The idea for this approach to feeding “slow” feeding fishes came during a visit to a large marine wholesaler in New York. I noticed large bare tanks of Hippocampus species. They were fed in the morning and within a few minutes all of the Artemia was in the filters. If the fish were not shipped in a day or two they would often die from starvation. Lacking a well developed stomach with only a short intestinal tract they have no capacity to store food and must feed continuously (Giwojna, 1994). Systems which have continual filtration make continual feeding difficult to provide so I decided to take home one of these creatures (a female) and see if I could not solve this problem.

The Suborder Gobiodei is one of the largest groups of fishes (Order Perciformes) encompassing 3-7 families, 263-270 genera and approximately 2000 species. Reference material can be confusing because of contradiction from one source to another, not only with respect to number of families and Genus, but even the spelling of (which is sometimes a typographical error,(1)). The Decorated FireFish (or fire-goby) Nemateleotris decora is placed by some in the Family Microdesmidae, while other references list it as a member of the family Gobiidae. Common names further add to the confusion; the Mandarin Fish, Synchiropus splendidus, a member of the Dragonets, (family Callionymidae), is often sold as the Mandarin Goby. The Convict blenny, Pholidichthys leucotaenia, is commonly offered as a Convict goby and the juveniles are sold as Engineer gobies!