🐠 Tangaroan Shrimp Goby (Ctenogobiops tangaroai)
A Delicate, Semi-Translucent White Body With Orange Spots • A Distinctively Elongated Dorsal Fin Ray • A Documented Pistol Shrimp Partnership
 
📋 The Tangaroan Shrimp Goby, also known as the Tangaroa Goby or Tangaroa Shrimpgoby, has a delicate, semi-translucent white body decorated with orange spots interspersed with tiny blue-white specks, and a distinctively elongated first dorsal fin ray.
It comes from the reefs of the Pacific Ocean, found in fine-grained sand patches at depths of 4 to 40 metres, usually observed hovering just above the substrate near its burrow. Its scientific name honours Tangaroa, the Māori god of the sea. Every Tangaroan Shrimp Goby we ship is feeding well.
This species forms a real, documented commensal partnership with alpheid pistol shrimp, sharing a burrow the shrimp digs and maintains while keeping antennal contact with the goby, who stands watch and signals danger with a quivering caudal fin, prompting both to retreat instantly. This is a peaceful, passive species that isn't aggressive toward other shrimp gobies and may even share a burrow with a different species. It's fully reef safe, and does best kept as a compatible male-female pair, though care should be taken not to combine two individuals of unknown sex from different sources, since two males will fight, especially in smaller tanks. It reaches up to 7.5cm, so a 40L tank suits it well.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Translucent White Body With Orange Spots: A delicate, characterful shrimp goby
🦐 A Documented Pistol Shrimp Partnership: A real commensal burrow-sharing relationship
🌿 Fully Reef Safe: Won't harm corals or invertebrates
😌 Peaceful: Won't bother other shrimp gobies, even of different species
🌊 Named for a Sea God: Honours Tangaroa, the Māori god of the sea