By Elise Watling
The little citron coral goby or lemon coral goby has to be one of my favourite fish. Why? Check him out. He's cute, tiny, bright yellow with white Adam Ant stripes down his face. Yes, he is an eighties retro fish!
The little chap actually belongs to the Gobiodon genus of the Gobiidae family, which is THE largest family in the marine world and with over 200 genera of them you can see why! The citron coral goby is the smaller of the species and only grows to a length of 4cm in comparison with some of his other family members reaching over 50cm!
He has two dorsal fins and is often found lurking with others of his kind in the acropora table corals that are readily found here in Ras Mohammed. The rest of his clan tend to be found burrowing in the sand but not this one. He stands loud and retro-proud on the table corals! They give off a noxious body slime so not many other fish will play ball with them and they tend to stick to their own kind. Those that don't seem to mind, though are small damsels and juvenile hawkfish that will share the same acropora.
This goby feeds mainly on zooplankton, small crustaceans and algae. And if that fails they'll eat the Acropora coral or skeleton that he inhabits.
In small groups they readily form pairs and mate. The genus are hermaphrodites (meaning they have both male and female organs) with females turning into males. The female deposits circular bands around a branch of host coral that are immediately fertilized and subsequently guarded by the male. Alas, because of the goby's small size, they have a lot of problems fending off larger predators when rearing their young.
The little citron coral goby or lemon coral goby has to be one of my favourite fish. Why? Check him out. He's cute, tiny, bright yellow with white Adam Ant stripes down his face. Yes, he is an eighties retro fish!
He has two dorsal fins and is often found lurking with others of his kind in the acropora table corals that are readily found here in Ras Mohammed. The rest of his clan tend to be found burrowing in the sand but not this one. He stands loud and retro-proud on the table corals! They give off a noxious body slime so not many other fish will play ball with them and they tend to stick to their own kind. Those that don't seem to mind, though are small damsels and juvenile hawkfish that will share the same acropora.
This goby feeds mainly on zooplankton, small crustaceans and algae. And if that fails they'll eat the Acropora coral or skeleton that he inhabits.
In small groups they readily form pairs and mate. The genus are hermaphrodites (meaning they have both male and female organs) with females turning into males. The female deposits circular bands around a branch of host coral that are immediately fertilized and subsequently guarded by the male. Alas, because of the goby's small size, they have a lot of problems fending off larger predators when rearing their young.
The boat leaves the dive centre at 8am and returns at 5pm, so a full and fulfilling day for all. Divers can do their PADI Boat Diver specialty on the day. Non-diving guests are also welcome aboard.
Dive one: Serenaka Island, check dive, very good visibility, nice pinnacles with swim throughs, lots of anthias and nice hard corals, free swimming moray and napoleonfish.
Now you can! With Emperor Dive Tribe's 
Twelve divers from Dive Wimbledon were recently given the usual warm welcome from Emperor Divers Nuweiba. Some came for guided dives with the Emperor staff whilst others were here for 
Another highlight of the week for a few lucky divers was the first appearance of the season for Jayakar's Seahorse in the seagrass at our Magana ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f44f94f8-5b3f-475d-99b6-1add7dd4570f)
The HEPCA Mooring Team recently completed their periodic maintenance rounds in the Northern Islands. Their five day trip established 19 new moorings and maintained nearly another 30. The trip included some of the reefs most visited by the diving industry including Shaab Abu Nuhas, Siyul Al Kabeir, Shabruhr Siyul (East and West), Onghosh and Siyul Al Sagheir. 
After two very nice morning dives, I was a little disappointed when the Captain said we had to move as the wind had changed direction. Due to an unusual south wind we headed to Marsa Mubarak South reef. 
Dive Tribe and Emperor Divers have teamed up to create 
The first official Palace Housereef dive took place recently. Now guests are just one giant stride away from one of the most amazing reefs in the area. Hawksbill turtles, barracudas and lionfish are seen on a regular basis.
