Feeding a court jester goby

[FishWife]

I'm stocking my nano and am taken with this little guy...

court jester goby

 

But, in researching I'm finding some sites say "readily eats prepared and frozen foods" and other hobbyists on other boards saying theirs died of starvation despite HOB refugia. Anyone know from experience how hard these guys are to keep in a 30g nano?

 

TIA!

[rrubberbandman]

I had a "court jester/rainfords gobie" for about a year or so till it committed suicide.......he wouldnt touch prepared foods but would always be eating in and at the hair algae i guess plucking the bugs out .

COOL FISH....also another cool fish closely related is a hectors gobie.

Bryan

[luceneck]

I've had two and neither of them touched any food. They showed interest but no real motivation to grab it like other fish.

 

My first one died of ich after 7 months in the tank when I introduced of a sick wrasse.

My second one died of starvation and never really ate well the 2 months it was with me.

 

IMO there are a few keys to these species.

1). You need a well seeded sand bed without any other species competing for the role of sand cleaner.

2). It has to be 100% fat and happy at the store. If the stomach is at all concave then pass on the fish, even if the LFS told you it eats well.

3). It will also pick at rocks so make sure to have established rocks and a good amount of them.

 

Keep in mind that if you have fine sand like southdown these little guys will constantly keep sand suspended in the water column. I used the larger grain sand recently and it really worked well in keeping that issue to a minimal.

 

Hope that helps, and I think a 30g should be a pretty good size given minimal competition, no aggressive tank mates, and well established sand/rock.

[jhn]

I had one for roughly 2 years in one of my tanks, awhile back. At the time I got the goby the tank had a decent amount of hair algae. After about a year the hair algae disappeared after this the goby got skinnier and eventually disappeared. This was even with a well established DSB and refugium, back when I got it I had read they need a decent amount of hair algae to survive, ime at least this seems to hold true. Also as others said it never would eat any prepared foods.

 

Now if you can find one that eats prepared foods then you would be golden.

[F&Fmgr]

FWIW, I sell them in the store...when they are small i try feeding them sfb reef plankton and i have a huge succes rate. the larger ones i can get onto NLS small fish formula pellets. just takes time with them. I'd reccommend housing them in a bare bottom tank and throw lots of food at 'em, b/c in the BB you can siphon out whats left. its just easier to train them onto prepared foods this way.

 

 

Sean

[treesprite]

Very nice looking fish. Sounds like it's one that you don't want to buy from online.

 

Are these harder to keep than mandarin dragonettes?