Gobies and Blennies: Personality Fish for Your Reef

The Fish With the Most Character Per Centimetre

Gobies and blennies are the comedians of the reef tank. These small, bottom-dwelling fish perch on rocks, peek out of holes, and generally act like tiny, grumpy old men. Best of all, most are perfectly suited to smaller UK tanks.

Blennies

Tailspot Blenny — A top-tier nano fish. Sits on rocks, swivels its head to track movement, and grazes algae. Reef-safe, maxes out around 6cm. Perfect for tanks as small as 60 litres.

Starry Blenny — An algae-eating machine for hair algae and film algae. Bigger (up to 14cm), so needs 150+ litres. Can get territorial with other blennies.

Bicolour Blenny — Half brown, half orange. Excellent algae grazer and generally reef-safe, though rare individuals might nip SPS or clam mantles.

Midas Blenny — Golden-yellow, swims in open water more than most blennies. Known for mimicking anthias in the water column.

Gobies

Yellow Watchman Goby — Hardy, reef-safe, digs burrows in sand and keeps watch at the entrance. Pairs brilliantly with pistol shrimp.

Clown Goby — Tiny (3cm max), sits in SPS branches. Perfect for nanos. Can irritate the SPS they're sitting on, but usually not a major issue.

Diamond/Orange-Spotted Goby — Sand-sifter that keeps sandbeds pristine. Can deplete sandbed fauna in small tanks, so better for 200+ litres with deep sandbeds.

Court Jester Goby (Rainford's) — Beautiful with horizontal stripes, eats filamentous algae. Can be difficult to get feeding on prepared foods — only for tanks with abundant natural algae.

Feeding

Most blennies graze algae supplemented with spirulina flakes and small frozen foods. Gobies take frozen mysis, brine shrimp, and pellets readily. Sand-sifters benefit from target feeding.

These fish ship well due to their small size, making online buying straightforward.