Brackish water question

[Pointy_kitty]

i was thinking about setting up a small brackish water tank (not imediatley as i am setting up a hospital tank with all of my scrap parts)
i will probably not set up a brackish tank until next year but now is as good a time as any to start researching these unfarmiliar fish

here's what i would like to know:

1) what is the minimum size tank that will safely house a pair of dwarf puffers?
2) is it better to keep dwarf puffers single, in a pair, or in three's?
3) can dwarf puffers safely be housed with bumble bee goby?


thanks to all for your help in advance!

 

[Pointy_kitty]

i ahev read somewhere that due to their sluggish movement that bumble bee goby should only be kept in a species tank, as they cannot compete with faster fish when it comes to eating.
is this true?

 

[diVer]

Dwarf puffers are 100% freshwater and can't be kept in a brackish tank. There are some strains of bumblebee gobies that are freshwater though. Puffers need about 3 gallons per fish. If you had lots of caves and plants you could probably put 2 in a 5 gallon. I don't think they need to be with other puffers since they form their own territories but mine hang out together.

 

[SirMinion]

As diVer said, dwarf puffers are strictly freshies, but there are many other small puffers well suited to a brackish tank. If any puffer is kept in groups, the tank must be planted to break the fish's line of sight. We have four dwarfs in a 63L tank.

There are two types of bumblebee goby which are almost identical.

The true Bumblebee Goby (brachygobius xanthozona) is very active and moves around the tank at speed and is an ideal scrap collecter for small puffers. (we have four in our puffer tank)

The other version is actually the Golden-Banded Goby (brachygobius doriae) and is a very restful, inactive fish.

Both are happy in fresh or mildly brackish water.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

As diVer said, dwarf puffers are strictly freshies, but there are many other small puffers well suited to a brackish tank. If any puffer is kept in groups, the tank must be planted to break the fish's line of sight. We have four dwarfs in a 63L tank.

ok,
so dwarf puffers are strictly freshwater?
and bumble bee goby are brackish-freshwater?

i probably got my facts mixed up on the puffer thing but i was told that bumble bee goby are ONLY brackish and should never be fresh water!
thats why i always ask my forum buddies
you guys have the experience rather than hear-say

one more question,
i've decided to have a 5gal octagon with a dwarf puffer pair
but i still want bumble bee goby

can he go in a tank with:
1 blue gourami
1 dwarf gourami
1 gold gourami
1 red tailed black shark
1 flying fox OR 3 corydoras
(right now its 3 cory but i might have to swap them for a grouchy 3" flying fox from my community tank since he's being nippy)

and if he can go in there is it all right if its not HEAVILY planted
there are lots of hiding places.........

 

[diVer]

I don't know much about bumblebee gobies but I think you can tell the freshwater variety from the brackish ones is that the fw have stripes that go all the way around while the brackish lines stop about midway. It might be the other way around, and I'd wait for someone to confirm this before you follow it.

 

[SirMinion]

The puffers cannot be kept with anything with flowy fins, those dangly feeler things on the gouramis would be trimmed within hours and the fins would follow soon after.

Many people advise against cory cats with puffers, but we have three with our fearsome foursome and there's no problems.

As for the BBGs, they keep themselves to themselves and can be kept with anything that isn't big enough to eat them.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

The puffers cannot be kept with anything with flowy fins, those dangly feeler things on the gouramis would be trimmed within hours and the fins would follow soon after.

Many people advise against cory cats with puffers, but we have three with our fearsome foursome and there's no problems.

oh sorry i was asking if the bumble bee goby can go into my semi aggressive tank
tank
the puffers will have a species tank........

oh and by the way this is where i got the idea that BBG's are brackish:

i beleive they said:

They tend to be one of those species that doesn't survive long in most home aquaria, since people buy them because they're "cute", and toss them into their freshwater community tanks without knowing their special requirements.

here is the link for more info on what i read:

http/www.users.bigpond.com/rjeb/bumble.html

 

[pufferdude]

The FW variety can be hard to find. Make sure you get the FW ones. It sounds like everyone else has covered the dwarf puffers. You will be grateful that you got them. They are cute and you will become addicted fast.

 

[SirMinion]

Yes I see what you mean from that website, however, our BBGs are in freshwater and are thriving.

They are certainly not sluggish and rarely hide away. They chase after the live food I give them, often beating the puffers & tetras to the bloodworm.

They are also happy to eat frozen bloodworm & brineshimp and will even attack flakes when they sink to the floor.

Although they are primarily bottom dwellers, they often swim up the sides of the tank and stick to the sides.

That fish described on that website sound more like the more sluggish and brackish prefering brachygobius doriae

 

[Pointy_kitty]

The FW variety can be hard to find. Make sure you get the FW ones. It sounds like everyone else has covered the dwarf puffers. You will be grateful that you got them. They are cute and you will become addicted fast.

how will i know if it is fresh water or not???
and will it fit into the tank i described above???

 

[pufferdude]

As diVer says the stripes will go all the way around. I would recommend doing as much research about them as possible so that you can tell the diffrence.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

Yes I see what you mean from that website, however, our BBGs are in freshwater and are thriving.

They are certainly not sluggish and rarely hide away. They chase after the live food I give them, often beating the puffers & tetras to the bloodworm.

They are also happy to eat frozen bloodworm & brineshimp and will even attack flakes when they sink to the floor.

Although they are primarily bottom dwellers, they often swim up the sides of the tank and stick to the sides.

That fish described on that website sound more like the more sluggish and brackish prefering brachygobius doriae

very informative
thank you

 

[Pointy_kitty]

As diVer says the stripes will go all the way around. I would recommend doing as much research about them as possible so that you can tell the diffrence.

oh,
he said he didn't know which was which........
so if the stripes go all the way around then is FW?

 

[SirMinion]

This is a photo of one of ours taken about half an hour ago when we fed them. (We got a new camera today!)

He's sitting on his little fat belly full of bloodworm and it looks to me as if the stripes go all the way around.