Glossary:
One great species of fish to add to a tank is the Clown goby, or Gobiodon spp., which is a small but colorful addition to any aquarium. It’s entertaining and relatively easy to care for, and it’s typically inexpensive to buy.
Want to find out if this fish is right for your tank? The following care guide will help you make the right choice when looking for a small, energetic fish to add to a tank.
Although the Clown goby is generally reef-safe, this comes with a few caveats. For one, some species of Clown gobies will likely go after your coral, as they eat the coral’s mucus. This makes them potentially problematic when adding them to a nano tank, but you shouldn’t have a problem adding these fish to a large coral tank with a rich environment.
The Clown goby is a carnivorous species that eats plankton and other meaty meals, but its small size means you won’t need to feed this fish large meals.
Normally, with this fish, you will need to start with live food, typically via brine shrimp meals. You can then begin offering this fish a variety of frozen foods, including chopped mollusks, crustaceans, and Mysis shrimp.
It’s possible to keep two Clown gobies together with sufficient space for all of them. However, if your tank is smaller, you should try to stick with one or only keep a bonded pair.
Clown gobies can live for around five years on average, but they have been known to live for as long as a decade.
Breeding among this species is interesting. If you have two females that pair together, the larger one of the two will become male. Conversely, if two males pair up, the smaller of the two will become female. In other words, you can easily pair two Clown gobies of either sex to form a breeding pair.
You can find Clown gobies at a reasonable price, but some may be on the pricier end. Typically, you’ll find this fish for around $15 to $25 online, but some rarer types may run you as much as $70 to $100.
You can keep several gobies in a tank as long as it’s large enough, but you’ll want to keep only one or two in a tank if it’s smaller.
Otherwise, there are plenty of potential tank mates that you can keep with your goby. Some of the many species that get along with Clown gobies include:
You’ll find the Clown goby at many stores online, from yellow to green. Some online aquarium shops selling these fish include:
If you want an active and colorful fish to entertain you and others, the Clown goby comes in multiple colors and is an easy fish to keep with the right care.