goby ID
- Thread starter rjssniper
- Start date
18-24 inches is right, I have one at the 5" mark and my roomate has another at the 18" mark. Big hungry fish. Interesting personality and they have been some of my favorites to raise
I have been told that they will eat their body weight everyday. Mine certainly has done this many times, but he never seems to get too skinny from smaller feedings, overall a robust fish. They will learn to take pretty much anything you throw in the tank. My lil guy eats brine shrimp, bloodworms, mysis shrimp, whole market shrimp, silversides, shrimp pellets, earthworms, earthworm pellets, massivore and tankmates. Not a fan of algae wafers though 
I had one that was a good 13" before the tank got sick and he died. He bent my net when I netted him out he weighed that much. I ended up getting another at 3" who has only grown to 6" so far, which I have had him a while I can't remember exactly when I got them so my guess is they are slow growing. There isn't much info on them online and I didn't get much when I made a thread when I got the first one. They are very interesting, I managed to train the old one to take food out of my hand dispite it being 12" when I got him. They are also known as Water Cow Goby's or Sleeper Goby's. Their pattern changes as they grow and you can tell their mood by how they look when bigger. Mine would turn tank and his markings would almost disapper when he was stressed. After feeding him he got dark and the markings stood out greatly.
These fish have been found up to 80 cm in the mekong river. These are large growing fish that thrive off of a variety of live food. If you have had the fish for a while and it hasnt grown best case is you have a female which i have never raised one past 13 inches (7 years old). Worst case and most likely a goby which has been stunted in its growth. I see this alot becuse these fish just arent big sellers so they sit at wholesale places and stores for months eating just enough to be kept alive. Average for this fish if well feed and healthy is 65cm, if giving huge amounts off water to live in and lots of food they can reach 80 cm, if the fish are under feed or have poor water conditions they average 25-30 cm. MARBLED SLEEPER GOBY(OXYELEOTRIS MARMORATA) and SPOTTED SLEEPER GOBYS(ELEOTRIS PICTA) aka water cows are two totally different fish. I have a post of gobys few threads back were i show a pic of the last marble i bought last week of jan lil less than 2 inches he was just killed last week by a larger clow knife he was 5 inches . i have him in the freezer so ill post pics of him on a ruler. So if you guys fish are still 5-6 inches after all this time they are females or males who have been stunted in there growth.
Monster marble gobys is the thread were the 2 inch male is. He was a liltte monster 8 inch clownknife bite him bad by the time i realized (because of all the rock work) he was in very bad shape. Moved him so he wouldnt do any damage to my 5 1/2 ich female marble goby or any of my eels and he was eaten by a 12 1/2 inch marble goby. That gives you a idea of how they can eat.