Bumblebee Gobies

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I have been researching bumblebee gobies recently, and I think they'd make an interesting addition to my 55 gallon tank, which I am turning brackish. In the tank are a 9 1/2 inch long violet goby (He doesn't bite), and many small guppies. As I've said before the guppies are "feeder" guppies, and most of them were born in that tank. There are only a few fully grown guppies, from the first generation, and several growing (about an inch long at the biggest) offspring of those. There are some smaller ones, perhaps 3/4 of an inch long, and babies that range in size from newborn to half an inch. I've read that bumblebees will eat baby guppies. I'm fine with that. Something needs to keep them under control. However, will they attack, and if they do, hurt, my mature guppies?
Aside from that the tank has two pieces of driftwood, each over a foot long. One is fake and the other is from Malaysia. The real piece of driftwood makes a short "T" shape, and part of it is very wide. I intended for my violet goby to hide under it, but he doesn't seem to like it. The fake driftwood is just straight and curved, with many crevices that may serve as good homes for three or four bumblebees. The substrate is black sand. I am trying to get my java fern to reproduce so I can have it on the driftwood. I have a small piece of hornwort in the tank right now, which will undoubtedly grow and have to be trimmed.
Also, if I get bumblebees, would five be all right? I've heard that small numbers make them more aggressive. The bioload of the tank shouldn't be a problem, right? I would imagine the presence of five bumblebees to be about like a similar number of mature guppies.
I think I covered everything but I may have more questions later on down the road. Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[MissFishy]

From what I know about these, they don't make great community fish. Here's a good site on them with some more info: How to keep bumblebee gobies, Brachygobius, with pictures

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I've been on that website several times and I've read that article all the way through. My tank is only a community tank in the sense that it has guppies. Otherwise it would just be two completely compatible brackish species living in there. It may sound harsh especially coming from someone that hates seeing guppies sold as feeders, but the guppy fry may serve as food. If the guppies rush to the bottom as they do with my violet goby's food, and gobble up all the bees' food, they'll probably turn around and eat guppy fry. They'll keep my guppy population in check. Besides, I tend to drop bottomfeeder foods in specific locations. I've been trying to coax my violet goby underneath the new driftwood with algae wafers strategically placed by entrances to the space underneath it. Once the little runts have mapped out territories and are sitting idle, waiting for food to swim by, I'll drop their food by them so they can eat.

My LFS is getting bumblebees on Tuesday, because apparently everyone wanted a bumblebee goby for Christmas. I'm moving all my java ferns to the tank because the bees are supposed to like planted tanks. If anybody has tips for preparing the tank for the gobies please tell me.
What would you suggest in terms of food if the LFS happens to not have bloodworms or frozen brine shrimp? I wouldn't put it past 'em.

 

[MissFishy]

I think with those guys you'll need to buy an assortment of frozen foods, brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, bloodworms, etc.

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

OK. Thanks.
I just thought of something. There are at least two different kinds of fish called bumblebee gobies. I hope the ones at my LFS are the brackish ones of the genus Brachygobius. Kelly also has marine fish, so I fear his bumblebees may be those.

 

[milliefish]

I tried a bumblebee goby in my brackish tank about a year ago, he didn't make it. I was under the impression that they were territorial so you should keep only one, maybe that was my mistake and you will have better luck with a group. He was just too shy and the food was eaten by other fish before he dared to go to it, he just wasted away. I had (and still have) mollies in that tank. They are voracious eaters that would eat all the food before he could go to it. I don't know if having several bumblebees instead of one would make any difference, if you have other fish that will get to the food first. Giving him bloodworms or other defrosted foods right next to him wasn't good enough, he didn't go for it. The purpose of the bumblebee was to eat the molly fry, which he didn't do anyway, we had wave after wave of fry.

Also, I tried guppies in that tank too, they didn't survive. I think it is because they need aquarium salt instead of sea salt. Not sure, but you may want to check before you go brackish. You may want to research the Internet, where are guppies from, coastal areas? Mangroves? Since that's what brackish waters are.

My 46 gal brackish tank now contains mollies, one knight goby, 6 celebes rainbows and 3 glass fish. I also had a couple of beautiful orange chromides that did great for a long time. They had a few births of fry and proceeded to take care of them like other cichlids do, but the mollies ate the fry sooner or later. So the parents turned on each other and the male died. I couldn't find another one so I gave back the female to a LFS that has a brackish section. I keep all these fish at 1.005 salinity, the ones I have now appear to be thriving in that water and to be perfectly compatible. Also, plant-wise, java ferns are pretty much the only live plant that is doing good in that tank.

 

[milliefish]

Oh, also, have you thought of nerite snails? They are supposed to be great algae eaters and they are the only brackish snails I could identify. The only thing with them is that they will perish if you have any copper in the tank (or snail eating fish).

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

Wow. It's really sad that your bumblebee goby died like that. I read somewhere that you shouldn't keep mollies with bees 'cause they eat the food too quickly.
I might try nerite snails (if I can find them). I rub and rub the algae off but it always comes back. It's really hard to get in the back of the tank and the bottom too, so the algae just sits there, showing up on pictures and making an ugly nuisance of itself. I hate algae, especially the long ugly strands of it that dangle in the water and the algae that covers my java ferns' leaves and coats massive pieces of hornwort.
If you haven't realized it yet, I got my bumblebee gobies today. There are five, not six, because they were $2.07 each. They seem to be doing fine. One of my fat female guppies was bugging one when I first put them in the tank. I can't imagine how something so little could possible take a bite out of one of its tankmates. They're roughly the length of a dime!