Yellow clown goby and acros

[thatindonesianreefer]

Hi. I have a 12 gallon mixed reef and a yellow clown goby which is almost 2 yrs old. ive kept many sps with him but he seems to only target acros. as of rn ive placed a dying acro in his usual spot to keep him busy and not sure if he'll go for the frags. Is there any way to stop him from killing them? He seems to perch for a few seconds and nip a bit many times a day.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

How often are you feeding it? I have 3 clown gobies and they never bother any corals, I feed them 3 times a day.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

I feed once a day witg mysis. should i decrease feeding size and feed more?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

clown gobies have small stomachs and fast metabolisms, they should have frequent feedings. I would also mix up the food, add different foods not only mysis.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

What foods would you recommend?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I feed mysis, pellets, and reef frenzy as my main foods, I alternate each time.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

He seems interested in pellets but usually backs off. What pellets do u use?

 

[Lasse]

Hi. I have a 12 gallon mixed reef and a yellow clown goby which is almost 2 yrs old. ive kept many sps with him but he seems to only target acros. as of rn ive placed a dying acro in his usual spot to keep him busy and not sure if he'll go for the frags. Is there any way to stop him from killing them? He seems to perch for a few seconds and nip a bit many times a day.

If you mean Gobiodon okinawae - this is a difficult question because in the wild it have been shown that just this goby live as a cleaner of many different Acropora corals and there is report of similar behaviour of other Gobiodon species - here is another and another

I have seen one article about Gobiodon okinawae as a cleaner but can´t find it for the moment but I found this study that conclude that there is traces of corals in the gut - from here

This study is the first quantitative assessment of Gobiodon diets and provides
evidence that coral-dwelling gobies ingest coral tissue. Coral-feeding behaviour has
been observed in Gobiodon citrinus (Riedlecker & Herler, 2009) and G. okinawae
(P.L. Munday, pers. obs.);

However - if the colony is large enough - it should not be any problems but if you have a pair - they will clean a smaller part the colony and lay eggs there



According to food - I only feed with adult frozen artemia (brine shrimp) and freshwater cyclops

If you have small frags - I think that the trick with dying acropora will work for you if they seems to attack rge frags - but all nibbling is not an attack for coral tissue - it can be a cleaning for algae too

Id you mean Gobiodon citrinus - IMO - its more of a coral eater compared with other gobidion I have had

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

He seems interested in pellets but usually backs off. What pellets do u use?

I use the "new life spectrum" marine pellets, I get the smallest size.

 

[twentyleagues]

Clown Gobies live in acro colonies in the wild and actually lay eggs on the acros, they remove the flesh typically around the base of the acro before spawning. This is normal behavior for them. They will also eat the mucus off the corals which may irritate the corals. Typically on healthy larger colonies of acro this is usually not an issue but with frags or smaller quantities of acros this behavior could kill the corals. I agree with @Mr. Mojo Rising more frequent feedings, smaller portions, and a larger "menu" could help. I used to have quite a few of these little guys. I cant remember ever seeing any of them going for pellets, they would eat algae flake food though. I usually fed and still do feed mostly frozen foods like mysis a couple sizes, enriched brineshrimp, calanus, reef nutrition arctipods, rotifers and a couple other frozen small items. I have also been known to feed live black worms and white worms on occasion.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[twentyleagues]

I see @Lasse commented also and I agree the citron goby is way more destructive to acros than the "regular" clown goby or correct name Okinawae. The citron goby gets larger and is typically yellow with more blue facial markings.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

I have a regular yellow clown goby and not the other one

 

[Paul B]

They don't kill corals by eating them. (I have 7 or 8 of them) they lay eggs all over acropora which kills them. If you only have one, they don't lay eggs.

Her eggs are above her here. The pair completely killed that coral.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

I only have one

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

For foods i have frozen mysis,daphnia (for my fw tank), af plankton mix, and af brine can i use them?

 

[Ef4life]

I see mine nip at my acropora all the time, it doesn’t bother much them because they are large and healthy growing colonies and there is multiple of them to spread out the damage and allow them time to recover. That’s going to be hard to accomplish in any tank under 40g.

I would not put a clown goby into a tank full of small acropora frags. Wait until they are growing and mature then add the fish.

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

unfortunatly 2 yrs back when i got the fish i nvr planned on keeping sps and only kept lps and softies but now that im moving to acros hes been bothering the journey

 

[thatindonesianreefer]

I've been feeding it 3 times a day now with a mix of mysis and live bbs. He seems to be better but still likes to nip the acro which caused it to lose most of its PE. Is there anything else i can do? rehoming him isnt an option as i havent found anyone willing to take him.