Algae Eating Goby - anyone know much about this fish?

[TXaggie]

I purchased an algae eating goby from my LFS recently, and while he appears to be doing great I'm looking for more information on the species so that I can be sure that I'm meeting his needs. I can't seem to find anything on the web.

He is an algae eating machine though, cleaned all my plants and most of my glass in a week or so! Crazy, since he's a two inch fish in a 29g aquarium.

Also, how much and how often do you supplement algae eating fish once they've cleaned your tank up? Algae flakes/discs, any particular brands to look for?

He's become one of my favorite fish to watch in the aquarium, so I really want to keep him happy!

 

[BettaGal]

For my snail, I put in part of a wafer every two or three days. I got a 3-gal, but he's quite content bulldozing around the tank everywhere the internet said he wouldn't. I can search up on a goby for a while and see what I come up with. The algae wafers I use are Hikari Tropical.

 

[TXaggie]

Thanks for the info!

I'll try to see if I can get a picture of him later today, he's a fast little bugger so we'll see.

 

[Wyomingite]

I purchased an algae eating goby from my LFS recently, and while he appears to be doing great I'm looking for more information on the species so that I can be sure that I'm meeting his needs. I can't seem to find anything on the web.

He is an algae eating machine though, cleaned all my plants and most of my glass in a week or so! Crazy, since he's a two inch fish in a 29g aquarium.

Also, how much and how often do you supplement algae eating fish once they've cleaned your tank up? Algae flakes/discs, any particular brands to look for?

He's become one of my favorite fish to watch in the aquarium, so I really want to keep him happy!

There are a few gobies that eat algae. If yer lookin' for more info, Google Stiphodon. Gobies from this genus are the ones I most often seen sold as algae-eating gobies. There are a number of species and they are all quite attractive when mature. The breeding colors on males can be stunning.

WYite

 

[TXaggie]

If yer lookin' for more info, Google Stiphodon. Gobies from this genus are the ones I most often seen sold as algae-eating gobies.
WYite

Thanks! It does look like mine is at least from that genus. Still not sure on the species, but I was finally able to snap some photos of him today! He's fast....

and him feeding on glass and plants:

I did try feeding some algae wafer pieces today, but my danios swarmed them like piranahs! This was after I had just fed them flake food, so I'm not quite sure how to make sure my bottom feeding goby can get to it without the danios and minnows going bananas. Any suggestions???

 

[TXaggie]

Did some more reading, and suggestions for feeding Stiphodon sp. that eat algae include farming algae. Never thought I'd be trying to grow more of the stuff!

Currently I'm trying the shotglass with tank water in a window method of trying to generate some algae. Any other ideas? Should I fertilize or feed more or something?

 

[Wyomingite]

I've never kept any of the species, though I'd like to. Plecos, otos, and African cichlids that I've kept all like peas, zucchini/squash, cucumbers and spinach. Just blanch it, sometimes dice it and feed. These guys have small mouths, so ya may wanna mash it. Don't know if they would eat it, but it would be worth a try, IMO.

Ya could also fill a gallon jar with tank water, put a few rocks in it, and put it in the window. Once ya have a rock or two covered with algae, take them out and put them in the tank. When the gobies eat that algae, take those rocks out, take two more from the jar with algae on 'em, and put the two that were in the tank back in the jar. Just keep rotating. I'd think 6-8 rocks may be enough to keep ya with a good supply of algae for a few gobies. Just hook up an air stone in the jar to keep the water from stagnatin' and startin' to smell.

WYite

 

[TXaggie]

Thanks, WYite! The jar method with an airstone sounds like a much more feasible method of growing algae. And rocks are a lot prettier to move in and out of the tank than a shot glass!

 

[Tony Gill]

It's a little hard to tell from your photos, but at a guess your fish looks more like a Sicyopterus (perhaps S. lagocephalus) than a Stiphodon. If so, these tend to get somewhat larger than Stiphodon.

Tony

 

[cmybliss]

I've never kept any of the species, though I'd like to. Plecos, otos, and African cichlids that I've kept all like peas, zucchini/squash, cucumbers and spinach. Just blanch it, sometimes dice it and feed. These guys have small mouths, so ya may wanna mash it. Don't know if they would eat it, but it would be worth a try, IMO.

Ya could also fill a gallon jar with tank water, put a few rocks in it, and put it in the window. Once ya have a rock or two covered with algae, take them out and put them in the tank. When the gobies eat that algae, take those rocks out, take two more from the jar with algae on 'em, and put the two that were in the tank back in the jar. Just keep rotating. I'd think 6-8 rocks may be enough to keep ya with a good supply of algae for a few gobies. Just hook up an air stone in the jar to keep the water from stagnatin' and startin' to smell.

WYite

Thanks for this! I was just thinking about starting an algae farming thread. Now I don't have to.

 

[TXaggie]

It's a little hard to tell from your photos, but at a guess your fish looks more like a Sicyopterus (perhaps S. lagocephalus) than a Stiphodon. If so, these tend to get somewhat larger than Stiphodon.

Tony

Well, hopefully he's of the smaller species. I'll be bummed if he outgrows my aquarium, I really enjoy watching him.

It is hard to tell between those type of fish though, both seem to look similar while grazing and my fish's color pattern isn't very distinctive. Not sure if it's just because he's immature.


EDIT:

Did some digging and looking through the shipping info my LFS posts, and it looks like they list the genus at least for the type of goby. The listing on their shipping list is this: "sicydium sp. “algae goby”