Clingfish Experience? New Biota Fish Listing

[ScubaFish802]

Anyone have any experience with cling/skillet fish?

I saw Biota is now breeding them successfully and their listing states they can potentially be acclimated to food or human interaction - any thoughts or info on these?

Google images adults looks pretty interesting with their low profile body shape. Curious about how large they get / if they will actually eat other small fish etc

Skilletfish

Gramma loreto Feeding on C1, PE Pellet, Hikari Mysis shrimp

shop.thebiotagroup.com

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I've had my black caribean clingfish for more than 2 years now, he just clings to the glass all day, kind of like a sucker fish. It keeps to itself and doesn't bother anything. I like it, its unique and different than other fish, and it swims in a funny way. Mine is close to 3", I don't believe they get much bigger. The black one is peaceful, but I've heard that other types may eat smaller fish.

 

[Flatearth]

My LFS gets these in every Jan/feb/march ,but don't see them any other time for whatever reason, so I guess this is a fish with a strict season? The clingfish I am referring to is called a "black clingfish" and I have never seen any other species in person. Seen dozens of them over the years, none were over 3 inches.


Anyway at the LFS they are peaceful, but need to be target fed according to the staff. They spend a lot of time on the glass, and have a front facing mouth so they probably eat micro-organisms on rocks in the wild is my guess. Even when being chased with a net these fish are not fast, so I can't imagine them actually catching anything.


The black clingfish looks like a lot like a toadfish to me, but the other species I see online seem more goby like although I have never seen them in person. Apparently they are in their own family.

 

[Seneca]

How long do they live in everyone's experience?

 

[CRABDADDY]

I ordered 3 of these guys from biota a few months ago. Two came in very small and they didn't make it. These guys seem to need to be target fed. I usually couldn't find them when feeding. They are really bad about catching free floating food in the tank. I believe they live in tidal pools, so they probably aren't used to moving food.

The larger one that survived is doing quite well. He eats nori off the clip and whenever I feed the tank he swims up to the top so I can use a turkey baster to blow some frozen food right into has face. It's a fun part of feeding.

They're funny, unique fish. I wouldn't recommend a smaller one in a large tank. I'm not sure if they get better about catching free floating food as they get larger. I worry that they'd be even harder to target fees in a large tank.


I'll try and get some better pictures later.

 

[danieyella]

I had one in my pico tank (4g) for a couple years with no issues, when I broke the tank down and moved everything into the bigger tank it didn't make it. It was definitely a target feed type fish for me, came straight to the pipette in the little tank and ate like a champ. I think the big tank was just too big for it. I didn't have a good pod population in the big tank either, it may have done better with that as well.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Huh, I didn't know Biota sold to individuals, thought they're a wholesaler exclusively.

Aquarium Maintenance of the Skilletfish, by CAE Bergesen

http://rchn.biologiachile.cl/pdfs/2004/4/Pardo_et_al_2004.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2423966

As far as the literature goes clings within genus Gobiesox seem to eat pretty much any of the common meaty preys, primarily small crustaceans(lots of amphipods). You could potentially have some fun tong feeding bigger individuals with bits of shrimp. Fishbase reports a max of 8 centimeters which is about as reasonable as fish get.
they remind me a lot of the hillstream loaches I used to have lol

 

[alprazo]

I caught a skillet fish this summer when I hauled in a laptop on a fishing rod. It was living between the screen and the keyboard. I put it in a tank. It eats everything, From pellet to flake to chopped seafood. Now lives in a half opened oyster shell. The other fish leave it alone.

 

[CRABDADDY]

I caught a skillet fish this summer when I hauled in a laptop on a fishing rod. It was living between the screen and the keyboard. I put it in a tank. It eats everything, From pellet to flake to chopped seafood. Now lives in a half opened oyster shell. The other fish leave it alone.

Even our fish are glued to their computers these days...