# Stiphodon algae eating goby



## fishfinder (Aug 31, 2008)

I 'happened' to go into my LFS, and found a little stiphodon sp. algae eating goby. I think it is an elegans, but can't be certain. In the next tank, were two surprises, little darters accidentally shipped in with the shrimp. I got them for 99 cents each because they had most likely been eating the shrimp since the tank was only fed algae wafers. They are probably swamp darters and came from Florida. Has anyone had any experience with the stiphodons? So far, all three fish are very shy. They are in my 8 gallon tank along with my botia sidthimunki (chained loach) and older male betta.


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## Fishboydanny1 (Jun 13, 2008)

do they have very skinny bodies like kuli loaches? if so, that darter tends to be very shy (not to mention fast), but may become more 'out and about' as it becomes ajusted to the tank. I've caught them, but they were very fragile and rarely made it home in a bucked/bubbler combination....


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## fishfinder (Aug 31, 2008)

Yes, the darters have very skinny bodies like a kuhli loach. They are coming out more now, if I keep the room light off. I saw one of them eat a frozen brine shrimp. I understand they only live about a year. Tiny little fish, maybe an inch and a half. Hope I have a male and a female. The betta checked them out but left them and the goby alone. My loach is glad to have company that has his shape ... lol. They hang out together.


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## Vereteno (Mar 26, 2010)

fishfinder said:


> I 'happened' to go into my LFS, and found a little stiphodon sp. algae eating goby. I think it is an elegans, but can't be certain.


I had two Stiphodon goby fish, but I can't be sure it's elegans. I accidentally killed one (it attached itself to the filter casing and I didn't notice and took the filter to sink to wash; the little fish disappeared into the drain, sorry)and I was very distressesd about it. I like these fish. They really graze all the time, enjoy blanched zukkini, mushroom, apples. One, the one I accidentally killed, was agrassive toward the other. I would put two pieces of food into tank and they played musical chairs all the time. The one that I still have is much calmer and I see it more than before. I have him in a 5.5 gallon tank with two pea puffers, three amano shrimp and three red cherry shrimp. All together it works real great.


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