Rainbow stiphodon

Care at a glance

Overview

The rainbow stiphodon is a small, peaceful grazing goby that does best in a group, where males color up and spar harmlessly over grazing patches on the rocks. It clings to hard surfaces and works over them for algae and biofilm, so the main challenge is food: it needs a mature tank with a good film of green algae and aufwuchs on stones and glass, topped up with algae wafers, blanched vegetables, and occasional small frozen foods. It will not thrive on ordinary flake alone and can slowly starve in a bare, spotless tank. Provide smooth rocks, cool, clean, well-oxygenated water, and steady flow. A tank of 50 liters or larger suits a small group of several fish.

In the wild

The rainbow stiphodon lives in fast, clear, oxygen-rich forest streams on the island of Sumatra, moving over sunlit rocks and gravel where a thick film of algae grows. To match this, give it strong but smooth flow, plenty of dissolved oxygen, and cool to warm water around 20 to 26 °C with a pH near 6.5 to 7.5. A floor of smooth pebbles and water-worn boulders, lighting bright enough to grow algae, and very clean, low-waste water recreate the stream. A powerhead or spray bar helps supply the current and oxygen this fish is used to.

Good to know

The rainbow stiphodon is placed in Oxudercidae, among the specialized stream gobies of the subfamily Sicydiinae, and grows to about 6.5 cm. Like other true gobies, its pelvic fins are fused into a suction disc on the underside, giving it a firm grip on rock in fast-moving water. Adults live and spawn in fresh streams, but the newly hatched larvae wash down to the sea to develop before returning upriver as juveniles. This amphidromous cycle needs a marine stage that a home tank cannot supply, so aquarium breeding is unrecorded.

Did you know

Young rainbow stiphodons returning from the sea can climb straight up wet rock faces and small waterfalls, using their fused pelvic fins as a suction cup to grip the stone against the falling water.

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