Yellow Clown Goby - Medium

Yellow Clown Goby

As its name implies these fish are a bright yellow color all over apart from a couple of white patches located on their faces. They are only a couple of inches in size and will look extremely cute in a reef aquarium environment as they like hovering around on branch corals.

The members of this species are hermaphrodites and have the ability to change sex if needed so if you buy 2 young fish and keep them together eventually you'll have a couple. Breeding in captivity is difficult due to the eating habits of the fry, but they will spawn and hatch quite successfully.

These fish protect themselves from predators by covering their bodies in a poisonous mucous that is bitter to taste.

Yellow Clown Gobies are famous for learning to recognize their owners and even have the ability to beg for food once they are comfortable enough to learn the hand that feeds them.

The Yellow Clown Goby originally comes from the Western Pacific region from Southern Japan all the way down to the Great Barrier Reef. They can be found in coral-rich reef areas of lagoons in small groups of 5 - 15 fish at depths down to around 15 meters.

Tank Recommendations for the Yellow Clown Goby

The smallest tank size for this species of fish is 38 liters. They love light so make sure to provide plenty. Try to mimic their preferred natural environment by installing lots of branch corals which they can hover around. The Yellow Clown Goby will do well in both nano-style fish-only setups as well as reef aquariums. Gobies are known for jumping out of aquariums so a well-fitted tank lid is essential.

Suitable Tank Buddies

Yellow Clown Gobies are a peaceful species of fish and will do well with other peaceful reef fish that are not large enough to fit the goby in their mouths. Only keep mated pairs together as they can sometimes get territorial.

Usually Compatible

Batfish, Blennies, and Boxfish would make excellent tank buddies with this type of goby. Other wonderful options could include Butterflyfish, Clownfish, and Damselfish. Clownfish, Pufferfish, Pipefish, and even Seahorses would work great too. Your goby will get along great with Tangs and invertebrates as well as never touching your live coral.

Sometime Compatible

Large Angelfish, other Gobies, and Goatfish can sometimes cause problems. You should keep a close eye on Grunts, Hogfish, and Rays too. Squirrelfish, Triggerfish, and Wrasses should be picked carefully as well depending on their size.

Rarely Compatible

Snappers and Sharks shouldn't be considered when choosing tank buddies for the Yellow Clown Goby. Other predators that may be dangerous to them include Groupers and Lionfish. Eels and Frogfish should be avoided as well.

Feeding Your Yellow Clown Goby

These fish are carnivores and in the wild will survive on a diet of mesozooplankton. Obviously, this is difficult to recreate in an aquarium but luckily they can still thrive on a varied diet of copepods, brine, and mysis shrimp, and even finely chopped fish flesh and meaty foods. Give them live food occasionally but they will eventually get used to frozen meat after some time. No success has been had at attempting to wean them onto pellet or flake foods.