Orange-striped Shrimp Goby (Another Aquarium by For Corporation)

I had not planned on another post so soon, but since the blog has been kinda quiet, I thought I would transfer over one of my walkarounds. This time, the orange-striped shrimp goby, Stogonobiops yasha Yoshino et Shimada, 2010 that was released as part of the line called Another Aquarium by the company For Corporation (yes, that is the name of the company). Unfortunately the year of release unknown. For Corporation is probably best known for buying the rights to several Aquameridian figures and re-releasing them as part of the Another Aquarium collection. This fish is displayed with its symbiotic shrimp, the red-clawed snapping shrimp, Alpheus randalli Banner et Banner, 1980. I got this figure earlier this year; I had been after it for a while now, albeit mainly for the shrimp. However since I started building a synoptic animal collection, this gives me an opportunity for a new fish species as well. I apologize for the quality of some of the pics; the nature of the display makes it difficult to get everything in focus.

Shrimp gobies have a symbiotic relationship with snapping shrimp. The two species share a burrow together. The shrimp maintains the burrow and in turn gets to feed on food scraps from the fish. The shrimp is nearly blind and is very sensitive to movements of the fish, often keeping an antennae in constant contact with the fish. If the fish retreated into the burrow to avoid danger, this shrimp follows!

The figure comes in 6 pieces: 1) base, 2) shrimp body, 3) shrimp legs and claws, 4) fish, 5) fish’s dorsal fin (which attached very loosely), and 6) signage (in Japanese, presumably the Japanese name of the fish). The base is 3.5 cm in diameter. The shrimp is just short of 1:1, so if the fish and shrimp are scaled together, the whole display can serve as 1:1 (I cannot measure the fish since the posterior end is incomplete, being ‘within the burrow’).

This is not the only goby-shrimp figure set. Colorata made the yellownose prawn goby, Stonogobiops xanthorhinica Randall, 1982 also displayed with A. randalli. I hadn’t paid attention until I started focusing on fish, that these two figures are different fish species! For both figures, the shrimp is lacking some accuracy, as one claw should be larger than the other. The Colorata figure focuses on the fish, with the shrimp merely an accessory display, but the For Corporation figures seems to emphasize both equally.