Yellow Watchman Goby Hiding

[trav_shock]

I bought a yellow watchman goby, about three days ago, from a local pet store. He had a lot of energy when i first introduced him into my tank but I have not seen him sence and I was wondering if this was normal for gobies to hide for a while after being introduced.
Any help/sugestions is greatly appreciated.

 

[Sk8r]

He's probably digging a burrow. It may not face front. As he gets more confident, you'll see him.

 

[sshunter]

i have one and i didnt see him for 2 weeks and then he started to come out of his hole and chill right in front of it give it some time, they are hardy fish, ive had mine for years in a 30 gallon then moved him to a 180 and thats when i didnt see him for a while.

 

[hagfish]

My yellow watchman is probably the least active fish I own. I've had him for a year and a half and I love him. But I don't see him too much. He's out when I feed though.

 

[Manderin]

maybe it found a rock it liked and its staying there as its territory

 

[Manderin]

my royal gamma did that, for a while, then it found another spot where i can see it, yay

 

[AJF]

Yes he's probably digging his hole! i ve had one with an alpheus, and the alpheus was always diggin, and the yellow goby protecting the hole!

 

[adtravels]

you may not like the sound of this but I put one in my tank and it dissapeared, A week or two passed and I gave it up as dead. Anyway 6 months later I broke the tank down for a move collected the fish and drained the water to about 1 inch, There in the corner of murky water was the goby fat and healthy. I had never seen it once.

 

[bryan.wilson79]

I've had a pistol shrimp/YWG pair for almost 4 months now...they have dug trenches under one of my rock formations and only see them at mysis feeding times they don't seem to get too excited about Spirulina or hatchery pellets..I can usually find them with a flashlight under the rocks any other time..both nice and healthy though..

 

[ThRoewer]

I would suggest to add a pistol shrimp. YWG usually prefer the highly industrious tiger pistol shrimp, but should also accept the smaller and far less disturbing randalli shrimp.
You may also consider adding a second YWG, as they prefer to live in pairs and feel more comfortable to come out with a buddy to watch their back.

 

[EthanHawaii]

My YWG was extremely shy for the first month or so, he would dart into the rock work when I walked past the tank from even 15' away! and about a month later he was fine with me a foot away from the glass, but know he will let me get however close I want.

But even to this day I have never been able to spot feed him because he just darts into the rock work and only eats when I feed the whole tank.

 

[Crawdads57]

...You may also consider adding a second YWG, as they prefer to live in pairs and feel more comfortable to come out with a buddy to watch their back.

What is the likelihood of two YWG getting along vs. aggression? I do not know if you can sex them, but if you added another male to a tank with an established male (like worst case scenario) are you going to be risking a fight?

Several years ago I bought a pair of very small YWGs and a pair of red banded pistol's - they were the only fish in a small tank. They all lived together in the same burrow - it was awesome. I thought I had just gotten really lucky.

Now I have a huge tiger pistol with a rapidly growing YWG and I think it would be neat to have 2 YWGs with this one big tiger, but I would be worried that the establish YWG doesn't really want a roomy. And there is only one place for the burrow, the other rockwork is standing on end and was sawed off to be flush with the glass under a thin layer of sand.

________________________________________________________________


Sorry for the hijack, but to the OP's question. I think a YWG is far more active with a pistol. I notice that mine like to hang out at different openings depending on the time of the day. I purpose built my rockwork just for the YWG-tiger pair, so I have a good view of them 75% of the time, but left an area where they can't see me and I can't see them, just for the stress factor originally.

Potential downside (as ThRoewer mentioned) is that a tiger is an industrious critter, especially when they get bigger. The one I have is content with his house for 2 or 3 days, and then I come home and it seems that he has moved every grain of sand in the tank. That's an exaggeration, but its amazing what he can do in just a few hours. Like I said its a small tank.

Heck the pistol shrimp are not expensive. And they are among the hardiest critters I've ever kept. I got some TBS gulf live rock and it came with 4 small wild pistols. It took me several weeks to see them all. These guys don't pair with fish. Then I added the tiger and YWG - no issues whatsoever. In fact one of the wild pistols has setup shop within an inch of the big guys burrow.

It's noisy at night, but its just the wild little ones. The big guy never cracks the whip.

 

[madweazl]

you may not like the sound of this but I put one in my tank and it dissapeared, A week or two passed and I gave it up as dead. Anyway 6 months later I broke the tank down for a move collected the fish and drained the water to about 1 inch, There in the corner of murky water was the goby fat and healthy. I had never seen it once.

I picked up a YWG around '98 and would see him off and on in a 40g through the years. In '08, I tore the tank down because we were moving and he popped out after not seeing him for a good two years! By comparison, the Randall's goby/tiger pistol pair were always out (and well away from their burrow pretty often). I would feed the pistol with a pipette and the goby would eat from it as well. They were fearless and the goby was fairly territorial as well.

 

[BigBlueTang]

I would suggest to add a pistol shrimp. YWG usually prefer the highly industrious tiger pistol shrimp, but should also accept the smaller and far less disturbing randalli shrimp.
You may also consider adding a second YWG, as they prefer to live in pairs and feel more comfortable to come out with a buddy to watch their back.

Would you know how to sex them? Or does it not matter? I have one and (he/she) is my favorite fish in the tank, and having another does sound fun. I do not know how to sex them..

 

[Willyboz1]

Just got one yesterday. Previous one jumped. So o I put the lid on this time. He was hanging out high on the glass before I went to bed. This morning I can't find him. Hopefully it's like what you guys said he burrowing or he found his pistol shrimp friend.