Yellow Watchman Goby

Looks how to spot one

Scaled, elongated bottom-dwelling goby

A torpedo-shaped goby with a round cross-section, big bulging eyes set high on the head, a large mouth and a rounded tail. Its pelvic fins are joined together. The head, front of the body and fins are sprinkled with tiny pale blue to white spots, and many fish show four or five faint darker bands across the body.135

Personality what they are like

A calm, watchful fish that spends most of the day perched at the mouth of its burrow, darting inside at the first sign of danger. It is peaceful with most tankmates and only quarrels with fish of its own kind or other shrimp gobies competing for the same burrow space.654

Daily activity how busy a day looks

Low. It rarely swims about, preferring to sit on the sand by its burrow and snap up food that drifts past. Gentle water flow suits it best.6

Grooming and care the hands-on bits

Rated an easy-care marine fish. Keep the tank tightly covered, as it is an excellent jumper, especially while settling in. If it shares the tank with a pistol shrimp, spot-feed so the shrimp gets enough to eat too. Keep water conditions stable.564

Home where they are happiest

A marine aquarium of at least about 75 litres (20 US gallons); a retailer suggests 30 gallons. Provide a deep enough mix of sand and rubble for burrowing, some live rock, calm flow and a secure lid. Keep the water at about 22-28 °C. It is reef safe and leaves corals and other sessile invertebrates alone. In the wild it lives at 1 to 25 m depth on sandy lagoon floors and coastal sand slopes.25641

Food basics what goes in the bowl

A carnivore. In tanks it eats small meaty foods such as mysis and brine shrimp, chopped crustacean flesh, frozen carnivore mixes and sinking pellets, ideally offered at least twice a day.564

Company who they like around

Keep one per tank, or a mated pair, since it defends its burrow from others of its kind. It does best with a burrowing Alpheus pistol shrimp partner such as the tiger pistol shrimp, but can also live without one.6542

The story where it all began

Albert Herre described this goby in 1936 under the name Smilogobius cinctus; it now sits in Cryptocentrus, a genus of about 41 species known as watchman gobies or prawn gobies. Scientists noticed early that it does not dig its own home but shares a burrow with alpheid shrimps, one of roughly 120 gobies known to form such partnerships. In the marine aquarium hobby it has become one of the most common and widely available shrimp gobies, valued as a hardy, colourful choice for small reef tanks and for letting keepers watch the goby and shrimp partnership up close.289175

Recognised by the official bits

IUCN Red List

Least Concern (assessed 27 August 2020)1

Taxonomy

Family Gobiidae; described by Albert Herre in 1936 as Smilogobius cinctus. One of about 41 species in the genus Cryptocentrus, the watchman gobies.2