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Overview:

Seen more and more at the local shops the Knight goby can be an attractive addition to your aquarium.

Common name:

Knight Goby

Image gallery:

Additional species photographs

Discuss:

Badmans' Forum

Distribution

Asia: India to Indonesia.

Striking in its own way the night goby is always pleasing to the eye. The base color is a pale gray. The body is speckled with a series of small black dots covering most of the body. The pectoral, anal and tail fin are fringed with a line of white. The Dorsal fin has a large black splash in the back

Territorial by nature, the aquarium should have plenty of places to to hide such as caves, driftwood and plants. They will defend their space and if you are keeping more than one extra care will have to be given as the are aggressive toward their on species. The aquarium itself does not have to be extra large a twenty gallon long would be great, aside from the above the substrate should be a sand material rather than gravel. Being sensitive to poor water quality you must have good filtration and a strong maintenance schedule.. Lighting is best subdued as they are timid in bright situations. Considered a brackish fish according to  fishbase   they actually prefer freshwater, be sure to ask your supplier the conditions they have been kept in.

 

Feeding:

Should not be a problem, prefers live but will take most flake, frozen, dried or sinking pellets

Compatibility:

While not an active predator, the knight goby will eat smaller fish in the aquarium, being shy you would not want to keep them with overly aggressive species like the larger cichlids.

Biotope:

Occurs in estuaries and tidal zone of rivers

 

Breeding:

No wide scale successes, sporadic reports of breeding are reported with little luck of raising the fry. It is thought that rotifers would be the first food of choice.

Personal Experiences:

I have never kept this species but one reader has had the following experiences. They are awesome fish I've had 6 for about 2 years. They like any kind of worms black,blood,tubiflex .And about the brackish water you should check with the shop you got him from and see if he was bread in brackish or fresh but a little salt wont hurt any way. They also like a high Ph about 7.2 to 7.8 any ways they are awesome little fish but if they are not fed lots they may go after the other tankmates fins.

Your comments:

Add your comments:

