tank. Full of personality, always out and "glows" in the actinic lighting. Their ~2 year average lifespan honestly breaks my heart but i think i'll always try to keep one in my tank, so awesome.

+1
 
I would recommend a female emerald crab, they dont get as large and are less troublesome, imho. I am trying to get a male out right now.. Tearing flesh off my frogspawn, despite being well fed. None of my females have done this.. I got a female and male at same time about 6 months ago, the male is at least 4 times bigger than the female now.
 
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