Australian Crested Oyster Goby, Cryptocentroides gobioides - An awesome new fish

[Brie]

Wanted to showcase this awesome new fish we got in on our last shipment. They're pretty rare, not one you see a whole lot and there's not a lot of info available on them, but they sure are amazing looking(IMO anyway.). Dark overall color, with a neat litte mohawk crest down the top of their head, and flashy red/blue color all over. I took these two photos with flash which really brought out the color. In person its a little more subdued.

From what i've gathered online they're normally a brackish/estuarine fish, found in the mouths of rivers meeting the ocean and sometimes up into coastal lakes, but they prefer saltwater over fresh. Don't sand sift or host with pistol shrimp like most saltwater gobies, and don't seem to be overly aggressive with anybody.

Crested Oyster Goby, Cryptocentroides gobioides (Ogilby, 1886) - Australian Museum

Crested Goby

Crazy awesome belly pic of a wild fish http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/PicturesSummary.php?StartRow=0&ID=56151&what=species&TotRec=2

Only have 1, he is $99.99.

 

[returnofsid]

Very cool fish!! Any information on it's diet or "reef safeness?"

 

[Brie]

Very cool fish!! Any information on it's diet or "reef safeness?"

I believe in one of those links it says they're reef safe. The one here is eating anything and everything. Pellets/mysis/Rods.

 

[wombo]

I know its a bit of an old post but stumbled upon this forum sourcing more information on this species, particularly on breeding. So far haven't had much success.

I have kept and bred these fish before. They would be reef safe however their diet mainly consists of crustaceans so I would be a little wary putting them with small shrimps. They are endemic to Eastern Australia (from about Rockhampton, QLD to Eden, NSW). From what I've gathered they aren't popular enough for them to have much demand in the trade. They are very hardy and would make excellent beginners species as they can tolerant variations in salinity, pH and other parameters. They are also relatively easy to breed. The hardest part about breeding them is distinguishing the sexes. Males are typically darker then females and the extensions on their dorsal fins tend to be longer. I raised the fry in a seperate aquarium feeding them on BBS, and quality liquid fry food as well as zooplankton collected during slicks that came close to shore during the summer here. There was approximately 200 or so fry however I lost around 2/3rds of them (mostly due to inexperience). The specimens I had I collected myself in bait traps and on tiny barbless hooks and line. They are definently not fussy once acclimatised seemingly to prefer frozen foods like brine and mysis shrimps and chopped prawns, fish flesh and mussels.

I am looking at these species again and hopefully breeding them with better results as I have gained quite a lot more experience from first time round lol.

 

[TJL]

Great information wombo, thanks for sharing. I'll see about moving part of this thread over to our library (giving photo credits to Brie @ BRA)

Cheers/Mahalo, Todd