The family of Gobiidae is the largest family of marine. Goby fishes are found all over the world, from oceans to freshwater mountain streams. There are plenty of marine gobies fish that are perfect for the reef aquarium. There are more than 2200 species of gobies all over the world. Don’t be scared, because I would not explain it all, but I would like to introduce the family and some of the best goby fishes in the reef aquarium.
Goby fishes are carnivorous. They are usually small in size. A large number of goby fishes are relatively small in size, about four inches. They are perfect for the small aquarium rather than the large aquarium due to their size as they get lost in the large tank. They can be expensive food for larger fishes in the tanks, so they should be kept in an aquarium where there is no predator for goby fishes. Gobies should not keep in the aggressive fish alone as they will be troubled by many larger species, and many predators will feed on them. Although, most will be excellent species for the reef aquarium as they are friendly with other fishes.
Goby Overview
Few goby fishes cannot tolerate any similar species or even heterospecifics that look similar, especially in limited space and in their territory. This is an outcome of the territorial attitude of individuals to small places in the home reef. You should put one goby of each genus if there is a shortage of space. They also tend to jump out of the tank if another aquatic animal harasses or poke them. So the upper side of the aquarium should be cover in such a case. They usually like to stay at or near the bottom of the tanks, so you would not likely see them swimming at the top or upper parts of the aquarium unless there is food on top. There are sand sifters, cleaners, and a few life with burrowing shrimps.
Most goby fishes will survive to captive diets. There should be a wide variety of small fresh, frozen, and artificial feeds which is very important to them. Most of the goby fishes in a mature reef system will feed themselves with natural plankton populations. For example, Sleeper gobies will process the aquarium’s substrate to extract the invertebrate life.
Best Goby Fish
While goby fishes can find a reasonable amount of food inside a reef aquarium, but you have to provide some supplementary foods which would prevent them from becoming emaciated. Generally, Goby fishes are best for reef aquariums as they can take care of themselves. Here is our list of the best Goby fish!
The Dragon Goby
The dragon goby, which is also known as brown barred goby, Amblygobius phalanx. It is a big goby fish that has lengths of 6 inches. It is a sifter that takes a large quantity of sand in its mouth and eats the creatures living in it. They can therefore help to keep a sand bed clean, too. There should be one dragon goby fish in one tank. They can be much friendly with other fishes. However, not with their species unless they are kept as a mated pair.
The Rainford’s Goby
The Rainford’s goby is known as Old Glory goby, Amblygobius Rainford. It is an elegant, small fish that generally stays under 2.5 inches, but they are likely to die from starvation. They need to feed on green filamentous algae, which are known as hair algae, for their survival and strength, but they do not like to eat hair algae. You should keep in mind that one tank could only consist of one fish or mated pairs.
The Neon Goby
These are Caribbean species that are very small in size. They stay in a water depth of two inches. They are generally quite hardy “cleaners” which help keep other fishes at their best. These goby fishes will eat any parasites and dead skin like the cleaner. Goby fishes are much better than the cleaner wrasses because wrasses do not like to take the fishes that they are offered, and more often, they die out of starvation. On the other hand, the neon goby fishes will typically eat a wide variety of fish foods. They can be kept with or without other fishes.
The Clown Goby
The clown gobies are known as coral gobies. They are also quite small, typically 2.5 inches in length. The most common species known as Gobiodon okinawae. They cannot even reach 1.5 inches that make them suitable to live in small tanks. They are very vibrant in color, and they would not disturb any other fishes except their species. Although, the clown gobies cannot tolerate another clown goby, and if they are kept in a large aquarium together with plenty of rock and corals, they will make male and female couples among themselves and stay with each other peacefully.
They would like to make holes in the branches of stony corals like Acropora, but they do not cause any harm to them. One thing you need to keep in mind that they tend to be quite hardy. They will eat different kinds of fish foods as long as they are small in size. As they are small, it is better to keep them with other peaceful fish. Otherwise, they will be troubled by larger tank mates and aggressive fishes, and they will also tend to eat goby fish food.
The Catalina Goby
Catalina goby is commonly known as blue-banded goby, Lythrypnus Dalli. They are also small fishes, typically a size of 2 inches. More than one species can be store in a tank without any aggressive behavior. They are mainly territorial. Due to the small size of the 30-gallon tank can be large enough for them to live. They also eat various kinds of food without any issue. You should also keep in mind about the other fish that they should not trouble these tiny fishes and eat their foods.
These small fishes hail from the water off California and Baja Mexico. This is because the water is much cold than our reef aquarium and even many non-reef marine aquariums. This seems to be a problem for us. So, your tank needs to be warm for these fish to survive in. They need a temperature of 50-60 Fahrenheit, but they should not be kept in a temperature above 70F as they may not be able to survive at such a high temperature.
The Shrimp Goby
The shrimp gobies belong to the genus Amblyeleotris, Cryptocentrus Stonogobiops, etc. They are very small in size and are mostly three-five inches and skinny. They live in very close relationships with some pistol shrimps. These two species help each other as goby fishes have excellent eyesight and, shrimps are magnificent diggers. They would feed on anything you give them, but they also have their sinking food pallet. But there is a problem when you put goby pallets into the tank, other fishes would get the smell and come to eat them.
As a result, the goby would send shrimps to the burrow, and goby fishes would chase other fishes to get away from their food. They would scare away other fish by opening their mouth as wide as possible and charge at the other fishes to fend them off. Shrimp can even make a hole at the bottom of the sand big enough for themselves as well as for one or more gobies. In a nutshell, their relationship is like goby fishes act as a security guard, so that no predators can come closer to burrow as well as shrimps while the shrimps build a shelter for goby fish and themselves.
Additional Information
After building the burrow, shrimps stay inside the burrow, and goby fish stays at the entrance most of the time. More often, Shrimps stay close to goby and make physical contact with one of their antenna. In the process, Goby fishes feel more responsible to warn the shrimp of any possible danger from the predator by wiggling its tail or body. Sometimes it goes into the burrow when potential or even harmless species come closer to them. Due to their small size, they could not threaten other large predators except for the small ones. None of the goby fish generally create any problems with another type of fishes, despite their chasing after other fishes trying for their companion food. They do not care about other fishes in the tank at all and always be within themselves.
Some goby fish do not tolerate other goby fish or even their species in their territory. Though some goby try to share with other shrimp goby, most of them would not share their burrow with others. These unsocial goby fish would often chase one other relentlessly unless one is finally convinced to hide at all times or run to death. On the contradictory, if you are lucky enough to come across a mated pair, they can get along with each other more peacefully than any other fish in the tank.
Goby fish can be a better species to bet if you plan on a first breeding project for marines. Neon gobies are probably the best species as they will spawn in even small tanks if conditioned with different regular foods.
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