The Pink Bar Goby is often actually kind of a pastel orange barred goby, though it can be vertically striped in soft pink as well. The binomial nomenclature (scientific name) for the Pink Bar Goby is Amblyeleotris aurora, which leads to another, much less common, common name: Aurora Goby. It allegedly got this name because the pink (or orange) spots on its tail were reminiscent of the rising sun, and Aurora was the Roman god of the Dawn. It also gets called the Pink Bar Shrimp Goby, and the Beautiful Prawn Goby; these last two names are a result of a unique behavior. All the fish in this genus are known as “Shrimp Gobies” because they will share a burrow with Alpheid Shrimp, which makes for one of the coolest relationships you can see in an aquarium. The shrimp dig a burrow which gets used by both the fish and the shrimp, and the Goby will alert the shrimp to danger when it darts back into their shared home. (The shrimp have notoriously poor vision.) Whether this is an act of commensalism or mutualism is up for debate. Call it what you want, we call it amazing in the aquarium.
While Pink Bar Gobies are pretty easy to keep, they are skittish little things. They are basically big signal flags after all. This is the primary difficulty when it comes to getting them to eat. They're pretty likely to be hiding when you come up to the tank initially. To get around this, feed with the lights in the aquarium on, but the room dark. If you need to, use a baster to actually (gently) squirt some food into the burrow and they'll get the message. Start them on meaty foods, Gamma Bloodworms and Mysis are favorites. In house, we use both of these foods but also mix in a variety of Gamma's Brine Plus, Chopped Mussel and Chopped Prawn. They will learn to take Nutramar Complete sinking pellets if you mix them in with the meaty foods. Feed them at least twice a day. Click here for additional information
While Pink Bar Gobies are pretty easy to keep, they are skittish little things. They are basically big signal flags after all. This is the primary difficulty when it comes to getting them to eat. They're pretty likely to be hiding when you come up to the tank initially. To get around this, feed with the lights in the aquarium on, but the room dark. If you need to, use a baster to actually (gently) squirt some food into the burrow and they'll get the message. Start them on meaty foods, Gamma Bloodworms and Mysis are favorites. In house, we use both of these foods but also mix in a variety of Gamma's Brine Plus, Chopped Mussel and Chopped Prawn. They will learn to take Nutramar Complete sinking pellets if you mix them in with the meaty foods. Feed them at least twice a day. Click here for additional information
