#sicyopterus

[who-knows-how-long-ill-come-back]

I don't want to be reborn as Sicyopterus stimpsoni

[cobitoidea]

He has more videos listed but this one is my favorite out of the new ones he posted. Look how orange the male is. Odyssey was one of the hobbyists that got me into hillstream fish years ago.

[remoteregion-aqua]

ボウズハゼ Sicyopterus japonicus

アクア・トトぎふ 3F 長良川上流から中流

[hokuto-yuasa-journal]

我が家のボウズハゼ。

[wishfishy]

3. Describe your dream tank.

Right now I really fancy a freshwater goby tank. Not very deep or wide, but very long: preferably 2′x 2′x 6′ (which is around 180 gallons unless I did math bad). Medium-high, constant uni-directional flow. Plenty of plants and hardscape: I’m thinking moss covered driftwood and rockwork. And just full of different freshwater goby genera, though I’m unsure about mixing multiple species from the same genera. 

At least one large colony each of a Stiphodon, Rhinogobius and Sicyopus species. Maybe Sicyopterus and Schismatogobius too if I could reliably source them. I’d also like to have little group of Gastromyzon or Pseudogastromyzon loaches. And something to act as a dither fish - I’ve always wanted to keep some gold ring danios, which may work well in this scenario. 

I’d have to also maintain a separate set-up just to rotate out algae covered rocks to supplement the feed for the gobies and loaches, though anything is worth it for gobies. 

[colinpurrington]

Rainbow Falls (Waianuenue) on the Wailuku River State Park near Hilo, Hawai'i. Beautiful, but to be honest I really just wanted to look for Stimpson’s goby (Sicyopterus stimpsoni), the Hawaiian endemic that has the ability to scale vertical rock faces at waterfalls using suction cups. As if that wasn’t cool enough, they also maintain adorable little gardens rocks. Really. I need to go back.

[cobitoidea]

I took out a bunch of rocks from the hillstream tank. Going with a new scape soon.

[cobitoidea]

Sicyopterus japonicus. Still looking for more. Importers keep them thin so when I get them, it is difficult to get them fat again and they do not survive quarantine. These gobies prefer meaty foods but will also graze. One reason I love the winter season, is all the hillstream gobies and loaches available on importer lists.

[cobitoidea]

Current state of the hillstream tank with my crappy phone. Not too many sewellia babies this year but who knows in this “mess.” I’m kind of sad how long these fish were with me because I lost the oldest stiphodon atropurpureus (I got him 7 or 8 years ago). Most of the adult sewellia in this tank, have been with me from almost the beginning of my serious fish keeping hobby (11 years). I can’t even fathom how they lived this long with me as their owner.

[cobitoidea]

A mess before I cleaned some algae and plants out. I don’t even try scrubbing the front glass anymore. More space for the fish to graze on.

[cobitoidea]

I moved in the pseudogastromyzon a week earlier than usual since I have relatives visiting this week who may sleep in my room so I had to move out the quarantine tank. All look to be good and eating well. I’m not sure which day or days my relatives will be staying with us but I’m leaving Friday to Sunday night, to LA. I’ll end up covering the shelf with a bedsheet or something so that no one bothers the fish while I’m gone. I was able to stop by the LFS today and their display group was gone so no idea if they died or people actually bought them.

[cobitoidea]

I know it’s been forever. I just got caught up with life and work. These yellow king kongs are never going away. They keep breeding so I’m always selling the babies off. There are always a few that I can’t get so they end up breeding again. I don’t want to break down the tank if I know there is a chance of babies that I can’t see yet. Hillstream is the same. More loach babies. I haven’t added anything new so once all the inhabitants die off, there is a high chance I may exit the hobby. That or keep one display tank with nano fish. I don’t know how I kept 20+ tanks in the past. A lot of the hillstream fish are 9 to 13 years old so they are near their average life span. The youngest fish (besides the new babies) is the sicyopterus goby I added a few years ago (3 or 4 years). Still makes me mad when people mention their hillstream loaches living their full life at 3 or 4 years old. They should be living past 10+ years (unless they are sick sick and not because hobbyists can’t provide the correct setup/care). One reason why I refuse to go back to fish forums or FB groups. I only post here once in awhile and Instagram to show off the fish/shrimps.

[wishfishy]

Hey. Pssst. Hey.

Yeah you.

You wanna see some some cool fish?

Of course you do! Come with me and I will show you the glory and wonder of freshwater (and estuarine) gobies!

The goby family, Gobiidae, is massive. Like, thousands and thousands of species massive. And some of those thousands are nifty and criminally underrated freshwater species. (And also gobies are some of my favourite fish of all time ever).

Here we go!

We start with the ever popular, and often misidentified bumblebee gobies (Brachygobius spp.), a group of diminutive brackish/freshwater species.

The truely tiny, 1 cm long dwarf Pygmy goby (Pandaka pygmaea).

The charming Rhinohorn goby (Redigobius balteatus).

The very handsome Desert goby (Chlamydogobius eremius).

The Red Cheek goby (Lentipes armatus). Gosh.

And the Red Tailed goby (Sicyopterus lagocephalus). Golly!

The Lipstick goby (Sicyopus exallisquamulus). Now that’s A Look.

Sicyopus zosterophorum, whose common name I’m not sure about. But look at this little belted fashion icon!

It looks like I’m getting close to the 10-picture limit, so hang tight for goby post part 2, where I gush about the genera Stiphodon and Rhinogobius!