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So I have acquired some Rhinogobius Zhoui sometimes called Scarlet Gobies. I figured I would share what I have learned about them here in this thread.
I have wild caught fish. I got them in two separate shipments. I have gotten everything from an adult male to juveniles. My first shipment didn’t have any females but luckily my second order came with quite a few females.
The two separate orders had totally different quality fish. I have contacted a few people who have been successful in keeping and breeding scarlet gobies and learned that the wild caught fish that are collected from different places in the wild and the people who collect them makes a difference in the health and quality of the fish. Most of my second order are very young fish so I don’t blame the retailer. They delayed my order to make sure my fish would survive the trip and made sure they didn’t have any disease or parasites.
Tank set up for Rhinogobius Zhoui is pretty simple you don’t have to go crazy like I did. They are considered sub-tropical fish. So no heater required. They do require clean water and lots of oxygen. I had to keep adding air stones till they were finally breathing normally. I have a lot of flow in my tank but talking to other people with scarlet gobies is telling me a ton of flow is not required for them. Substrate can be sand or gravel but sand is preferable since these fish love to dig. Make sure you have lots of rocks with nooks and crannies for them to hide in and forage for food. It is very important that you make sure that your rock piles are stable. I made the mistake of loosely stacking some rocks on some sand. The next morning one of my gobies was dead he was digging and the rock pile collapsed on him found him dead the next morning. Plants let’s just say that if you plan on having plants in the tank it is probably best to use plants that you can attach to rocks and drift wood. I have some plants planted in the substrate I used to have more till they were dug up.
Filtrations I always over filter my tanks and since these guys are very sensitive to water parameters like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates it is a good idea to over filter. I have an eheim 2262 on a 60 gallon tank it gives me the filtration I need and some nice flow. If I had room in my stand I would also have a wet/dry. Not only for bio filtration but for water oxygenation as well so if you can use both.
Lights they don’t need much light it pretty much depends on if you have plants or not in your tank.
Acclimating Rhinogobius Zhoui is pretty much the same as any fish. But don’t be surprised if they hide out and breathe heavy for a few days. I found it helps to cut back on the flow and keep the lights off till they start looking for food. After they start to come out I gradually increase my flow and amount of time the lights are on in the tank.
Feeding these guys can be a pain. Mine prefer live food. I have been putting baby snails and dwarf shrimp in the tank. They will eat freeze dried blood worms, tubifex worms, and brine shrimp. But don’t be surprised if they just take a small bite and spit the rest out. With that said they are very very messy eaters. When they do catch shrimp they normally only eat the tail. So make sure you get all the shrimp corpses out of the tank so they don’t mess up your water parameters.
They are a blast to watch. They don’t really fight they just show off to each other and bump into each other. I am starting to think they have very bad eye sight it is kind of funny to watch them display to a plant thinking it is another goby or miss a shrimp walking right buy them.
They are very curious anything new in the tank or other fish they have to check it out. So if you are using a python to change water cover it with a media bag or something like that or they will swim right up the hose.
The one thing they do that just drives me nuts is the way mine seem to sleep. I think it is due to the amount of flow I have. They will wedge themselves between a rock and the sand. When they do that it looks like they are dead. It drives me nuts.
The way they change colors is very cool. If they are out on the sand they lighten up. When they are hanging out on a rock or in the shadows they darken up a lot.
So far that is all I can think of, will post more later when I learn and observe more.
I have wild caught fish. I got them in two separate shipments. I have gotten everything from an adult male to juveniles. My first shipment didn’t have any females but luckily my second order came with quite a few females.
The two separate orders had totally different quality fish. I have contacted a few people who have been successful in keeping and breeding scarlet gobies and learned that the wild caught fish that are collected from different places in the wild and the people who collect them makes a difference in the health and quality of the fish. Most of my second order are very young fish so I don’t blame the retailer. They delayed my order to make sure my fish would survive the trip and made sure they didn’t have any disease or parasites.
Tank set up for Rhinogobius Zhoui is pretty simple you don’t have to go crazy like I did. They are considered sub-tropical fish. So no heater required. They do require clean water and lots of oxygen. I had to keep adding air stones till they were finally breathing normally. I have a lot of flow in my tank but talking to other people with scarlet gobies is telling me a ton of flow is not required for them. Substrate can be sand or gravel but sand is preferable since these fish love to dig. Make sure you have lots of rocks with nooks and crannies for them to hide in and forage for food. It is very important that you make sure that your rock piles are stable. I made the mistake of loosely stacking some rocks on some sand. The next morning one of my gobies was dead he was digging and the rock pile collapsed on him found him dead the next morning. Plants let’s just say that if you plan on having plants in the tank it is probably best to use plants that you can attach to rocks and drift wood. I have some plants planted in the substrate I used to have more till they were dug up.
Filtrations I always over filter my tanks and since these guys are very sensitive to water parameters like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates it is a good idea to over filter. I have an eheim 2262 on a 60 gallon tank it gives me the filtration I need and some nice flow. If I had room in my stand I would also have a wet/dry. Not only for bio filtration but for water oxygenation as well so if you can use both.
Lights they don’t need much light it pretty much depends on if you have plants or not in your tank.
Acclimating Rhinogobius Zhoui is pretty much the same as any fish. But don’t be surprised if they hide out and breathe heavy for a few days. I found it helps to cut back on the flow and keep the lights off till they start looking for food. After they start to come out I gradually increase my flow and amount of time the lights are on in the tank.
Feeding these guys can be a pain. Mine prefer live food. I have been putting baby snails and dwarf shrimp in the tank. They will eat freeze dried blood worms, tubifex worms, and brine shrimp. But don’t be surprised if they just take a small bite and spit the rest out. With that said they are very very messy eaters. When they do catch shrimp they normally only eat the tail. So make sure you get all the shrimp corpses out of the tank so they don’t mess up your water parameters.
They are a blast to watch. They don’t really fight they just show off to each other and bump into each other. I am starting to think they have very bad eye sight it is kind of funny to watch them display to a plant thinking it is another goby or miss a shrimp walking right buy them.
They are very curious anything new in the tank or other fish they have to check it out. So if you are using a python to change water cover it with a media bag or something like that or they will swim right up the hose.
The one thing they do that just drives me nuts is the way mine seem to sleep. I think it is due to the amount of flow I have. They will wedge themselves between a rock and the sand. When they do that it looks like they are dead. It drives me nuts.
The way they change colors is very cool. If they are out on the sand they lighten up. When they are hanging out on a rock or in the shadows they darken up a lot.
So far that is all I can think of, will post more later when I learn and observe more.
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