I saw two shrimp gobies last week that were so tiny, if they hadn’t been pointed out to me I would have walked straight past them. The first was the Whitecap Shrimpgoby, Lotilia klausewitzi, from the West Pacific. The second is the Scaleless Shrimpgoby, Tomiyamichthys nudus, two rarely seen shrimp gobies that I wish I’d have snapped up when I saw them.
I was visiting England’s Advanced Aquarium Consultancy, (AAC,) on a mission to collect a Fiji Yellow Leather like the ones I saw offered for sale at the Love2Reef show a few weeks before. AAC’s livestock is a feast for the eyes and I soon went down the soft coral rabbit hole with owner Paul Hughes before gawping at the juvenile Oreni tilefish, Polyzona tangs, and Earle’s Fairy Wrasse on offer. It was only before leaving they asked me if I’d seen the Whitecap and “nudus” gobies.
The Whitecap moniker I knew, and searched out a tiny brown and white fish in a cave with its partner pistol shrimp. If you’re into shrimp gobies and unusual gobies in general, the Whitecap is well worth searching out and would make a collectible, if somewhat premium priced addition to a nano reef tank. This one was difficult to see and impossible to photograph, but I assume it was the Western Pacific species Lotilia klausewitzi. If it was the true Lotilia graciliosa with a prominent ocellus on the dorsal fin it would be even more highly prized. That species comes from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It had its symbiotic pistol shrimp too. Also known as the Dancer Shrimpgoby, I wouldn’t risk adding the 2.7cm/1” fish to anything larger than a nano tank for fear of losing it.
And just as small (if not smaller,) was a species I’d never seen before in the flesh. The tiny, camouflaged, Scaleless Shrimpgoby, Tomiyamichthys nudus, which I had to squint to make out sat motionless atop a rock. We mainly collect tropical marine fish for their bright colors, but the tiny size and cryptic coloration of T.nudus places it in the realm of the fish nerds and collectors, as you literally wouldn’t see it in the average reef tank. In its own tank however, with its symbiotic shrimp and a collection of other tiny, collectible gobies it could become quite the talking point, and a fish that’s very different to the norm, even the shrimpgoby norm.
So I’ve spent my weekend longing for these two unusual shrimp gobies, wishing I saw them sooner, wishing I could have observed them for longer, and that my newly arrived nano tank was ready to receive either one of them. It’s reinforced my craving for the unusual however, and the fact that they are both tiny and plain in color has made me want them all the more…
Read more on these two gobies:
