chameleon/shimofuri gobies in califonia

Hey there everyone, my name is jared and i am new here to nanfa, and i am from california. I currrently have a 55 gallon native tank set up that is heavily planted and houses fish from my area, so far i have green sunfish, bluegill, largemouth bass,golden shiner,squawfish,riffle sculpin,prickly sculpin,warmouth,smallmouth bass,striper, and redear sunfish. I was out collecting recently, (i only collect with hook and line usually with a size 18-22 hook and small redworms) in a local resivoir dipping my line down into small holes and crevices between rocks on shore, i came up onto a certain stretch of shore and started hooking into these strange little fish that i had never seen before, i caught about 20 of these little guys and they are very cool looking fish that all seemed to have variations in color and markings. I thought at first glance that they resembled juv. snakeheads which i have kept before, except the lack of a complete dorsal fin. I brought 6 of the more vibrant variants of the little guys home and planted them in the tank, while doing my research into finding out what they were, a few hours on the internet and i found out that they are a native of japan that arrived here in califonia sometime in the sixties and that had migrated up the san fran. bay and into the delta. The lake i was fishing is fed by delta water which explains them being there. All info i find on them explains that little is known on the impact that they may be having on the natives here, and thus far no investigation has been conducted as far as i can tell. These fish are dominating my tank!! Within an hour of being in the tank they physically removed all sculpins from there rock dens, started nipping passer by's such as the basses and sunfish, these little gobies at between 2.5-3" where chasing adult greensunfish away, which in my opinion are one of the more agressive of the sunfishes. I couldn't believe my eyes. It's been about a month now that i have had these guy's and they have already spawned twice!!! These fish are crazy, you can watch them change colors and patterns in an instant right before your eyes, i have never seen a fish with an abilty to morph that fast, it's bizare. The fish makes a great aquarium fish, i am suprised the are not being sold actually, apparently they can live in both fresh and salt water. I must say though, these fish are most definately dangerous to the smaller natives here, since introducing them to the tank all but the most agressive sculpins have survived and even those have battle wounds and are homeless as they are now seen in open areas of the tank instead of nestled into there burrows. I plan on doing a full blown research project in a larger tank with other native bottom dwellers, Have any of you heard of these fish or have any more info on them? thanks for lookin, i will post pics soon.

Given the amount of fish you have in your tank, aggression is going to happen no matter who you introduce. You might want to check local laws regarding posession of the invasives as well. It might not be legal to keep them in your area.

I currrently have a 55 gallon native tank set up that is heavily planted and houses fish from my area, so far i have green sunfish, bluegill, largemouth bass,golden shiner,squawfish,riffle sculpin,prickly sculpin,warmouth,smallmouth bass,striper, and redear sunfish.

I plan on doing a full blown research project in a larger tank with other native bottom dwellers,

I have a few suggestions for you to research before you start your "full blown research project".

1. Your post implies that alot of your fish in your tank are native. But the green sunfish, bluegill, largemouth bass, golden shiner, warmouth, smallmouth bass, striper, and redear sunfish certianly are not and don't belong in CA anymore than your gobies. As for the sculpins I assume they are native to CA.

2. Squawfish - are you legally allowed to own them in CA? I have never been to CA so I really don't know the answer.

3. Unless you missed a few numbers are your tank is really 55,555 gallons you should probably research proper care of fish in their adult sizes. You have 12 species of fish in the tank before the gobies. The Striper can reach 6' long, the bass can both get over 2' long, Squawfish are measured in feet, the sunfish and shiners can all get over 1' long. You claim the green sunfish are adults which likely puts them in the 7-12" range which means all the other fish need to be close to that size also.

So are you a troll or do you just act without thinking?

Andy

[quote name='andyavram' date='Apr 11 2009, 12:49 PM' post='56859']
I have a few suggestions for you to research before you start your "full blown research project".

1. Your post implies that alot of your fish in your tank are native. But the green sunfish, bluegill, largemouth bass, golden shiner, warmouth, smallmouth bass, striper, and redear sunfish certianly are not and don't belong in CA anymore than your gobies. As for the sculpins I assume they are native to CA.

2. Squawfish - are you legally allowed to own them in CA? I have never been to CA so I really don't know the answer.

3. Unless you missed a few numbers are your tank is really 55,555 gallons you should probably research proper care of fish in their adult sizes. You have 12 species of fish in the tank before the gobies. The Striper can reach 6' long, the bass can both get over 2' long, Squawfish are measured in feet, the sunfish and shiners can all get over 1' long. You claim the green sunfish are adults which likely puts them in the 7-12" range which means all the other fish need to be close to that size also.

So are you a troll or do you just act without thinking?

Andy
WOW... you guys think my tank is a hostile environment? How about this forum..jeeez. I am well aware that these fish are not "originally" native to california...but seeing as how most of the actual natives here are either gone or very rare i do what i can. I guess you can say my tank is native, as in fish from the U.S. not just california.SORRY ABOUT THE MIS UNDERSTANDING! If i were to do a native of california tank there would be a bunch of suckers,tule perch, sacrament perch ect. This would be kinda boring not to mention these fish a very,very hard to come by here, and even if i did come across them i surely would not put them into captivity as they are again like i said Rare. Also i am well aware of the fact that striper/largemouth/sunfish/shiners and pretty much every fish in my tank will reach large sizes eventually, which is o.k. because i also own a 3 acre pond which i will release them into when they outgrow there suroundings, in fact half of the mentioned fish came from that very same pond anyhow. Almost all of the fish in my tank are between 2-4" long minus the green sunfish who was at about 6'', who was infact released a few days ago, it was put in the tank originally becuase of the amazing color of this particular one, i would say it was only in there for about a month, and around hear greens hardly ever reach more than 6-8'' so i called him an adult. As for keeping a squawfish, i have seen people catch them and bring them home to eat, infact in certain lakes we are told to kill them when caught, this is especially true in oregon, also these fish are not measured in feet btw at least not around here, you might be thinking of a colorado squawfish P.lucius which can grow to 4 feet, the sacramento squawfish usually attains a maximum of 18-24 inches around here, sure back in the 1800's when they dominated all waterways and before major habitat alterations they would have been larger. My research project would be a study of true native, as in native to CAL. bottom dwellers i.e. long jawwed mud sucker, sculpins, young squawfish, various suckers, ect. and the conflicts between them and the shimofuri goby, i would try to replicate as best as i can the delta environment here. As far as my 55 gallon goes i have beautiful fish,ample filtration, and no problems with fighting fish or casualties, except when it comes to the shimofuri goby fighting with other bottom dwellers and nipping passer by's. Who's the troll?