Diademichthys lineatus

tyler1503 · Dec 19, 2016

Hey everyone! I've found a Diademichthys lineatus/urchin clingfish for sale near me. Are these guys as difficult to keep as I believe they are?
Have many people here had success with them?
They're a new fish to me and I haven't heard much about them except they're a difficult fish to keep.
Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.

eatbreakfast · Dec 19, 2016

The difficult thing about these guys is that they can easily end up in the overflow. Other than that they are pretty hardy. I've never had an issue getting them to eat using calanus copepods.

tyler1503 · Dec 19, 2016

Do they take prepared foods easily? I'm using dry rock in the tank I would potentially put it in.
I have ways of preventing fish in the overflow

eatbreakfast · Dec 20, 2016

I 've never had an issue getting them to eat frozen.

mort · Dec 20, 2016

I had the opposite experience. I couldn't get it to eat anything I offered and a lfs near me had the same problems with the 5 that had when I bought it. It survived a while because it was attacking my cleaner shrimp for their eggs. They really hated this and were visible scared of it.
maybe if there wasn't this source of food it might have eaten something else but all 6 died to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps it was just a bad shipment but I notice LA list it as difficult.

eatbreakfast · Dec 20, 2016

The store I got them from kept them in 4" cubes. This probably forced them to notice the foods.

mort · Dec 20, 2016

That may have helped. Mine was in a 2x1x1ft and even live food was ignored. Well at least the live food I added, I suspect it was also eating the natural food in the tank.

mort · Dec 20, 2016

Should add the lfs tanks were 1x1x1ft with sand and some rocks. They had top and bottom partitions for flow so the food might not have stayed around long enough.

Rule of fish really applies then, see them feeding before buying.

tyler1503 · Dec 22, 2016

mort said:
Should add the lfs tanks were 1x1x1ft with sand and some rocks. They had top and bottom partitions for flow so the food might not have stayed around long enough.

Rule of fish really applies then, see them feeding before buying.

This is the same size tank I'd potentially putting one in.
I can't see them eating as I'm purchasing from an online store, I'd have to trust the seller to be honest with me regarding that.
I think I'll pass on the fish anyway. Coral gobies seem far more suitable for me haha.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in! Much appreciated