Please identify my watchman!

[Barncat]

This is my watchman goby, Clyde, who was sold to me as a yellow watchman goby.

For ages I theorized that she was female to explain her brown colour (she's absolutely not yellow,) but recently I learned that there's another species of watchman called the blue spot which I think she may look more like. Clyde has faint darker bars on her brown body with electric blue spots as well as blue markings on some of her fins. This being said... I'm not sure if she 100% matches the markings of the blue spot or not.

What do you guys think? Is Clyde:

A. A female yellow watchman goby
B. A hybrid of yellow and blue spot
C. A blue spot watchman goby

This question is relevant to me because not only has it been confusing me for ages but because I was hoping to get her a mate eventually after I have my new 125 gallon upgrade tank running.

Thank you for your thoughts! I ordered Clyde from JL Aquatics in 2023 and they actually messed up the ocellaris clownfish in that order too - Moby was supposed to be a mocha but they sent me a normal. So, I do think it's plausible that they messed up Clyde too. (Perhaps they had a rookie working on online orders that day!)

(Moby, who is most definitely a normal phased A. ocellaris!)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have photos under white light?

 

[Koleswrath]

My captive bred "yellow" watchman goby is identical to yours. Apparently they don't always turn yellow when captive bred.

 

[Cheese Griller]

My captive bred "yellow" watchman goby is identical to yours. Apparently they don't always turn yellow when captive bred.

The color change is not a factor of captive breeding, but of the species as a whole. Sometimes YWGs just turn grey, nobody knows why

 

[Andreas' Reef]

The color change is not a factor of captive breeding, but of the species as a whole. Sometimes YWGs just turn grey, nobody knows why

im lucky, mine is quite old and is still bright yellow

 

[Cheese Griller]

im lucky, mine is quite old and is still bright yellow

very lucky indeed! I just purchased a .5" juvenile a few weeks ago and he already has flashed gray a few times, so I'm not very hopefull!

 

[ReneReef]

Cryptocentrus cinctus is known to occur in a wide variety of shades. From bright yellow to grey and sometimes even brown. The color does not reflect age or sex.

So the answer would be:
D. a grey yellow watchman goby

 

[Barncat]

Cryptocentrus cinctus is known to occur in a wide variety of shades. From bright yellow to grey and sometimes even brown. The color does not reflect age or sex.

So the answer would be:
D. a grey yellow watchman goby

Does the colour change indicate gender change though? I've heard that that might be a reason for it, that females turn greyish but I haven't researched whether they're born male like clownfish then go female or if they do it the other way around.

This is a blue spotted watchman goby btw, (photo source here) it just looks extremely similar, same shade of brown and everything. Do you see my confusion? This is why I'm still not convinced. Tell me why she is or isn't a yellow anatomically, not just colour-wise.

 

[Barncat]

Clyde under day lighting about a year ago

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I have a yellow watchman that is beige not yellow, since I bought him as a baby 6 years ago.

Personally I don't think its based on gender or age, I think that "yellow watchman" includes either different variety of yellow "ish" colors, or else different species altogether are getting lumped into "yellow watchman".

I've not been able to find any conclusive article that explains the colors.

 

[ReneReef]

Does the colour change indicate gender change though? I've heard that that might be a reason for it, that females turn greyish but I haven't researched whether they're born male like clownfish then go female or if they do it the other way around.

This is a blue spotted watchman goby btw, (photo source here) it just looks extremely similar, same shade of brown and everything. Do you see my confusion? This is why I'm still not convinced. Tell me why she is or isn't a yellow anatomically, not just colour-wise.

As I said: “The color does not reflect age or sex.”
So they do NOT change color during their lives.
Grey coloration does NOT indicate female gender.

The picture in your photo source is wrong.
The site mentions that the latin name for what they call the "blue spotted goby" is Cryptocentrus pavoninoides, that is this one: https://www.reeflex.net/tiere/401_Cryptocentrus_pavoninoides.htm

The picture in your photo source is a grey Cryptocentrus cinctus.
Just like the one you have.

So, the answer remains: D. a grey yellow watchman goby.
Or to be more precise, D. a grey yellow watchman goby that may be male or female and will not become yellow later in its life.

P.S. There are many gobies with blue-spots, including all color variants of the yellow watchman goby. I would recommend using scientific names in stead of common names, then everyone knows exactly what fish you are talking about. As you can see, the website I reference even gives an entirely different common name for the same species...

 

[ReneReef]

I have a yellow watchman that is beige not yellow, since I bought him as a baby 6 years ago.

Personally I don't think its based on gender or age, I think that "yellow watchman" includes either different variety of yellow "ish" colors, or else different species altogether are getting lumped into "yellow watchman".

I've not been able to find any conclusive article that explains the colors.

It may well happen that future research will show certain color variants to be different species.

Currently, all color variants are lumped together under the same species and it is unknown why the variation in color exists.

There are plenty of species that show a great variety of characteristics.
So, a species having a few color variants in itself does not necessarily make it more likely to actually be more than one species.

 

[littlefoxx]

Looks like a grey watchmen. They are morphs of yellow. Ive had a spotted watchmen and it did not look like yours though. If you look close at yellow watchmen their spots are blue too

 

[carol3]

Interesting....my grey Watchman which I have had for two years but is at least 4 yrs old, just turned yellow a month or so ago.

 

[Art_z37]

I had a small yellow watchman goby that was grey when I got it, but turned yellow about 6 months later. It was very small when I got it and I had read that some babies are born grey and do change to yellow as they get older. However I've seen that some say they may change back to grey as they get older or may never change from grey to yellow.

 

[DeSoDo]

This is my watchman goby, Clyde, who was sold to me as a yellow watchman goby.

For ages I theorized that she was female to explain her brown colour (she's absolutely not yellow,) but recently I learned that there's another species of watchman called the blue spot which I think she may look more like. Clyde has faint darker bars on her brown body with electric blue spots as well as blue markings on some of her fins. This being said... I'm not sure if she 100% matches the markings of the blue spot or not.

What do you guys think? Is Clyde:

A. A female yellow watchman goby
B. A hybrid of yellow and blue spot
C. A blue spot watchman goby

This question is relevant to me because not only has it been confusing me for ages but because I was hoping to get her a mate eventually after I have my new 125 gallon upgrade tank running.

Thank you for your thoughts! I ordered Clyde from JL Aquatics in 2023 and they actually messed up the ocellaris clownfish in that order too - Moby was supposed to be a mocha but they sent me a normal. So, I do think it's plausible that they messed up Clyde too. (Perhaps they had a rookie working on online orders that day!)

(Moby, who is most definitely a normal phased A. ocellaris!)

I'm dealing with the same thing with the 2 that I purchased. They were both sold as yellow watchman gobies and I bought them unpaired when they were right at an inch long. Within 2 weeks, one was noticeably larger and turned gray. The smaller one turned gray 2 months later. They've both been in the tank for 6 months, they have not paired up, and they're both still gray. Come to find out, they're false yellow watchman gobies, called bluespotted watchman gobies.

 

[Zodiac]

I got my yellow watchman when he was small and a bright saturated yellow, now that hes grown hes grey with black bars, just like yours. Absolutely zero yellow on him...