Yellow Watchman Goby

trevorhiller · Dec 1, 2021

Where would you all recommend to order a yellow watchman goby? It's been a few years since I have ordered fish online, so I am looking for recommendations.

I was looking on Live Aquaria and they have two different listings. One is for ORA Captive Bread Yellow Watchman Goby and one just titled Yellow Watchman Goby (I presume wild caught).

The photos look quite different (pictures attached). The ORA version is much paler than the wild caught. Is this the case with all ORA YWGs or is the picture just generic? I'm interested in a bright yellow/blue spot specimen, but I feel like the ORA version is going to be hardier than a wild caught one. Appreciate your input.

blaxsun · Dec 2, 2021

What you end up getting could vary quite a bit from the images as well. Is a LFS an option?

trevorhiller · Dec 2, 2021

blaxsun said:
What you end up getting could vary quite a bit from the images as well. Is a LFS an option?

That's what I am afraid of.

Petco...

Let me preface this w/ my petco used to actually be pretty good. They had some basic corals and a good selection of fish and inverts and the people that worked there had reef tanks. Its been a few years since I have been out of the hobby and the quality of the store seems to have WAY down. I was shopping there the other day and ended up buying 2 clown fish because I loved their personality and markings. During the process the lady dropped a fish on the floor (thankfully not my fish). She single bagged the fish with no air in the bag and secured it w/1 rubberband. I should have known to run away right then, but the fish did fine and seemed healthy.

The next day I went back and bought some hermit crabs and a emerald crab. Just for kicks I tested the water since I was in a hurry to acclimate them as I had somewhere to be. Salinity was 21 (Not 1.021! - 21 PPT) I didn't test the water for anything else, but I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I ended up doing a 6 hour acclimation with the bag floating and slowly diluted about 2 gallons of water through the bag to bring it up. It was ridiculous. I am not really interested in buying live animals there anymore until they get their s**t together. I sent a nasty email to Petco Corporate, speaking of, I don't think they ever emailed me back. I need to check.

Sorry for the rant, but I am still pretty ticked off about the situation and the idiots that work there. It's unfortunate that I have no other LFSs close (to my knowledge).