Fancy Gumdrop Coral Croucher

Squishie89 · Mar 15, 2014

SCIENTIFIC NAME -Caracanthus maculatus
COMMON NAME â€“ Gumdrop Coral Croucher, Fancy Gumdrop Coral Croucher
SIZE â€“ 2â€
MIN. AQUARIUM SIZE â€“ 10 gallons
FOODS AND FEEDING â€“ Carnivore
REEF COMPATIBILITY â€“ Yes
CAPTIVE CARE INFO â€“ This fish does have venomous spines along their dorsal fins. Requires a 10g or larger tank, preferably with branches or places for the fish to hide in. Rarely becomes aggressive with other fish, but will fight with its own kind in a small aquarium. It is common for Gumdrop Coral Croucher to spawn in an aquarium. Caution should be exercised if the aquarium contains Acropora sp. or similar SPS corals. They will lay their eggs on the underside of the coral's branch, which will cause tissue recession in that area of the coral. It will most likely need to be fed once a day by target feeding the fish.

Squishie89 · Mar 15, 2014

Squishie89 · Aug 18, 2014

My little male gumdrop is still going strong. The things he loves in life is large pieces of seafood and crevices.

Daniel@R2R · Aug 20, 2014

Very cool fish! Where could you find one to purchase? How difficult are they? I'm wondering about keeping one in a larger aquarium.

racerw · Aug 20, 2014

Love Love Love these fish. I had one in a 40 breeder for awhile. He was very cool to watch.
Any LFS shold be able to get them in.

rworegon · Aug 20, 2014

This is ours in a 6 gal nano. Yes, they love to eat and hide in crevices. He has got so he will come to the surface and take food from feeding tongs.

croucher by rworegon, on Flickr

Jlobes · Aug 20, 2014

I had a pair of these fishâ€¦ Absolutely love them. They're on my list to get again. One jumped ship, lost the other in the tank transfer.

Pseudo · Aug 20, 2014

I had a mated pair until hurricane Sandy. But my buddy still hangs on and has made it's home in my colony. Still looking for a mate for this one.

SantaMonica · Oct 12, 2014

Do they ever come out or do they hide all the time?

Pseudo · Oct 13, 2014

Mine swims around only at dusk and night time. But it doesn't seem to be afraid of any of the other fish in the tank and I have a few aggressive fish in there. They don't go near it.

Squishie89 · Oct 13, 2014

mdbannister said:
Very cool fish! Where could you find one to purchase? How difficult are they? I'm wondering about keeping one in a larger aquarium.

Wow so sorry I didn't see this! I got mine (I had a pair, female died in QT) from Divers Den, they seem to get them in pretty regularly for the most part.

SantaMonica said:
Do they ever come out or do they hide all the time?

They pretty much hide all the time. Mine will come out at night sometimes looking for new places to live. I can see mine 90% of the time due to where he is hiding (right next to the glass) so it also depends where they set up shop. You can usually always see their adorable pudgy faces. But they do not come out and sit like a goby or blenny might.

geckoejon · Oct 14, 2014

i have had one for a couple months now. it resides under a shelf rock. i can see it if i look underneath the rock, but that is it. when i feed, it darts out and back under so quick that i can't get a glimpse of him.

beautiful fish, but i wouldn't get another. i'm not getting rid of this one, but doesn't make a good display fish, imo. i like to be able to look at the fish i have in my aquariums.