[JDM]

No, I'm not considering putting any in with the community freshwater tank... I would be looking at a brackish tank so would wonder about what is best to add to the water to maintain the parameters that it needs to have.

There is not a lot of information on these guys so I thought I would sound the waters here and see what people know or have experience with.

So far I know they are brackish water, meat lovers, territorial and not good tank mates for most fish and like tunnels and hidey holes.

Next up would be tank size requirements... besides the larger the better, are there recommendations as to what would be considered minimum tank size and what sort of numbers work/don't work for these guys?

The store has a few in stock and I thought that they might be interesting in a species tank with some suitable inverts for the water. Maybe I can get some nerites to actually lay viable eggs.

Of course, there is the plant issue... I haven't even started to look to see what plants might go with brackish water.

Is this close enough to being salt water that I should be bumping over to the salt water forum?

Thoughts anyone?

Jeff.

 

[Olympia]

I had mine in a freshwater community.
The jury is still out on these fish, there's so many species and hard to ID but all of them do well in hard basic water, I do think some species can't live in the brackish water though. I never knew what kind I had.

For the tank, long and low is good. Lot's of smooth flat stones all over the place. They have suction cup bellies and in nature they hold onto the stones with them. If you want to do a species tank, a good power head would let them really get to play in the currents.

If you were to get a 20 long, I could see probably 5-8 living in there comfortably. Remember the more crazy you go with the rocks, the less often they'll see each other and the more surface area you create for them to patrol. Likewise a 10 gallon could probably do 2-4 since it's a lot taller..

Mine never touched the fish at all... Which is probably odd from what I've heard. But they did manage to eat a shrimp bigger than they were (the ultimate reason that I returned them).

Nerite snails would be okay. Green Spotted Puffers (I think those are the ones..) are often housed with these guys, though then you couldn't really do the whole current thing I'm guessing.
I've always wanted to set up a bumblebee goby tank and have it only half filled, with some fiddler crabs with a bit of land access. I think that would end up looking really cool, but no plants allowed with crabs.

You can try java moss, java fern, if you want to go more salt water you can look into caulerpa species which I think are pretty awesome.


PS I think this would belong in the brackish section actually.

 

[BWG]

As Olympia said there are a variety of species. The one I've been looking for (and as yet unable to find for sale), the Mekong bumblebee goby is actually a softwater, acidity needing fish. That's the only species that I know of that needs softwater though.

Don't know how much use these links will be, but here's some anyway!

Search Results bumblebee+goby — Seriously Fish
10 Things to Know About Gobies: Bumblebee Gobies, by Peter McKane
Bumblebee Goby, Brachygobius Xanthozona Profile, with care, maintenance requirements and breeding information for your tropical fish
Breeding the Bumblebee Goby by Tom and Pat Bridges

At low salinity I've seen people using hard water species like Vallisneria, Hygrophila, Anubias, Anacharis, and tropical hornwort. Cryptocoryne cilliata is said to grow in brackish conditions in the wild. Olympia mentioned Jave fern, the Philippine form in particular needs hard water and I've herd of people using it in brackish tanks. In an emergent setup with higher salinity you can also look into mangroves.

 

[JDM]

....

PS I think this would belong in the brackish section actually.

Yah, maybe I'll get a mod to move it..... right after they create it:roll:

Thanks for the info guys.

Jeff.

 

[BWG]

Brackish Water

 

[ao]

we have bb gobies sold here which are freshwater, they work fine in a community as long as you give them enough substrate space and live food. They can be conditioned to eat frozen or processed, it does depend on the individual fish. : D


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[JDM]

Brackish Water

Hmmm... maybe next time I'll look with my eyes... these touch screens aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Jeff