Tank mates for bumblebee goby?

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kjr928

Go fish yourself.
I will be putting 2-3 bumblebee gobies into my (soon to be) heavily planted 12g.

Just wondering who they get along with, and I also need consider the limited space I've got in there. I've heard they can be a little tempermental.

Thanks!
 

angyles

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Bumblebee gobies are actually brackish and really shouldn't be forced to live in fresh. Some people do keep them in freshwater, but this isn't very healthy for them long term. You can do low end brackish to satisfy their needs, keep it planted (With limited choices) and in that case, guppies would be a wonderful choice for tank mates.
 

kjr928

Go fish yourself.
These are Brachygobius xanthozona - I read that they can live in freshwater as opposed to their cousins Brachygobius nunus, which can only live in brackish. Is this information incorrect?

I saw them at my lfs and they were being housed with dwarf puffers (maybe it was temporary though, who knows?).

Bummer!
 

angyles

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Generally, those are the 2 species available in the aquarium industry to buy, but they really are both brackish. While xanthozona can handle freshwater, it's not truly a freshwater fish and for it to really thrive, it needs to be in brackish conditions.
sorry :-( I know they're cute. Lots of people go with them in freshwater tanks. But how long will they live and will they remain vibrant? Heck, they sell them at petsmart as a good "beginner freshwater community fish" But these are the same folks who have told me adding API Aquarium Salt to a tank makes it brackish.
 

Jannika

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Petco said you can use table salt. Just kidding. Those are some cute little fish though. Is low-end brackish more difficult or involved to maintain vs freshwater? I know it limits your choices quite a bit...
 

Jannika

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Badman says keep a minimum of ten, brackish water, and feed them live food only. Huh...suddenly they're not that cute.
 

fishcatch22

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You don't need to keep ten and they can eat frozen foods. There is actually some debate about whether they need brackish water to be healthy or can do well in either; switching from brackish to freshwater induces spawning in BB gobies, so people can assume that they spend most of their life cycle in Brackish water. I haven't seen anything saying that they lived just as long in FW, either.

Just as a note, your Endlers can probably endure brackish as well as their close relatives the common guppy... there's ongoing debate about whether or not they are the same species, since they can interbreed very readily.
 
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LovemyPuffer

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O_O I can't believe they were keeping them with dwarf puffers. The puffers didn't eat them? A few years ago, I tried to keep bumbleebee gobies with a green spotted puffer in a 29 gallon tank, and the GSP tried to annihilate the gobies within a couple of hours. I had to isolate them.
 

guppymonkey

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Your right; ( Fishcatch22) The endlers work great. I have a terrarium with slight brackish water and some peat staining that they live together in. They may pick off some fry, but feeding regular keeps this at a minimum.
 
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