Green Banded Gobies

oceanhighz · Apr 10, 2022

Is anyone aware of anyone breeding green banded gobies, or have a location where they may be available? I've been looking to buy a pair or multiple, but have one local fish store who has never gotten them. I'd like to attempt to breed them, but need to find them first. If someone else is breeding them, I'd like to pick their brain.

Thanks,
Brandon

ISpeakForTheSeas · Apr 10, 2022

ORA lists them as a product, so they are captive bred, but I'm not sure about the sales of the captive bred ones. Regardless, specimens are listed for sale by Live Aquaria, Blue Zoo Aquatics, and others.

As far as breeding goes, it seems they're protogynous hermaphrodites, so if you get two females, one will change to male as they pair (looks like it should take ~3-5 weeks to transition to male, and the male will be identifiable by its larger head and longer first dorsal ray). It seems they live in pairs and prefer living around urchins - they even lay eggs inside the urchin in nature. You can mimic this with pvc pipe (the recommendation is ~4 inches long of 3/4 inch pipe) similar to how flowerpots are used for clownfish. They've been reared successfully on S-type rotifers (which they can begin eating within 24 hours) in the past, and it's recommended to add gut-loaded (on Tetraselmis phyto) Artemia to the rotifers for better success rates. I'd imagine it wouldn't hurt if you wanted to add some pods too, but I haven't found anything on that yet from someone who's actually raised them.

The male will guard the eggs (which should hatch after ~7 days, either early in the morning or soon after sunset, but this might be influenced by your lighting schedule - the hatching should be somewhat prompted by the male swiping at the eggs with its tail), and the pair should lay another batch within ~12 hours. They say the captive egg batches should have about 50-200 eggs, but wild batches are said to get up to 500. I'd imagine the egg batch size is dependent on several factors, but I'd guess the nutrition of the broodstock (parent) fish would play one of the most important roles. So, if you feel the egg batches are too small or not producing as many viable eggs as you would like, you could try getting the broodstock some more protein and nutrient dense foods (I've heard several people favor blackworms for this when breeding clownfish, but a good quality frozen food such as LRS Reef Frenzy or Fertility Frenzy could potentially meet this need too). The fry should start their metamorphosis (i.e. they should start settling) at ~23 days post hatching.

Hope this helps!

oceanhighz · Apr 10, 2022

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
ORA lists them as a product, so they are captive bred, but I'm not sure about the sales of the captive bred ones. Regardless, specimens are listed for sale by Live Aquaria, Blue Zoo Aquatics, and others.

As far as breeding goes, it seems they're protogynous hermaphrodites, so if you get two females, one will change to male as they pair (looks like it should take ~3-5 weeks to transition to male, and the male will be identifiable by its larger head and longer first dorsal ray). It seems they live in pairs and prefer living around urchins - they even lay eggs inside the urchin in nature. You can mimic this with pvc pipe (the recommendation is ~4 inches long of 3/4 inch pipe) similar to how flowerpots are used for clownfish. They've been reared successfully on S-type rotifers (which they can begin eating within 24 hours) in the past, and it's recommended to add gut-loaded (on Tetraselmis phyto) Artemia to the rotifers for better success rates. I'd imagine it wouldn't hurt if you wanted to add some pods too, but I haven't found anything on that yet from someone who's actually raised them.

The male will guard the eggs (which should hatch after ~7 days, either early in the morning or soon after sunset, but this might be influenced by your lighting schedule - the hatching should be somewhat prompted by the male swiping at the eggs with its tail), and the pair should lay another batch within ~12 hours. They say the captive egg batches should have about 50-200 eggs, but wild batches are said to get up to 500. I'd imagine the egg batch size is dependent on several factors, but I'd guess the nutrition of the broodstock (parent) fish would play one of the most important roles. So, if you feel the egg batches are too small or not producing as many viable eggs as you would like, you could try getting the broodstock some more protein and nutrient dense foods (I've heard several people favor blackworms for this when breeding clownfish, but a good quality frozen food such as LRS Reef Frenzy or Fertility Frenzy could potentially meet this need too). The fry should start their metamorphosis (i.e. they should start settling) at ~23 days post hatching.

Hope this helps!

It does help, I had read a few articles, but they were older. I've been trying to find ORA ones, however have not seen them pop up for sale anywhere in a few years. I have seen wild caught pop up, but was really hoping to buy a handful and get a bonded bred captive pair. I appreciate all the information you provided! Thank you.