Saturday, August 11, 2007

DOG PILE, DOG PILE

 DOG PILE 3 DSCN6533
These hilarious little fish are Shark Nosed Gobys. Gobiosoma evelynae Bohlke & Robbins, 1968.
They are also called Cleaner Gobys. In the clickable link at Planet Earth, you will also see a similar Goby, called a Neon Goby, or Gobiosoma oceanops, (Jordan, 1904)
Both of these goby species will pick parasites off of other fish, & can be often seen "riding the rails", or cruising with a larger fish, stuck to it`s side, yet moving about on the fish, cleaning it.
They readily breed in the tank & have done so in mine. Both parents protect the eggs, usually laid in an empty shell.
When mine were breeding, & the eggs laid (I`ll find images later, since I now remember I have them on film) I cut a cover from a stack of blank DVD`S in half, & positioned the "egg shell" ( that`s a good one) near the tank side & covered it with the DVD piece.
Under cover of darkness the predators would try & get inside for a nocturnal omlet, but were thwarted by the protective transparent barrier. The Goby, very small in build could easily slip in & out.
When not breeding, these little fish are like little kittens, springing out of nowhere & ambushing each other in wild chases throughout the tank.
Enjoy these diminutive little rascals & be safe out there, please.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Once again, I very much enjoyed my "browsing" tour of the slide show. It's fun to see them in a variety of seascapes.

So they frolic like kittens, that must be quite the crackup watching that.

It always amazes me to see animals in the wild playing. Whilst floating quietly by in a canoe, I once saw several young whitetailed deer running back and forth up and down a river bank, and into the water, and back up again, kicking up their heels at eacher.

And then humans intrude... and the complexion of their activities changes.

Knucklehead said...

NDD,
Exactly. Here they need a little break, then one will tear ass outta there & it`s on. They dash headlong straight into the rockwork, into a tiny hole you didn`t realize was there. In the slide show a few of them are exiting one of their mini caverns.
And then, the humans showed up.
Dog pile, dog pile.

Nancy P said...

I wish I could see video of that playfulness!

I thought they were eels at first.

I will now think of kittens as frolicking like Gobys.

Knucklehead said...

Nancy p,
For as fast as they chase each other around, they`ll come to a sudden stop & seem to perch on their pectoral fins as if they`re ready to taxi off, ready for another 3 dimensional dogfight.
Remember, tonight at 2:00 AM till sunrise, the meteorite shower.
It`s definitely worth seeing a marvelous celestial display, at the expense of a few hours of sleep. I believe it will improve your peace of mind & allow for a more hopefull outlook, a prerequsite for a better sleep in the days to come.
Or, they`re "going at it like gobys". Instead of a "sex kitten" , "You little sex goby, you". I think you may have started a cult. They`re "as cute as gobys".
Have a goby day.

R Casey said...

Hi, KH, we just tried to see the Perseids (many times we've been on the shores of Superior to watch them, but not this year). Too much ambient light, of course.

T313 asked me to mention that he's been under the weather, or he would have been here.

Like NDD, I've enjoyed browsing the slide show. Amazing how much time animals appear to just have fun, surely we have something to learn from that. Or perhaps we know it and have just forgotten.

Knucklehead said...

Good evening Kidspeak,
Please give my best wishes to Teach313.
We just don`t know what the stuffed toys do once we sleep. I think people are indoctrinated at a much younger age now to have structured play. When we were kids, it was get out & go play somewhere. What are you doing inside go out & play. Now it`s arranged playdates & teams you get picked to play on, & regulated with time keepers. I never played team sports except basketball in highschool & it was such a farce, that`s why I played. We were a very small school of english speaking students maybe 1% of the student population. There was never any question of us winning coming from such a small pool, but we had the best time of any team. I knew many of the French students, from other schools, living in the neighborhood. I`d always fake them out telling them I was open & they`d throw me the ball. It was almost a joke.
I don`t think I forgot how to have fun. My granddaughters make sure of that.