Bumblebee Goby Tips

[Cashlaw]

Hi guys,

Just got some bumblebee gobies . . . these are nice looking little fish.

Wondering if there are tips or things to look out for?

They have a rocky substrate and some caves made from brown plastic vitamin bottles (took off the label, good washing, cut off the threaded top). BTW the vitamin bottles actually blend in pretty well with rocks and black gravel, not very noticeable unless you're looking for them.

Also, how do you know which are male or female? Google isn't coming up with much, and they all look the same! I'd like to try breeding them.

 

[SalmonAfrica]

Hey there

Number 1 thing to check up on is if they're feeding ok - a lot of people struggle with this and its very important to make sure they're getting the right amounts of the right foods. Beyond that they're relatively easy fish to keep.

I'm not going to directly quote, but Noami Delventhal said that most gobies can be sexed by the shape of their urogenital papilla. In which case, in males it is pointed, and females have it blunt.

Like many fish though, sexing is difficult, and can only really be determined nearer to when they spawn. The best way around it is to buy a decent group and let themselves find their own partners - after the first few spawns you'll know for certain who are the guys and who are the girls.

 

[Cashlaw]

Thanks! Very helpful.

They seem to be content so far . . . they are fun to watch. Each one has picked a cave or a rock, and gets grouchy at the others when they get too curious. But so far, no real aggression. Nice fish!

 

[Cashlaw]

Well, I read about how gobies like having a current to keep their food suspended, so they can peck at it . . . my tank is plumbed with PVC, so I added a very gentle spray bar to the top of the tank, jetting water down one of the walls. It's just strong enough to barely feel water coming out of the outlet holes.

The gobies perked up right away! They seem to like taking turns lurking on their rocks and goofing around in the streams from the spray bar.

 

[Saterus]

Mine oddly seem to enjoy loose schooling. None of them have obvious territories and they seem to follow each other around and play in the filter current a lot. The closest thing to aggression I've seen is when they play king of the stump that sits in the middle of the tank. One sitting on top will get chased off by another and he'll just circle around and chase the other back off and they continue like that in circles for a few minutes. Otherwise, they rarely sit on the stump.
If I can find one the others usually aren't far despite plenty of good caves, tunnels, nooks, and crannies. Seems to contradict everything I've read though, weird.