The Puffer Forum

anyone tried it? iv heard of it a couple of times

The gobies are low end brackish and the dwarfs are fresh, so nope.

BB gobies and F8s are pretty common though.

yhe just read....theres a video on you tube of dwarfs with gobys.....mad...anyway ta

I had bumblebees in fresh water a few yrs. back lived for about 3 or so yrs
with a SAP

seroe wrote:yhe just read....theres a video on you tube of dwarfs with gobys.....mad...anyway ta

That's probably my video.

After speaking with renowned goby expert Naomi deventhal, it was discussed that it is unnecessary for bumblebee gobies to be kept in brackish water. They can be kept equally well in fresh and brackish water, and the main advantage of keeping them in brackish water (along with any fish that can tolerate salt) is that certain bacteria and parasites will be unable to tolerate salt, while the fish will be able to.

You can read the full interview I had with her here http://www.tropicalfishkeeper.com/content/view/45/48/

I keep about six bumblebee gobies in with my three DP's and they get along great. They seem to ignore each other.




I love coming home in the morning (work third shift) and turning on the light in their tank and seeing my DP's coming out from their sleeping holes and greet me at the front of the tank.

in a 15 gallon though???

I have one bumblebee goby and just purchased 3 new dwarf puffers (two females and one male with cute lil wrinkles behind his eyes). I am thinking of combining them into my 20g, and hopefully getting more goby's as soon as I can find some more (none of the lfs's have gotten any new ones).

I love all my babies, and I don't want any 'issues' to arise. Anyone else have any suggestions or experiences they'd like to post? I've tried looking online at other people's stories and there are some who've had them get along famously, and others who had to take thier goby's out =/

Im unsure on what I should do. I want them to be together, but not at the expense of a life.

My BBG is avoided. I like to think that the reason for that is the striking "warning" colouration.

Fella - Great interview. She is actually doing her PhD in the next province over from me. Very cool.

I have done allot of research on BB gobies, and there is somewhat of a debate on their natural habitat. They are, in my opinion a Fresh/Low Brackish fish. They are born in fresh waters; they migrate in the dry season to brackish waters, and move back to the fresh waters in the wet season to spawn. Hence getting them to spawn with a water change that simulates the rainy season and reducing the salinity.

Now if we really wanted to create their natural habitat we would need to raise and reduce the salinity every season... IMO they live more of their life in fresh water than in brackish, however the debate might be turning more too how well they do in captivity. I have not found any conclusions or true tested facts that show they live better in low end brackish 1.005-1.008. The salt I believe helps protect against parasites and fungus, but I still cannot say they will not live a full, happy life in fresh water.

So as long as the Dwarf Puffer folks say they are pretty compatible I would try it out and enjoy them

I find it hard to imagine BBGs migrate up and down rivers. They're pretty poor swimmers, and very small. Possibly, the fry drift downstream to the sea, and then swim back up once they group up a bit. That's what, for example, Awaous spp. gobies do, but those are much bigger fish and a darn sight better swimmers. So I remain unconvinced about the migrating BBG hypothesis.

On the other hand, I've had mixed results keeping them in soft, acid water, despite the fact they do occur in such conditions in the wild. The longest one lived was about a year. But my experience was muddied by various other potential factors, such as some kind of goby-only dropsy-like bacterium that came in with some Rhinogobius duospilus. It snagged those, the BBGs, and a female Awaous flavus, but didn't effect anything else in the tank -- not catfish or tetras nor glassfish or puffers. So I cannot be sure water chemistry was the sole reason the BBGs did badly. Would brackish water have prevented the bacterium spreading? Who knows.

My gut feeling is the majority of BBGs die in aquaria because of lack of food, not water chemistry. Brine shrimp is often the one thing they take readily, but it's notoriously poor in nutrition. I suspect most merely starve to death.

Cheers,

Neale

I just got 3 new BBGs and they are taking frozen bloodworms, but seemingly only if they are moving. I don't think they've clued in to dead food yet. For this reason my biggest concern is keeping them fed as well.

Mine loved frozen lobster eggs, if you can get them. Buy them from stores servicing marine aquarists, as they're used to feed marine fish. They eventually learned to take small pieces of prawn, too.

Cheers, Neale