Knight goby

Care at a glance

Overview

The knight goby is a spotted goby that lives on the bottom of a hard freshwater or brackish tank. It is a fish for experienced keepers.

Caring for the knight goby

Give a pair or a well-spaced group of knight gobies at least 21 gal (80 L). A soft sand floor, scattered rocks and roots for caves, and dim lighting will help bring them out during the day.

Knight gobies do best with a small amount of marine salt, around a quarter of full seawater strength. They also do well in hard, alkaline fresh water. Keep them fairly cool for a tropical fish, at 68 to 79°F (20 to 26°C) and a pH of 6.5 to 7.5.

Knight gobies are not fussy and take frozen, live and dried foods along with a little algae. They relish bloodworms and brine shrimp.

Knight gobies are territorial toward their own kind and other floor dwellers, so they are not a true schooling fish. Keep a small group only if each fish has its own cave or crevice and the floor is broken into separate territories. Otherwise keep a single pair. They will eat small fish and may nip slow, long-finned tank mates, so choose robust mid-water companions.

Males carry tall, black-spotted dorsal fins. Knight gobies are cave spawners, and the female sticks a large clutch of eggs inside a shelter, sometimes close to a thousand. The male guards and fans them until they hatch. Rearing the tiny larvae usually calls for brackish conditions, so home breeding is difficult and not reliably recorded.

Good to know

The knight goby, Stigmatogobius sadanundio, is a true goby in the family Gobiidae. Like all true gobies, its pelvic fins are fused into a cup-shaped sucker under the body. The sucker lets it grip surfaces and hold station in moving, tidal water.

In the wild

The knight goby comes from South and Southeast Asia, from India and Sri Lanka through to Indonesia. It lives in the lower, tidal reaches of rivers, estuaries and mangrove-lined creeks. This is brackish country, where the water is tidal and slightly salty.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Black toraja goby

  Mugilogobius sarasinorum

  3.1 in (8 cm) · 21 gal (80 L)

  3.1 in (8 cm)21 gal (80 L)79–82°F (26–28°C)

• 

  Desert goby

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  2.4 in (6 cm)16 gal (60 L)64–82°F (18–28°C)

• 

  Blue neon dwarf goby

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• 

  White-cheek goby

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  2 in (5 cm) · 16 gal (60 L)

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)61–75°F (16–24°C)

• 

  Cobalt blue goby

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  1.8 in (4.5 cm)13 gal (50 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)

• 

  Bumblebee goby

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  1.6 in (4 cm) · 10 gal (38 L)

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