Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Posted this on RC but figured you guys would appreciate it just as much. I collected these two gobies from Big Lagoon a few months ago. They're finally getting comfortable enough I can photograph them, albeit poorly.


Gobiosoma robustum






Ctenogobius boleosoma

Put a burp gun next to oysters on a piling, you'll get a few different varieties of those.

Neuticle wrote:Put a burp gun next to oysters on a piling, you'll get a few different varieties of those.

Yep, gobies and blennies are literally everywhere. These were the two out of about 20 that I caught which I actually kept. I was mostly going for various shrimp.

When I was for a semester of school I would hang out down at Waikiki Beach and sit on the break wall. Its was a B*%$% getting on the wall because it was covered with algae but what was always amusing was seeing all the little gobies that would hang out on the wall on the wave side. They would work their way up the wall with the waves and if you got close they would jump off of the wall.

The blennies are my favorite. Easily caught at the pass and have so much personality... didn't get down there this summer though.

Whats the best way to catch them?

i always used one of those bright little kid nets. On the sea wall, they never really go too far. If you don't want to snorkel for them, you could use a long handled minnow net and just run it down the wall and pull it up. You risk injuring one that way though. I probably saw 4-5 different kinds of blennies or at least juvenile and adult version, depending on where you looked. My favorite spot was West pass in Gulf Shores. Best when the high tide finished coming in as the water was clear and the current low. Plenty of anemones there as well... colors are muted however. The East pass jetties had quite a few blennies, as well as an assortment of what i think were chromis (looked like blue green chromis with yellow lines). They were much harder if not impossible to net there however as that spot is rocky. Burp gun might work.

I collected these at Big Lagoon. Just simply by running a bait net through the grass.

Though after doing some reading it seems to be mixed reviews on collecting in the State Park, in terms of being allowed or not. However, Cast Netting and Fishing are pushed as the two "BIG" things to do at the park. So I don't necessarily see where the difference between collecting fish for bait and collecting fish for a tank would matter to the officials.

What is a burp gun that you listed.

Took forever for me to see this post again, but i meant slurp gun. Sorry!

crsswift70 wrote:i always used one of those bright little kid nets. On the sea wall, they never really go too far. If you don't want to snorkel for them, you could use a long handled minnow net and just run it down the wall and pull it up. You risk injuring one that way though. I probably saw 4-5 different kinds of blennies or at least juvenile and adult version, depending on where you looked. My favorite spot was West pass in Gulf Shores. Best when the high tide finished coming in as the water was clear and the current low. Plenty of anemones there as well... colors are muted however. The East pass jetties had quite a few blennies, as well as an assortment of what i think were chromis (looked like blue green chromis with yellow lines). They were much harder if not impossible to net there however as that spot is rocky. Burp gun might work.

We Have Anemones???? i knew about the reefs in the gulf kinda ugly in my opinion.

Yes, but they are small usually brownish and short tentacled. http://www.oceanlight.com/spotlight.php?img=00314 I think this is it but someone else can probably identify more accurately. Similar in appearance to the picture though, muted colors in all of the ones i saw. Nothing i snorkled on could be called a reef though, just jetties and walls. Corals are limited here.

We have some Rock Anemones and other species of Anemones that are more closely related to Aiptasia or Majano Anemones than they are desirable species.