Shrimp Gobies!

[Agu]

Here's an old pic of the watchman goby. The tank has changed a lot since that pic was taken,

 

[dzeadow]

do your guys' pairs stay away from corals and stuff? I was thinking of dropping some zoas in there when I get my lights just in hopes that they'd spread.. but if they're just gonna get trashed I guess there's no point. Agu, it looks like you have som easier corals in your set up... xenia, anthelia?, candycanes...

 

[ACBlinky]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12324066#post12324066 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dzeadow
ACBlinky - I was hoping you'd drop in. I've seen a couple shots of your pair in another thread. I'd still like to see your tiger(Digger?)! How big is it?

Ask and you shall receive! This is an oldie, but a goodie, and I don't think it's one I've posted previously. I think Digger's at least 2.5" long now, he's very big compared to when we got him three years ago. He and Goober are both much larger now than in this picture, but about the same relative to each other.

On the subject of shrimp gobies, I saw the largest watchman I've ever seen at the LFS today. No exaggeration, he was about 5" long and thicker than my index finger. The LFS manager was afraid to try and pair him up with a shrimp, fearing he'd eat it! This monster made the sand-sifting gobies look like tiny babies, he was absolutely HUGE. I had no idea that they could reach this size, and wonder how old this behemoth must be. I wish I'd had the camera, he was phenomenal. If you think a small watchman goby looks grumpy, you should have seen the expression on this one's face -- I bet not even a grouper would bother this fish, he was unreal.

 

[dzeadow]

That's too funny. I'm sure their frown gets exaggerated when they get older. I happened to be in a PetCo yesterday and they had a lawnmower blenny that was the biggest I'd ever seen. His eyes ogling back at me made me feel uncomfortable! That's a nice pic of digger! Also, do you know why dracula gobies are so expensive? Is it because they're collected so remotely? Pairs on LA go for $350 or more. I didn't know if it was just because they're new to the hobby or the remote collection. I'm kicking myself for not jumping on Bluezoo's sale when they had Yasha's for $29 grr! I'll still get one, one day!

 

[dzeadow]

Well, all my shrimp were really active today. I saw my Randall's in my 45g for the first time in 2-3 weeks, so he's still alive . Its amazing how much smaller they are.. he's only about 1/2-3/4" compared to the tigers that are anywhere between 2-3". My smaller tiger had been hiding for a few days but I found a shell of a claw so it must have molted.. back to bulldozing today tho. Here's some pics of the tigers since the Randall's is too shy w/o a goby:

This is goby A as show above w/ its very active shrimp:

and goby B w/ his shrimp w/ new armor:

 

[dzeadow]

hopefully Marine Depot will ship my t5's soon, the pics w/ this clip on CFl aren't turning out too great! Plus I'd like to put some zoas in there after I figure out how much of the rocks are going to get burried w/ gravel!

 

[buckeyegirl]

These are so cool. I have a goby/shrimp pair on my tank wish list My LFS has a beautiful Aurora goby that I have had my eye on. He hardly ever gets in any pistol shrimps. I need to do some more research though before I buy (such as if I add the goby first and the shrimp later will they still pair up? And my engineer goby has claimed one side of the tank as his own, will the goby claim the other side or will they fight?) Just thinking out loud here.

 

[dzeadow]

your best bet is to try and get them at the same time and acclimate them together like I did... they found eachother right away. If not, you can get the Aurora and put it in, make sure you watch where it calls home. When you get your pistol, after acclimation, put it in a net and hold the net closed until you get it towards the goby's hole and leave the net there. The pistol will have a better shot of finding the goby and vise versa. As for the gobies fighting.. not sure. I've never had an engineer goby so I don't now how agressive they are.

 

[dzeadow]

Well as stated before I found my Randall's for the first time in weeks the other day.. well he decided to move homes. Guess where he's at now? I found him excavating right against the front glass! I snapped about 12-15 pics just to get one good one. These guys are tiny compared to the Tiger's. Here's the little guy (3/4") up against the glass goin at it:

 

[The_Wonderboy]

that's an awesome shot!

 

[dzeadow]

i wish he would have stood still for a second so it wasn't blurry! I made the mistake of going in there w/ my scraper trying to clean the glass around that area and now i haven't seen him for a while. I have a feeling he has a 12" tunnel coming from one of the rocks in the middle of the tank towards there. Quite the excavator if that's the case!

 

[Eklikewhoa]

I got two pairs....one I had to sell when tearing down the tank.

first pair

the second pair I got it's hard to get pictures of them but the yashia is thinner and more feminine looking and the shrimp has some yellow in it.

 

[Tang Salad]

Great pics!

 

[dzeadow]

Nice pic of the yasha! I wish my pairs would just sit still outside their holes like your guys. I can't get great pics... the lighting doesn't help either. I finally found a "distributor" locally so when I get my systems redone, I'm going to get a couple yasha's.. they're so cool lookin!

 

[dzeadow]

I thought you guys/gals would get a kick out of this. That last pic of my Randall's that I took was at my front glass. I thought he made a new home up there until I saw him pushing dirt out of the hole in the rock where he made his original home, approx 12-14" away. That's quite the excavation for a 3/4" max shrimp! Here's a pic detailing where he started and where I took the pic at. He must have some crazy tunnel work going on!

And heres a decent pic I got of my 2nd hi-fin and its shrimp..sorry for the glare.

 

[buckeyegirl]

Looks like he's trying to build a rabbit den under there