Yellow Watchman Goby experience

[brotherluv]

Hello everyone,

I want to add one to my tank.  I was wondering what their tendencies are and if you could share your experiences...everything  I have already is compatible and I have room for two more fish this size or smaller.  Just hoping you could share some experiences with me.  Thanks.

[JetJumper]

Had one for a bit, he decided to go down the over flow 3 times.  I moved him to another tank, he became a carpet surfer  

[Thunda]

We have a one in our 30g tank.  He's paired up with a pistol shrimp.  He guards the entrances.  It's a interesting relationship.  Cool to see the shrimp rely so much on the goby.  Goby flinches and shrimp scoots away down the hole.  Always easy to see where the next excavation is going to be as he's standing outside the next tunnel ... 

[bt]

Friend has one.  He stays by his rock.  A little shy.

Acts like Beaker from the Muppets.

[FocusFin]

I paired one with a pistol shrimp a couple of years ago and they were fine for the first 6 months then they broke up and moved to opposite sides of the tank. It was hard on the whole family.

Don't expect to see a lot of the goby as they tend to be pretty shy. Consider a Blenny instead (provided you have an established tank) as they tend to be much more active from what I've seen.

[Rybren]

I've had my pair for a year or so.  The goby is out and about most of the time and is a very active feeder.  He even challenges the Yellow Tang for food.  Every once in a blue moon he'll hole up in a tunnel with the shrimp for a day or two.

I have a fair bit of bubble algae (    ) the YWG will occasionally grab a piece as it floats by and bring it into the tunnel for the shrimp. 

IME, they're a great addition.

[Thunda]

We've had our yellow watchmen for 8 months now.  Granted the 30g doesn't give them tones of space we've been lucky and he's always out front.  Now that I am sure has something to do with where the entrances are too as they are a team.  I agree he can be protective... we have a 3 striped damsel and he'll chase him away any time he gets close to one of the entrances. 

We just added a couple Mandarins lately to our 6 foot tank.  They tend to be off hunting food in the live rock and we don't see as much of them as we would like. 

I'm sure there are exceptions to every fish and one person will have one that's always around and another could have the same type and hardly ever see it.

[brotherluv]

Its funny you mention the mandarins as that's the only other fish I'm currently contemplating getting.   I'm leaning towards the watchman because its easier to find them healthy and keep them that way.  I do however prefer the look of the mandarin...not sure what to do.  Perhaps I'll wait for a while and buy the first of the 2 I see that looks healthy.

[smalltownfan]

We've had ours for almost a year. It paired up right away with the pistol shrimp, then stayed out of sight. We almost forget about them but the nightly excavation work and occasional nose peeking out of the burrow showed they were still there.
A few weeks ago I came home and noticed that the tank (29g nano)was under stress. The fish were at the surface gasping, the leathers were drooping and all of the substrate inhabitants were out in the open, even the bristleworms. I saw that the skimmer was off, I put two airstones in and within an hour things were almost normal. But the incident did allow me to see my goby and the pistol. The goby was huge, compared to the original size and it's no longer yellow. He's a pinkish grey and his blue dots really stand out. When I saw the pistol I was amazed at how big it was. He was the size of 16-20 shrimp at the store, beautiful colours too.
I bought another Watchman at FT last week and the three are sharing the burrow. This goby is the opposite of the original and is always hovering above the burrow. He even grabs food and scoots into the hole and pops out again right away.

[brotherluv]

Do you guys think he'd share a home with a tiger goby pistol shrimp combo i already have?  Or should I get the a new pistol if I get the watchman?