yellow clown goby - not "reef safe"

[treesprite]

I have this adorable little yellow clown goby - cutest little thing ever. They only reach 1.5" in size - not enough fish there to even add to the bioload. I knew that these guys when mating sometimes tear flesh from corals, but didn't expect this single guy to do it.

 

It discovered the pleasure of killing coral when I put Bob's green slimer in my tank. That coral was in my sump for about a week no problem and as soon as it was combined with the goby, the goby was living in it and picked it all apart, killed it. I tried to give the goby the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe it didn't like the transition from sump to tank. Well, now the goby is picking at pocillopora. He sits on montis but doesn't pick on those, just things with branches when things with branches are what I keep wanting to try to keep.

 

Now I don't know what to do. I really like this little goby, but I see he is a devil who will keep me from having the corals I want.

[CHUBAKAH]

Mine lives in a large candy cane coral I have and is way to scared to come out in fear of the other much larger fish in the tank. Perhaps you just need something to scare the crap out of him, that won't actually harm him.

[TROLL]

I have one for 3 years and he's doing great. Never bothered my corals. They're awesome fish, known for their unique personality- mine greets me everyday even at night time after light out. Maybe change his diet? It should get his mind off those corals.

[treesprite]

The green slimer changed his diet. He never bothered the pocillopora until after that, and thinking he still wouldn't, I put it where I had the slimer because it was a nice spot. He eats a good variety of foods, so other than letting him eat corals there is no change that could be made; I use flake, pellet, homemade, and mysis.... he eats all of it. I just read something today claiming that SPS is their food of choice in the wild, though I haven't seen that statement anywhere else.

[bk_market]

Just a question, Is it easy to catch the goby out or he is hard to get to?

I used to have a puffer in my reef that was very easy to take out once he start to cause problem.

[dtfleming]

the goby loved the mucus. Some clown goby's will do this and some wont. Kinda like dwarf angels.

Edited May 1, 2009 by dtfleming

[Hilary]

I had a mated pair that both ate my sps. They went to live in Martin's tank........

[sen5241b]

Wow! According to both wikipedia and fish base they are reef safe! Guess not!

 

wikipedia

 

fish base

[treesprite]

People say a lot of things are "reef safe", for example emerald mithrax crabs.

 

I'm taking the goby to Sam in a little while.... bye bye cute little goby!

 

Are there any bright yellow-colored gobies that ARE ok with corals?