Sharknose Goby (Tank Raised)
The Sharknose goby has an electric two-toned stripe along its entire body. Its face is brilliant metallic gold and its body is bright aquamarine. A striking contrast is created between this stripe and its black-as-night body. Its color scheme makes it easy to spot anywhere in the aquarium. It is named for its adorable up-turned snout. Males and females are visually identical. It grows up to 2 inches; we recommend an aquarium 10 gallons or larger.
As one of the largest families of fish there are near countless varieties of gobies which inhabit every different niche on the reef. They are coral safe and quite active and friendly with other fish. Cleaner gobies are often seen sitting on top of rocks or using their fins to stick onto the aquarium glass. They may be territorial with other cleaner gobies, however they are friendly with all other types of fish. They are reef safe, however many cleaner animals may pick at the spots on Tridacnid clam mantles.
Cleaner gobies are known for being easy to keep; they feed eagerly on any type of frozen food such as frozen Mysis shrimp and other high quality meaty items. Marine algae and Spirulina should also be a part of their diet. They typically learn to eat dry food as well; we recommend they be fed more than once a day. Cleaner gobies adapt so well to captivity that they have even been successfully tank bred. When necessary they may change sex to form a pair. We have found however that they may be prone to external parasites such as ICH.
Cleaner gobies exhibit helpful maintenance on other fish, removing dead skin and scales and some parasites. Other fish will eagerly open their mouths and gills to allow the cleaner gobies access to their sensitive parts. Often larger fish will change color and lay still so the goby may roam over their bodies and inspect them for blemishes. Most fish appreciate the assistance from these gobies, even larger predators. However, extreme caution should still be used when adding a tiny cleaner goby to an aquarium with large mouthed fish, as sometimes the larger animal will still consume the small goby. We never recommend adding a goby to an aquarium with ambush predators such as anglers/frogfish or leaf fish.
