6 Line Wrasse and Engineer Goby partnership

TrottingReef · Mar 5, 2023

Has anyone seen a young 6 line wrasse (barely an inch) decide to partner up with an Engineer Goby, live with them in the burrow help maintain it by sucking up and spitting sand out of the entrance to the burrow to keep it clear? My Eng gobby has always been very territorial of her burrow. She is about 12" but any time any fish decided to go explorer her burrow, she would run out the other entrance swim around the tank in a temper and then dive back into the burrow and chase them out. She does this to all the fish except for the 6 line. I can see into her burrow and the 6 line goes all the way inside with her and hunkers down against a wall. Its a 75g tank and the 6 line stays just around the base of the burrow. I had been expecting the 6 line to be more aggressive and out patrolling all the LR looking for food. But once she was released into the tank the 2 clowns and school of Chromis were just chasing the 6 line all over not letting her get settled. Turned off all the lights, fed the tank the other fish were just not happy about the 6 line and would not let up. The 6 line then found the burrow went inside and I expected to get chased back out but the goby just left the 6 line be. I was actually worried for my gobby for a minute but I could see her moving around. The 6 line tried to poke her head out a few times over the next few days but the others chased her back into the burrow. The day after that my Anthias were ready to get released out of QT and the other fish all forgot about the 6 line in their hate of the new comers. I had not seen the 6 line again in like 5 days and started to get worried but the day before yesterday I started to see her come out to feed when I would feed mysis and brine shrimp. Over the next few days she started to come out a lot more but she stays real close to the burrow and helps take care of it. Its real cute to watch. I don't see them directly interact with each other. But the 6 line takes the gobies lead when she starts to clean the entrances and will go help.

Tanglover1 · Mar 5, 2023

cdnco2004 said:
Has anyone seen a young 6 line wrasse (barely an inch) decide to partner up with an Engineer Goby, live with them in the burrow help maintain it by sucking up and spitting sand out of the entrance to the burrow to keep it clear? My Eng gobby has always been very territorial of her burrow. She is about 12" but any time any fish decided to go explorer her burrow, she would run out the other entrance swim around the tank in a temper and then dive back into the burrow and chase them out. She does this to all the fish except for the 6 line. I can see into her burrow and the 6 line goes all the way inside with her and hunkers down against a wall. Its a 75g tank and the 6 line stays just around the base of the burrow. I had been expecting the 6 line to be more aggressive and out patrolling all the LR looking for food. But once she was released into the tank the 2 clowns and school of Chromis were just chasing the 6 line all over not letting her get settled. Turned off all the lights, fed the tank the other fish were just not happy about the 6 line and would not let up. The 6 line then found the burrow went inside and I expected to get chased back out but the goby just left the 6 line be. I was actually worried for my gobby for a minute but I could see her moving around. The 6 line tried to poke her head out a few times over the next few days but the others chased her back into the burrow. The day after that my Anthias were ready to get released out of QT and the other fish all forgot about the 6 line in their hate of the new comers. I had not seen the 6 line again in like 5 days and started to get worried but the day before yesterday I started to see her come out to feed when I would feed mysis and brine shrimp. Over the next few days she started to come out a lot more but she stays real close to the burrow and helps take care of it. Its real cute to watch. I don't see them directly interact with each other. But the 6 line takes the gobies lead when she starts to clean the entrances and will go help.

Wow! I hv seen that they both live together peacefully but personally never experienced this. Look like u hv got good tankmates

Deyan · Apr 5, 2023

I think a video of this behavior would be great to view- like to share with the community? Cheers

TrottingReef · Apr 5, 2023

They no longer have the same relationship. The 6 line is no longer bullied by the Chromi's and so no longer spends all its time in the burrow and spends most of its time swimming among the rocks looking for pods to eat. I still see it go into the burrow but not near as much as before and I have not seen it doing burrow maintenance anymore. It might still and the reduced amount of time in burrow means I just dont see it.