Two-stripe Goby

Geographical Origin and Habitat: Western Indo-Pacific, common in Indonesia, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Inhabits protected coral reefs and shallow lagoons among soft corals. This tiny goby inhabits sheltered coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, frequently associated with branching Acropora corals.

Taxonomy and Morphology: Family Gobiidae. Genus Eviota. One of the shortest fish species in nature, barely reaching 2.5 cm in size. Glassy, compressed body. Its morphology is extremely small, featuring a translucent body that provides excellent camouflage among living coral branches.

Social Behavior: Peaceful, shy, and highly gregarious. Spends its time resting on coral branches or small stones. Must live in small groups. It displays a peaceful and social behavior, forming small groups that hover a few centimeters above their host coral.

Coloration and Sexual Dimorphism: Glassy, semi-transparent body, characterized by two dark black or reddish longitudinal stripes running from snout to tail. No obvious sexual dimorphism. The coloration is defined by two thin longitudinal dark stripes running along a semi-transparent body with iridescent hues.

Aquarium Setup: Requires a small aquarium of at least 30 liters. Include fine sand and porous rock fragments to allow them to find shelters. Ideal for nano reefs of 30-40 liters, stocked with branching corals and live rocks to provide secure micro-shelters.

Diet and Feeding: Carnivore. Feeds on fine zooplankton. Supply live or frozen copepods, cyclops, rotifers, and fine powder foods. Feed multiple times daily with microscopic foods such as rotifers, cyclops, and high-quality newly hatched brine shrimp.

Water Quality: Stable parameters: temperature 23-27°C, pH 8.0-8.4, salinity 1.020-1.025. Requires very clean water. Requires stable water parameters and gentle currents, taking special care to prevent temperature or salinity fluctuations.

Compatibility and Cohabitation: Highly defenseless. Avoid predatory, fast, or intrusive fish. Well-suited for cohabitation with small, non-aggressive shrimp. Compatible only with other very small, peaceful fish species, as medium or aggressive fish will easily view it as prey.

Aquarium Breeding: Not documented in captivity at the hobbyist level. In the wild, they have an extremely short lifespan. Breeding in home aquariums is rare and challenging due to the microscopic size and developmental needs of the newly hatched larvae.

Risks and Diseases: High sensitivity to unscreened powerheads. Risk of starvation if placed in aquariums with competitive fish. Main risks include getting sucked into unprotected powerheads and the difficulty of ensuring adequate food intake in large tanks.