The Yasha goby, Stonogobiops yasha, is one of the most beautiful and classic reef gobies and now they have been successfully captive bred. This weekend Rising Tide Conservation announced that they had just settled a pair of the iconic Yasha goby that were successfully captive bred.

Every year, month and even week, another new species of reef fish is announced as captive bred but this is a much bigger achievement than the usual cryptic goby or cardinalfish. The Yasha goby is an extremely popular species of goby in the aquarium hobby and for good reasons. This species is endowed with beautiful red stripes on a bright white body, yellow fins, bold-colored orange eyes and an eye-catching tall first dorsal fin ray.

As a budding marine aquarist Stonogobiops ‘barber pole’ gobies were one of the first fish we ever kept, and we remember seeing Stonogobiops yasha for the first time more than 15 years ago, like it was yesterday. It’s no surprise that so many people love the Yasha goby but despite years of trying to breed this species, until yesterday successfully captive bred Stonogobiops yasha remained elusive.

Finally, the powerhouse of reef fish breeding that is Rising Tide Conservation announced the first two metamorphosed juveniles of Stonogobiops had settled out at 35 to 50 days post hatch. This particular breeding effort at Rising Tide was spearheaded by Joe Szczebak who took the photo of the juvenile below.

The news of the first captive bred Stonogobiops is a very big deal because this species is so popular for the aquarium trade. It’s no surprise that Rising Tide is the first captive breeding effort to succeed with this species, but hopefully the ‘tricks’ of producing this species is not out of reach for hobbyist captive breeders. [Rising Tide]