The Very Rare and Very Expensive White Cap Goby

White Cap Goby (Lotilia graciliosa)

© 2010 Foster & Smith, Inc. Reprinted as a courtesy and with permission from http://www.LiveAquaria.com

If you’re looking for the centerpiece fish for your nano aquarium, look no further. The White Cap Goby (Lotilia graciliosa) has shown up on US soil once again, and LiveAquaria has one. This tiny goby will fetch a hefty price tag, $900 to be exact. The whitecap goby is very shy and will take some time to get adapted to your aquarium. To ease it into aquarium life, you can add a pistol shrimp. The goby should, at some point, form a symbiotic relationship with the shrimp, which might relieve some of the initial stress.

The white cap goby comes from a variety of areas, including Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu to name a few. It can be found hovering over carbonate-based substrates, often sharing a burrow with a pistol shrimp. The max size of the goby is approximately 2″, or just short of that. This tiny fish is very beautiful and rare, hence its steep price tag. They show up in the US a couple of times per year at the most, so if you see one and have the money to spare, jump on it right away.

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© 2010 Drs. Foster and Smith, Inc.
Reprinted as a courtesy and with permission from
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