TankBud

Neon goby

Elacatinus oceanops

Also known as Cleaner Goby, Blue Neon Goby

SaltwaterFish

Neon goby (Elacatinus oceanops)
Jmk7 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
72–79°F
22–26°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
2 in
5 cm
Minimum tank
11 gal
40 L
Temperament
Peaceful
Social behavior
Social
Swim level
Bottom
Difficulty
Easy
Breeding
Cave spawner · Medium
Rarity
Common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Gobiidae
Origin
Western Atlantic (Florida and the Caribbean)

Overview

The neon goby is a small, peaceful cleaner for a reef or nano tank. It is easy to keep.

Did you know

A neon goby will happily set up shop as a cleaner, picking tiny parasites and dead skin off fish many times its size. The bigger fish holds still and even opens its gills and mouth to let the little goby work.

Caring for the neon goby

Neon gobies are small and hardy, and they stick close to a perch or crevice. A nano tank of at least 11 gal (40 L) with rockwork gives them everything they need. Keep the water at 72 to 79°F (22 to 26°C), with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4.

Neon gobies are fully reef safe and will not bother corals or invertebrates. They are peaceful and small enough for almost any community. Very aggressive fish may pick on them, so choose calm tank mates. They can even help larger tank mates by cleaning parasites, though they should not be relied on as a cure for disease.

A mated pair will share a cleaning station and get along peacefully in the same tank. Neon gobies are among the easier marine fish to breed at home. A bonded pair will spawn in a crevice or shell, though rearing the fry takes tiny live foods.

Good to know

The neon goby is one of the classic cleaner fish of the Atlantic. Its bright blue lateral stripe is a signal that advertises its cleaning service. The stripe tells larger fish not to eat it, but to line up for a parasite pick instead. It is a Caribbean counterpart to the Indo-Pacific cleaner wrasses. It was one of the first marine fish to be reliably captive bred, which is why tank-raised neon gobies are widely available.

In the wild

Neon gobies come from Florida and the Caribbean. There they set up cleaning stations on coral heads and rock for larger passing fish.

Symbiotic relationships

Cleaner shrimp, cleaner gobies and their clients

A cleaner holds a station on the reef and advertises it: cleaner shrimp wave their long white antennae and rock from side to side, cleaner wrasses swim a bobbing dance. Fish arrive and pose, head up or head down with fins spread, and hold still while the cleaner picks off parasitic isopods, dead skin and loose scales, working into the mouth and under the gill covers of fish that could swallow it in one bite. The client leaves with fewer parasites and the cleaner eats a meal it never had to hunt. Reef fish queue for it, and a busy station is visited hundreds of times a day.

The skunk cleaner shrimp is the one that does this reliably in an aquarium: it sets up on a rock ledge, and tank fish, tangs and wrasses especially, learn to stop by within days. The fire shrimp cleans too but hides more and works at dusk. Pederson's cleaner shrimp does the same job from the tentacles of its anemone. The neon goby and its relatives are small, hardy cleaners for tanks that cannot take a shrimp. The cleaner wrasses are the difficult ones: many never take prepared food, and both are marked difficult here. None of them will cure an outbreak of ich; they pick off some parasites and keep a healthy fish tidier, and that is the honest claim. Keep every cleaner away from predators such as large hawkfish, triggers, lionfish and big wrasses.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Weekly picks

Tank mates

The neon goby is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

What size tank does a neon goby need?

A neon goby needs at least 11 gal (40 L). It spends most of its time in the bottom.

What temperature and pH does a neon goby need?

A neon goby is comfortable at 72–79°F (22–26°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

How big does a neon goby get?

An adult neon goby reaches about 2 in (5 cm).

How does a neon goby breed?

Neon gobies spawn in bonded pairs inside a crevice or shell. They are among the easier marine fish to breed at home, though rearing the fry takes tiny live foods.

Related species