Boldingh's Ghostgoby

About

Boldingh's ghostgoby (Pleurosicya boldinghi) is one of those fish that rewards the patient observer. Blink and you'll miss it. This diminutive goby is nearly transparent, which makes it almost invisible against the soft corals it calls home. In the wild, it ranges across a broad sweep of the Indo-West Pacific, from East Africa out to the Solomon Islands and from Japan down to Western Australia. It tends to live on Dendronephthya soft corals in areas with strong water movement, often at considerable depth, though it also turns up on Sarcophyton corals and sea pens across a wide depth range. Large host corals can support several individuals at once, so this is not a strictly solitary species. In the aquarium, keeping one successfully really comes down to providing an appropriate host coral. Without that, the fish tends to struggle. It's a calm, non-aggressive species that won't bother tankmates and won't be bothered by most community reef inhabitants, though anything large enough to view it as a snack is obviously a problem. For its small size and relatively forgiving nature, it fits well into a peaceful reef setup where its near-invisible form can be appreciated up close.