Ben's Pico Flaming Prawn Goby Reef

Small triggers · Feb 5, 2014

Yes I am...and Very Cool!
I go down there for work sometimes so it would be nice to have another good LFS to visit!

LA_Mixed_Reef · Apr 23, 2014

that is a cool little build. I just got started with my desktop pico and have three prawns in the tank. They are doing quite well and seem to all sleep in the same spot.

bshowe · Apr 24, 2014

That is awesome! I love these little guys and my do the same thing! Do you have a link to your thread or pictures yet? I would love to follow and see how your tank turns out! :biggrin1:

Longnose Hawkfish · Apr 27, 2014

Are the gobies hard to keep alive? Looks good

bshowe · Apr 27, 2014

Longnose Hawkfish said:
Are the gobies hard to keep alive? Looks good

I think they are fairly easy to keep if you can get some healthy ones. The best way to acclimate them is work with a LFS and put them in a breeder basket in a bigger tank and system with other fish. Flood them in the basket with live brine shrimp every day and having the bigger tank and system allows the excess food to escape and other fish eat it like a tang. Plus it keeps a small tank from going scummy. After about two weeks they should be good and you can move them to your small pico tank.

I feed mine live brine shrimp every day since that is all my bluestripe pipefish with accept currently. I have seen them trying to hunt and eat little copepods in the tank at night. One day I was feeding my bigger tank and I threw in some LRS Reef Frenzy to try and they gobbled that up as well. They are little pigs and their size is deceiving to what they will try to eat!

I have had mine since August 2013 and they are doing great. My father has probably had 10-15 come through his store since then. There was one shipment where they came in really small 3/4" and skinny and 3-4 died. If you can get ones closer to the 1" size or bigger they tend to do the best and acclimate to eating the foods fastest. I hope that adivce helps and let me know if you have any other questions. I think they are my favorite or top 5 favorite fish to have! :biggrin1:

Longnose Hawkfish · Apr 27, 2014

If I put some into a 93 gallon would I be able to see them? Do they come out a lot? Do they only accept live food? Thanks for your response!

bshowe · Apr 27, 2014

Longnose Hawkfish said:
If I put some into a 93 gallon would I be able to see them? Do they come out a lot? Do they only accept live food? Thanks for your response!

Yes you could put them in there, they came from the ocean which is huge lol. I probably would NOT recommend it, especially if you have something that could eat them (brittle/serpent starfish, crabs, shrimp, bigger fish, etc.). They are very shy and so you might walk into the room see them for 2 seconds and then they dart and hide the rest of the day. That is why I keep them in a small tank where when they hide you can see them in the little caves.

I always start fish on live foods and then move to non-live foods. These guys eat predominately live brine shrimp in their diet, but like I said I feed them LRS Reef Frenzy, which is AMAZING frozen food, and they ate it. I have even read that you can get them to eat flake food as well. I just haven't tried it yet. I think they are best suited for their own little tank. The reason I have the bluestripe piepfish (beside they are gorgeous) was I read an article in Coral magazine (which I can't find online anymore) which said when the pipefish was out swimming in the open the gobies were more likely to come out. Every time I walk into the room I see the little gobies out roaming so maybe it has some truth. They will dart and hide if I come up on the tank too fast. The bluestripe pipefish is definitely HARDER than the gobies to keep. It is hard to get a good one and once you have one it only eats live foods. My pipefish refuses frozen food / non-live food and seems to love to play with the live brine shrimp. She roams around the tank during feeding time picking out and chasing down only the best looking live brine shrimp to eat. Haha.

bshowe · May 3, 2014

I figured it was time for an update. I added a new friend a few days ago! :bounce:

There was a tank-raised Catalina Goby that came in so small, my father knew no one pay the price for his size. Plus I have always loved this goby and wanted to give it a try. It is so nice that they are trying to be more sustainable with this fish. I remember 10 years ago where they would come in and were super hard to keep, acclimate, and the losses were horrible. He was eating like a pig in the store for several weeks, so I knew he would be safe to add. My tank is definitely now maxed out on its inhabitants!

I also did a major cleaning again to the tank (removed all the gravel, replaced it with new cultured gravel from the store, cleaned all the rocks, and removed most of the corals.) My tank started getting nasty again due to some neglect and some corals did well and others just did not. I figured the corals would do better in my larger tank where I regularly dose, have better filtration and flow, and I also like T5s better for growth. I also wanted to remove corals like acans because I just did not want it to eat a goby. I saw some nuisance mushroom/anemone (I can't remember the name right now) at my father's store trying to eat a ruby red scooter that I saved luckily! I want safe corals for my little fish!

I did place a small frag of one of my neon green star polyps from my bigger tank colony because I love the coral and color on it. I might add a few easy and bright corals as I see them but I think I am mostly going to make this a tank to admire these incredible fish. If anyone has some good suggestions I am open to it! I would love the community's feedback on how to make this tank pop! :happy:

So now for the good stuff, pictures!!!

Catalina Goby arriving and acclimating. He is so small!!!