Green clown goby

Geographical Origin and Habitat: Indo-Pacific: from the Red Sea to Samoa, north to Japan. Found exclusively among the branches of live Acropora stony corals.

Taxonomy and Morphology: Member of the Gobiidae family. Scaleless body covered in a bitter, toxic mucus that deters predators. Grows to only 3.5 cm (1.4 inches).

Social Behavior: Peaceful, inactive, and perching. Spends its life resting directly on stony coral branches. Territorial towards other clown gobies on the same coral colony.

Coloration and Sexual Dimorphism: Bright emerald-green body with bold reddish-orange vertical and horizontal stripes. Head is marked with red spots. No external sexual differences.

Aquarium Setup: Minimum aquarium size of 50 liters (13 gallons). Providing branching stony corals (SPS), especially Acropora, is highly recommended for perching sites.

Diet and Feeding: Carnivorous. Feeds on passing zooplankton. Offer small daily portions of frozen cyclops, calanus, finely chopped brine shrimp, and micro pellets.

Water Quality: Maintain standard marine parameters stable: temperature 22-27°C (72-81°F), pH 8.1-8.4, specific gravity 1.020-1.025, and KH 8-12.

Compatibility and Cohabitation: Excellent for nano reefs. Do not house with predatory or large tankmates. 100% reef safe, although spawning pairs may nip small coral tissue areas to deposit eggs.

Aquarium Breeding: Bidirectional hermaphrodite. Spawns adhesive eggs on coral branch bases. Larvae are very small and challenging to raise.

Risks and Diseases: Quite resistant to external parasites due to toxic skin mucus. Ensure regular feeding as they have a fast metabolism.