Care Level: Easy

Temperament: Peaceful

Reef Compatible: Yes

General Description: The Yellow Watchman Goby, also known as the Yellow Prawn or Yellow Shrimp Goby, has a wide distribution across the Indo-West Pacific Ocean. A smaller fish with unparalleled personality to match, the Yellow watchman goby has a vividly colored yellow body with beautiful blue speckles in its face and dorsal fin. This goby is typically found in association with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus bellulus), in which the shrimp maintains the burrow they live in and the goby alerts the nearly blind shrimp of potential threats. A Yellow watchman goby can reach an adult size of approximately 4″.

Diet Requirements: The Yellow watchman goby is primarily carnivorous, feeding on small organisms and zooplankton. A diet largely consisting of high quality, vitamin enriched frozen preparations is absolutely necessary to maintain optimal health, coloration, and immune function. Such foods can include, but are not limited to, brine shrimp, calanus, cyclopeeze and rotifers. We highly encourage soaking frozen foods in vitamin and fatty acid supplements. Multiple, small feedings per day rather than one large feeding will also create more of a natural environment for this goby as it would feed in the wild. A Yellow watchman goby may accept high quality flake and micro-pellet foods.

Care Requirements: A minimum 30 gallon aquarium is ideal to house a Yelllow watchman goby. A tight fitting lid is recommended because these gobies are known to be spooked easily until they settle in, and this prevents your Yellow watchman goby from jumping out of the aquarium by accident. Spending most of its time on the bottom of the aquarium, the Yellow watchman goby will appreciate some rock work to build a small burrow under where it will peak out of through the day. We highly recommend pairing this goby with its preferred shrimp partner, the Tiger Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus bellulus), but some have also been observed to pair up with a Candy Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus randalli) in the home aquarium. This partnership, also known as a symbiotic relationship, is important for the Yellow watchman goby to feel completely at home. Do not house Yellow watchman gobies with overly aggressive and pugnacious tank-mates. Yellow watchman gobies make excellent reef inhabitants, though keep an eye on very small decorative shrimp species as your goby gets larger. Keep only one goby of this behavior-type per aquarium, unless it is very large to accomodate territories of more than one individual of different species. We would not recommend having more than one Yellow watchman goby per aquarium, however. Recommended water conditions, 72-78° F, KH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, salinity 1.020-1.025.

Purchase Size: Small: 2″ or less; Medium: 2-1/4″ to 3″; Large: 3-1/4″ to 4″

Note: Your item may not look identical to the image provided due to variation within species. Purchase sizes are approximate.