Lyre Goby, Evorthodus lyricus

Our new member Scott brought me this little cutie a few days ago: a lyre goby, Evorthodus lyricus. He found a few lyres along with freshwater goby, river goby, fat sleeper, and spinycheek sleepers, in a small scummy stormwater detention pond adjacent to Bogue Sound near Morehead City NC. The pond is a few feet elevation above normal high tide, so gobies probably only have access into it during heavy rainfall. None of these species is common around the area, and he hasnt found them in other nearby habitats. How and why they all ended up in this pond is a mystery. Anyway, this guy is doing nicely in a sand-bottom tank, eating fresh-hatched Artemia and finely chopped blackworms.

For WAAAAY better shots of this fish and the other gobies and sleepers, see Scott's website ncfishes.com > families > gobiidae, eleotridae. Also see Bob Goldstein's 1982 article on Lyre Gobies in the archives of the NANFA main website (not the forum).

He looks nice and fat! Did it take any convincing for him to start taking the black worms?

Pthat looks awesome, any vids?

Blackworms freaked him out on first encounter; pieces larger than 3/4 inch were too overwhelming. But I chopped them smaller (1/4 to 1/2 inch) and by day 2 he was eating them. Fresh-hatched Artemia he ate right away. Trying to figure out if that "fuzz" on the chin is normal cirri/papillae or an injury. I dont see any mention of mental cirri in keys or descriptions. Did you notice that on any of them? Sorry al10 - no vids.

Blackworms freaked him out on first encounter; pieces larger than 3/4 inch were too overwhelming. But I chopped them smaller (1/4 to 1/2 inch) and by day 2 he was eating them. Fresh-hatched Artemia he ate right away. Trying to figure out if that "fuzz" on the chin is normal cirri/papillae or an injury. I dont see any mention of mental cirri in keys or descriptions. Did you notice that on any of them? Sorry al10 - no vids.

I did not notice any cirri in any of the specimens that I have caught lately, and I'm leaning towards injury. Killing the proverbial two birds, I have a video of him in quarantine, ill share it below for al10, and there are no cirri that I can see in that vid. The tank appears at first glance to be a marine setup, but is FW with just a hint of salt. The tank mates are gambusia, Ctenogobius shufeldti, and a female E. lyricus toward the end.


edit: The forum seems to be stripping the embedded code for the youtube link out, try the following link instead.