Yellow Clown Gobies irritating my sps...

[Raska23]

recently added 2 yellow clown gobies/golden coral gobies to my 55 gal AGA. They perch on most of the coral in the tank, including the zenia and the ricordea. the only corals that have responded negatively are a salmon mille and a purple acro. They don't extend their polyps much at all now, but haven't bleached, RTN'd or anything like that. The fish occasionally perch on the hydno or monti, but they appear unaffected.

I do see them nibble at the mille, I have heard they require the slime for their diet.

My question is, will these corals continue to thrive or should I get rid of these 2 gobies? Will the corals just tolerate their presence?

thanks...

 

[tigerarmy40]

getr rid of them! I have one in my 40 and he bites at all of my sps and two of my montis! I want muine out as well but havnt had any luck catching him!!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Get rid of them, do a search and you will find many threads about clown gobies irritating, and even killing patches of sps corals.

Some say it is only a problem when they are in pairs, but i even had one by itself thet would bother my acros.

 

[GorillaReefer]

I've also read that they'll irritate the base of SPS to lay there eggs when kept in pairs.

 

[Brewen]

I wish I would not have put a pair into my sps tank. But as we all know now catch them in a reef setting.

 

[Stoney Mahony]

I had the same thing happen in my packed 55. I love theyway they look and how the perch on everything but when I saw them start crunching my formosa it bye bye time. I read something and tried it, it works great. Take a piece of 1/2 or 3/4 inch flex tubing and start a sipohon into a 5 gal bucket. Then kink the hose outside of the tank. Put the end up near the goby and undo the kink. You vaccum him right into the bucket. I got both of mine out in less than 5 minutes. I even used this method to get a clown out to transfer him to an office tank. Works awsome. Hope this helps.

 

[Lunchbucket]

my yellow one was an extremely fun fish BUT it irritated the heck out of my SPS. it owuld perch and bite at the corals. took him out and the SPS were way happier

Lunchbucket

 

[brad]

Clown gobies do this. If you have a ton of SPS it won't matter. If you only have a few frags, you need to get rid of the gobies.