Oplopomus oplopomus

(Valenciennes, 1837)

Spinecheek Goby

Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: West Africa to Australia and Japan.

Size: 5 inches (12 cm)

Natural Environment: Inhabits sandy bottoms on local reefs at depths between 6 to 100 feet (2 – 30 m) where it feeds on benthic crustaceans/zooplankton.

General Husbandry: Rarely seen in the trade having a whitish body with several dark spots on the body along with numerous small white dots also on the body and dorsal fin. There’s also some blue striping on the anal fin and narrow blue and yellow horizontal lines on the tail.

Can be maintained in reef or fish-only aquariums having some rocky crevices for hiding, and also a sandbed of at least two inches (5 cm) in depth where it can form a burrow.

Should not be housed with aggressive fishes such as groupers, dottybacks, triggerfishes or aggressive angelfishes.

A sand sifter, picking up mouthfuls of sand and sifting out anything edible.

Requires a meaty diet, i.e., enriched brine shrimp, mysis, finely chopped fish or shrimp flesh, and other various frozen carnivore foods, with one or two feedings per day.

Small sinking enriched shrimp meal pellets are an excellent way of keeping them well fed.

Taxonomy:

Order: Perciformes

Suborder: Gobioidei

Family: Gobiidae

Genus: Oplopomus

FYI: May jump out of uncovered aquariums.

One per aquarium.

Experience Level: Intermediate

Temperament: Peaceful

Diet: Carnivore

Coral Safe: Yes

Fish Safe: Yes

Invertebrate Safe: With caution

Acclimation Time: 30 minutes+

Aquarium Environment: Reef or fish-only aquarium

Tankmates: Peaceful

Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons

Temperature Range: 72 - 82°F (22 – 27°C)

Specific Gravity: 1.020 - 1.026

pH: 8.0 - 8.5