The Puffer Forum

So I was at my LFS picking up a pair of clown fish for the reef. I was looking through the brackish section and ended up talking to one of the staff about their knight gobies. Anyway, I told him I'd skip the goby and got him to bag up the clowns while I went and got some other supplies. By the time I had what I needed, my stuff was all ready at the checkout.

I got home and opened the bag to discover he had also gave me a knight goby (in a separate bag from the clowns) It just didn't cross my mind to check that I was given an extra fish, which I seem to have paid for too.

I have a brackish 15g with a lone figure 8 puffer. Although it goes against my better judgement I had no choice but to put the goby in the same tank. So far all is well. I set up the puffer tank only a month ago. The LFS keeps their brackish tanks at SG 1.005 so my tank was cycled to match theirs.

Anyway to get to the point. Is this going to work or should they be separated? They don't mind each other but I'm a bit concerend that it's only a 15g.


Thanks.

I have a Knight Goby as well as a couple Bumble Bee Gobies in with my Figure 8's and have had no problems.

The Knight Goby is nocturnal (at least I only see him when the lights are off, or its feeding time).

The tank is a 30 gallon and has been set up for over a year. The Figure 8's range in size from a wee 1/2 inch to well over 2". The Knight Goby is probably around 3 inches.

Short term I don't see any major issue, but long term the Knight gets too big for me. That would for me call for either relocation to a larger tank, or separating the fish into their own individual tanks, or returning the Knight.

Ability to co-habitate is going to be Puffer personality dependent.

I agree that a knight goby would be cramped in a 15 gallon. I think I missed that point the first time around.

Does one need to feed bbg anything special. I just got one a couple of days ago and he seems to like to eat brine shrimp. He has recently disappeared though since I put my decorations in there.

They are nocturnal and will hide alot. They need a varied diet to be healthy. Gut-loaded shrimp, gut-loaded crickets, redworms, bloodworms, squid, mussels, crab meat, etc. I've even seen mine trying to eat snails.

My BB gobies (and knight goby) also like mysis shrimp and "formula 2" frozen mix. F&F is totaly right; varied is good. The nice thing is gobies enjoy many of the same stuff puffs eat (I'd love to see a BB trying to eat a snail... that sounds funny!)

Yep! My gobies eat — or rather, try to eat — everything my Puffs do, including snails.

I sometimes see BB Gobies ( up to 3 of them) recommended as tankmates for F8 puffers in tanks as small as 10 gallons.

Wouldn't this tank be too small?

How many BBGs would you put in a 10g if they were by themselves?

I sometimes see BB Gobies ( up to 3 of them) recommended as tankmates for F8 puffers in tanks as small as 10 gallons.

Wouldn't this tank be too small?

How many BBGs would you put in a 10g if they were by themselves?

Kathy wrote:Wouldn't this tank be too small?

Way to small.

Kathy wrote:How many BBGs would you put in a 10g if they were by themselves?

BBGs max out at 1.5". No more than six should be housed in a 10g. Here is some more info about BBGs…
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bre ... _Goby.html

Feathers&Fins wrote:

Kathy wrote:Wouldn't this tank be too small?

Way to small.

Thanks! In your opinion, are BBGs recommended as tankmates for F8s at all?

If so, what is the smallest tank size you would recommend for 1 F8 and 3 BBGs?

20g absolute minimum. Bigger is always better in the tank department.

No tankmate with my F8s. They are monsters. If you do a search you will find that some people have no problems keeping Gobies with their F8s. Then there are others like me who can't. It really boils down to the temperment and personality of the Puffer.