Yellow Assessor Comments

[bigjohn]

I saw some of these at an LFS a few weeks back and I had that strong urge to take one home, but I exercised the most valuable thing this hobby has taught me--patience!!!!

Anyway, I've been trying to slowly populate my 135 semi-reef with as many different "smallish" reef fish as I can. So far I have a yellow watchman/pistol shrimp pair, green clown goby, neon goby, and a purple dottyback.

I know the aggressiveness of the dottyback could be a problem, but he has mellowed out since I re-arranged the rockwork about 3 months ago. He mostly stays in his spot and doesn't venture out to harrass everyone.

I've heard that the assessors like to jump, and that I would need to cover the tank.

Does anyone have any experience with this fish, either directly or anecdotally??

Yellow Assessor

[brifirst]

I have a blue assesor , He has been a modal citizan.

[OodleyBoodely]

Hi, BigJohn!

I don't have any experience keeping Assessors but have been wanting some for awhile and have been reading up on them. Unfortunately I never see them anywhere for sale.

As I understand it, yellow assessors are peaceful reef safe fish that can be kept in groups. In your tank you could probably easily keep a group of 3-5, but, all should be added at the same time. If I recall my reading correctly, Scott Micheal also recommends them as an excellant candidate for captive breeding programs (if you are interested in fish breeding ). I believe they are planctonic feeders and are not known to be problem feeders. HTH Perhaps someone else has some actual experience keeping them. I would also like to see actual experiences of reefers keeping these fish.

[brifirst]

I can't keep a green clown gobie alive.

[bigjohn]

Hi brifirst,

Thanks for the fast replies.

My only concerns about keeping a Yellow Assessor are:

1. Are they aggressive enough to not be overly intimated by the dottyback?

2. Are Assessors really bad about jumping??

This is my first and only green clown gobie. He hasn't been much trouble, but he spends most of his time hiding in the rock or under a mushroom. He usually only shows himself at feeding time, when he darts out to grab a bite.

Do you have any fish that could be harrassing the green clown gobie?

Do you have plenty of hiding places for them??

[brifirst]

I actually had my assesor with a dottyback. They did fine together.Everyone else didnt. They dottyback was so bad I had to get him out of the tank, way too menacing.

Had plenty of space to hiding. I tried twice with a green gobie, they did the same as yours, except after about two to three weeks I noticed them MIA.

Someone mentioned they need to be fed often ???

Good luck, I think its an awsome fish.

[bigjohn]

I wish I could offer some other insight about green clown gobies. I have never made any special feeding accommodations for mine. He gets fed 2-3 times per week with the rest of the fish. Mine did take a trip into my corner overflow once. It took me about 2 weeks to locate him. While I was pondering how to rescue him (over the next week), he disappeared and I saw him in the main about a week later.

[brifirst]

I try and keep only small fish in my 110 gallon. I end up going into the corner overflows almost once a week. I've even tried to cover them with nylon mesh and gutter guard from home depot. They still find a way in. Anyway, I have been siphoning them out. DAMM pain in the neck,but it works.