From: Brock Date:04/23/09 So I would like to add some info to this thread, if you get a knight goby make sure you have it in water of 1 to 2 tablespoons of salt per gallon, knight gobies ARE brackish fish and need salt in there life at some point. if you are for some odd reason forced to keep them in fresh water, and only fresh water, (it is ok to go back and forth between the two) make sure at some point in there life they end up in salt with a minimum 1.005 salt, maximum being 1.20 right before marine, but ideally they should be kept between 1.005 - 1.160, i have 2 that i keep with a figure eight puffer, they are all very friendly with each other. Ii keep my salinity at 1.140 and they are very healthy and happy, almost fat because they like to eat so much From: Lisa Grant Date:05/27/08 These are amazing little fish! they are such a character! my knight goby just loves blood worms and I do 25% water changes weekly and put 2 tablespoons of salt in per gallon and he is very active and healthy. I strongly recommend that salt is added to a knight gobies' tank. before I put salt in, he was not active and was not looking very healthy. Even though they are classified as fresh and brackish water fish, a brackish environment is much better for the overall health and happiness of this fish. These are truly amazing creatures! From: Daniel Date:02/08/08 We had 8 Knight Gobies in our community tank for a few months. They have a striking blue patch on their dorsal fins, which appears black on younger members. If you feed them well, they grow quickly. These fish have a great personality, and the way they move is fascinating (everyone should have a goby!). We sold ours to our lfs because out of the blue they ate 5 otocinclus and 3 hillstream loaches in one day. We wanted a small fish community tank, and so switched to bumblebee gobies, which work great! For enthusiasts wary of a specialized brackish setup... a brackish setup is optional in areas that have natural limestone aquifers, as the calcium carbonate in the water ensures a high pH (sometimes over 8, even!). You can get away with mixing fresh and brackish fish with this water and a tablespoon of salt/10 gallons if you don't mind disrupting the breeding habits of your freshwater fish. From: Nick Date:11/04/07 I have had a few night gobys for about a year now. From my experience with them I can honestly say that giving them meat pellets and occasional algae wafers will make them more lively. Literally every single time I would place a few of each in my tank, the gobys would go insane over them. Most of the time they would consume one whole pellet and maybe half of another. But when I provided algae wafers in addition they would eat the pellet as usual and consume the wafer as if they had not eaten in weeks. However these are just eating habits. I had been examining their actions after feeding for most of the year and noticed a substantial increase in activity. When I had first purchased them and got them acclimated to my tank conditions I fed them just some basic fish food. And after feeding them for a while with it I got the notion that they were inactive and simply boring fish to have around. Then I decided to change their diet. Immediately I noticed the increase in energy and general activity. I would seriously suggest using meat pellets and algae wafers for them. Search these fish items on the following website: www.drsfostersmith.com This site/company is excellent and provides very high quality products for all your fish keeping needs. They have excellent customer service as well. From: Steve G Date:4/15/07 Hi everyone,regarding the Knight Goby, a few years ago I acquired 4 of them, I was told to keep them in fresh water, and I did that. They got sick, refused to eat, and 6 weeks later were all deceased. I was very disheartened by the whole experience. About a year ago I got some Dragon Gobies and set up a brackish tank for them. A 4 ft long 55gal, and they were doing very well in it. I came across 6 Knight Gobies, and decided to try them again, but this time in the brackish tank. Although they were in fresh water at the store, and I was again advised to keep them in fresh water, from the past research I decided to put them in the brackish tank. They all all doing wonderfully, and very healthy, growing like crazy, and very active. I took 4 inch flower pots, and broke a piece out of the side of each, then set the pots upside down, with the broken out piece being a doorway for them, and they immediately laid claim to all 5 pots. I know I have at least 3 females a s they are very heavy with eggs right now, and I have one large dominant male, so maybe (cross my fingers for good luck) I'll get some babies out of them. I strongly suggest if you get some of the Knight Gobies, that you set them up in a brackish tank. Start with fresh water if that is where they came from, and then slowly increase the water salinity with Marine salts, (do not use Aquarium salt, rock salt, coarse salt, pickling salt etc. = Marine Salt only) with each water change over the next month, doing weekly water changes of at least 25% (I do 50% weekly). I keep mine in a brackish salinity of 1.010-1.015, and everyone seems very happy, active and eating voraciously, and in the case of the Knight Gobies, maybe even getting ready to breed. They need hiding places, and seem to love the inverted flower pots, with two exits, one out the top where the drainage hole is, and the other where I broke out a piece to make a door at the bottom. They prefer a soft sandy bottom, I use Aragonite sugar grain sand, and that also helps keep the pH up. I use a top quality canister filter on the tank, and an air stone at the bottom bubbling away. I also have a small power head submerged at one end to give some current, as this is common in Estuaries and brackish river areas. I have plastic plants as the Dragon Gobies keep rearranging them. The Knight Gobies are entertaining, and can be quite lively. The are an intelligent fish, and peaceful too. If you're considering a brackish tank, do your research and then go for it. The Knight Gobies can be kept in smaller tanks like 20 gal or more. They prefer the bottom to middle areas, but will come to the top for food. They eat just about any fish food I put in the tank. They also play with the Mudskipper, which is interesting to watch. Enjoy and practice good fish husbandry. Steve From: Matt Date:4/15/07 I have two knight gobies that I keep in my 55 gallon tank. I have kept them with 3 green spotted puffers and 3 mollies. They all get along well although when I first added the knight gobies they ate all of the neon tetras that I had at the time. At first I kept them in only freshwater but now I keep the water at a specific gravity of 1.012 They get along well with each other and love to try to eat the rosy reds but the puffers always get them first. They will eat flake food and just about any frozen or freeze dried food I have tried. From: Shellie Ramey Date:2/12/06 I have kept 2 knight gobies in a brackish set up along with 4 mudskippers and a red claw crab for nearly 2 years. They have thrived and seem very content. They will eat anything smaller like crickets or feeder guppies, but also relish white worms, tubifex, flakes, brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc. They will display to each other occasionally, probably protecting their territory. They seem not to bother neither the crab or the mudskippers. I do believe they are more brackish water than freshwater species. Any time I have seen them in fish shops they are being kept in freshwater and have fungus on them or are "wasted" looking through the stomachs. I think the brackish water keeps them healthier. From: Blaine Date:12/31/05 After keeping these guys I must say that they are quite interesting to watch. They seem to chase everything around the tank but never seems to harm them, maybe a quick little nip as if to say "get out of my territory". These have to be one of the few fish, that if raised from fry in freshwater, do not necessarily require salt in their water. I know that they prefer to be in spots that are full of vegetation or hiding spaces and that they prefer to hunt for their food at night. I currently keep mine with Celebes rainbows, green tiger barbs, odessa barbs and various fancy plecos. GREAT fish to keep (so long as there are no smaller fish for it to feed off of!)

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