Candy stripe gobies

[chris_1127]

I managed to get a couple of pictures of my male candy stripe goby in my brackish tank trying it on with the female this morning - unfortunatley they're only nokia picture phone pics so excuse the quality. Normally the males fins have a slight red tinge but this morning they deepened to an almost purply-red colour and he made an amazing display of erecting all his fins, arching his back and opening his mouth as wide as he could. He then started "hopping" across the sand around the female in this position. Really was great to see!!
Unfortunately for him, she declined his amorous advances and just swam off, quite disinterested. I guess he had better keep working on his technique!!!

This pic shows what he usually looks like

This one is him preparing for a bit of "showing off"

Here he is starting to make his move...

And here he is mid-hop with fins all standing on end and mouth wide open. The colouration really was great in this one, shame I only had a camera phone to hand and not a decent digital camera

 

[SPLiSH]

Great pics Chris! LOL, sounds like that female is playing hard to get.

 

[chris_1127]

i think you're right either that or she was just conscious of the fact that the Knight gobies and puffers were all watching....

i was hoping that they were gonna spawn a while back, as the male spent ages digging a cave out from underneath a rock. guess i will just have to keep my fingers crossed

 

[Dwarfs]

Awesome!

That last picture really shows the color

 

[nmonks]

Chris,

You have two Awaous flavus (sometimes called by an obsolete name, Awaous strigatus). I have two of these as well, though in England they seem to be called "butterfly gobies", presumably a reference to the pretty dorsal fin. The same name is used in Germany, "Schmetterlingsgrundel".

While the fish (even as adults) do best in freshwater, they spawn in the sea, and this makes breeding them very complex. I only know one person who has had anything close to success, and I'd encourage you to have a read of her article, here.

Cheers,

Neale

PS. Here are my pair, the male is at the back, displaying his rather nice dorsal fin: