The Australian Desert Goby
Chlamydogobius eremius
by Dave Ball
President of the Southern Colorado Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
As the Breeders Award Program chairman, I have the opportunity to learn about many
different species of fish. When I receive a spawning report from a breeder, I can usually
tell what type of fish it is from the scientific name. Working with the ever-changing
nomenclature of fish, you learn most of the genus names of the fish that the members of
our club are breeding. There is one exception. Whenever I get a report from this
particular breeder, there is a 75% chance I’ll have to look the fish up because I
don’t know what it is. I take pride in knowing what fish go where and how many points
you get. I have to, it’s my job, and I really enjoy it. However, Darrell Clendinnen,
keeps me humble and helps keep the dust off of the books I normally don’t use except
for reference ... mostly for the fish that he breeds. When he gives me a report the first
thought in my mind is “OK, lets see what I have to look up this time.” It’s
a lot of fun learning about fish I don’t know anything about. When Darrell handed me
the report of the Australian Desert Goby, Chlamydogobius eremius, I knew I had
some work to do. I found an excellent photograph of this fish and admired its beauty. I
hadn’t read his article yet. The next time I saw Darrell, I said I wanted to try to
raise that one.
At the fall auction I was working with Darrell at the re-bagging table and talking with
Allen Wood. If you ever get a chance to listen to these guys talk about fish, it's an
education. They were talking about some native North American fish with names I don’t
remember. Anyway, they went on about the nice ones and the one with the spots. Whoosh!! It
was beyond me but nice to hear about things other than cichlids. Sounds like a challenge
to me. I was then handed a bag of fish. A trio of Australian Desert Gobies to be exact. I
was surprised and caught completely off guard. We talked about how to set them up and tank
size. I had just emptied five of my tanks with fish that went to the auction. Now one just
became occupied. They need a high pH with good carbonate hardness. They also need some
salt in the water. I was out of salt at the time. A short time later, a box of
“Marine Enterprises” sea salt came up for auction. I believe it was a donation
to our club. Thank you very much for the donation. It came at just the right time for me.
It was like an omen. It couldn’t have been a better time to try something new. I had
the tank space, the fish, and the materials. Time to jump in with both feet.
The trio was placed in a ten gallon aquarium with a fine sand substrate. I placed three
pieces of slate in the tank to provide spawning sites. One edge of the slate was buried in
the sand and the opposite side was held up by small stones, the smooth river rock type.
This in turn made some very nice hiding spots, one for each. The male took to the center
one right away and was moving the sand very easily. I situated the openings so that I had
a pretty good view inside the caves. Darrell used a 50/50 mix of crushed coral and gravel
for his substrate. In using sand, I compensated by adding “Rift Lake Cichlid
Salts” at 1 tablespoon per ten gallons. My salt additives were the same at 2
tablespoons per five gallons. There was some Java moss in the bag with the fish, so that
went in also.
The fish were already in real good shape and it didn’t take much to get them into
spawning condition. They were fed white worms, grindal worms, frozen brine shrimp and
blood worms. For fish that have small swim bladders, they manage very well in chasing down
the live worms. It only took a couple of days for them to settle in and show their colors.
The females are a light tan with small white spots along their sides and in the caudal
fin. The males have a larger head and are yellow and tan with black fins edged in white.
The first dorsal in the males is black and develops an iridescent blue patch. The color of
this fish is what I was really attracted to.
The male selected the center cave as his territory and proceed to dig. Shortly after
that, he started trying to coax the nearest female into the cave. The female must not have
liked the spot because she would only go under the slate to the left of the one the male
was under. This went on for a couple of days. Finally the male took the hint and made a
new site under the slate on the left side of the tank. They courted and danced for a
couple of days. This ritual is fun to watch. It was like watching something from a nature
film. The male would arch his back and flare his fins. All this time he is hopping around
the bottom in front of his cave. As they were getting closer to spawning they would lay
side by side or one on top of the other. It was beautiful to watch, I was used to watching
cichlids go around in circles. I unfortunately missed the final courtship ritual, but when
I came home the male was fanning eggs on the roof of the cave. I couldn’t tell how
many there were, I take a guess at 50. After they spawned, the male became very aggressive
and chased the females. He managed to take one out, so I moved the female he spawned with
into another tank.
The male fanned the eggs until they hatched. I kept the tank at 80 degrees the whole
time, pre and post-spawning. The eggs hatched on the 7th and 8th days. I could see the
eggs develop. When I saw empty shells hanging from the roof of the slate, I looked for
fry. I found a few and checked under the slate to see if there were any wrigglers. I think
the fry are free swimming upon hatching but I’m not certain on that point. I also
noticed that all of the eggs didn’t hatch. There were formed fish with eyes and egg
sacs, but they never hatched. I pulled the male so that the fry wouldn’t get eaten.
I fed the fry from a infusoria/rotifer culture I had started a couple of months ago. I
used a meat baster to take water from the culture and fed 2-3 fluid ounces at least twice
a day. They grew fairly fast and were on microworms and powered fish meal in no time.
I used a sponge and outside power filters on this tank. The flow on the power filter
was turned down. In the early stages of growth I would give the sponge filter a little
squeeze to release some other micro organisms into the water. In time the fry would be
seen picking food from the sponge filter also. The fry are close to 1/2 inch at one month
and will take just about any powered food. I crush up spirulina, egg, plankton, and brine
shrimp flakes, then mix it together. This mix covers most of their needs. I still feed
micro and grindal worms.
The last inventory there were 23 babies. I first though there was only a dozen or so.
They are the same color as the females, so they are very hard to see on the sand. Darrell
said that this was an interesting fish to work with and he was right. I was so used to
spawning cichlids that this is a very pleasant change for me. Now that I’ve been
bitten by another fish bug, I going to try more of this “different stuff”. Thank
you very much Darrell, we’ll be talking soon.
Reference: Clendinnen, Darrell, The Australian Desert Goby, SCAS Journal, June
1994, Vol. 5, No. 3, p. 27
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