Oddball Stiphodon gobies

[stormhawk]

Presenting, one of my weirdest fish in my tank:



Stiphodon sp.

From what I've seen on Google searches etc., this fish is similar to S. pelewensis, but since proper identification is not possible unless I submit this specimen to a goby expert, I'll just call it Stiphodon sp. until I find out more on it.

It is a male obviously, and one of 3 specimens I purchased from Polyart some weeks back. Oddly, in that tank there was 2 species mixed in. The other one is probably S. percnopterygonius but I am unable to take a good photo of my other goby.

It spends most of the time grazing on everything in the tank. Now I understand why I failed in the past with these gobies. Without good algae growth in a tank, they seem to wither and die. Now I have two brightly coloured fish that do the same job as a Scooter Blenny does in marine tanks.

[stormhawk]

Finally got a shot of the other male:



So, is this Stiphodon percnopterygonius? Or just another unidentified Stiphodon species?

I also managed to record a video exhibiting the grazing behaviour of my gobies:



They're like little lawnmowers.

[blue33]

that is a Red Neon Goby. here's mine

[stormhawk]

nice fish Adrian.

I should have bought more but 2 is enough for my tank. The green and brown algae grow back faster than they can graze on, and I always see them with fat bellies.

[blue33]

they graze BBA also. infact most algae. they are scavengers, sometime they eat algae waffle and they also eat blood worms i think. got 2 in my tank.

[stormhawk]

I haven't seen mine go for sinking pellets or Tetrabits even, but they are constantly grazing on the algae in the tank. I will try with frozen BW if I can find those smaller sized ones. The larger sized frozen BW are largely ignored by my tetras.

[waterfaller1]

I chop the bloodworms, and also feed mine live grindal worms. I keep three in one tank, and one in another. The single is actually a rainbow, and he eats pelleted food after my goldfish. I call the type in the first photo Sumatran blue neon goby. Not sure if that is accurate, but that is what they were sold to me as.

[stormhawk]

Hi Carole,

Over here the shops label them as Tiger Goby, Neon Goby and a variety of other names. Not that they are very accurate, but since this group of gobies are confusing, just calling them Stiphodon should suffice. There's a thread on these gobies over at the forum on www.loaches.com. Great information on keeping them from this Japanese goby enthusiast. If it wasn't for his words, I would not have believed that good algae growth in the tank was crucial to the long term survival of these grazers.

[plaamoo]

Hey guys! i have several of these. At least 3 different sp. of stiphodon. They are great fish! See discussion here:
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/forums/...showtopic=2159
And description here:
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile...hodon&species=[pl]sp.+%27ST02%27[%2Fpl]&id=1427