Bumble Bee Gobies

[andywg]

Well, after staring a couple of times at the Gobies in my LFS and checking back with the info here and on the hyperweb; I decided they really did have a batch of FW Bumblebee Gobies (Hypogymnogobius xanthozona). I checked again and the dark bands did go the whole way araound the body.

Finally got them home and they have settled in nicely, if anything the dwarf puffers were scared of them and almost schooled (until the live daphnia went in )

An amazing find I felt and a bargain at £5.50 for 4.

Pics are below...

Hope you all like

 

[JoBodude]

very cool! i am thinking about getting a few, would they be ok with tiger barbs and a red tailed black shark???

or instead of getting them can i get dwarf puffers with them?

 

[CFC]

Unfortunately they look like they are most likely the brackish dwelling species Brachygobius doriae, though identification from photographs is difficult.
Im not sure how sensative dwarf puffers are to salt but if possible i would advise adding a little salt just too bring the SG up to 1.001 (.001 above freshwater) to make the gobies that little bit more comfortable (both species are found in brackish waters).

 

[andywg]

Hmm, here's another pic of them together

I was going by one of your earlier posts about spotting the difference between B. Doriae and H. Xanthozona and some internet info to try and make sure I had the FW ones.

From what I've read, the H. Xanthozona has the dark band going all the way round the body forming hoops, whereas in B. Doriae the dark bands do not join up at the bottom leaving a yellow line running along the bottom of the fish.

I'll try and get some better pics of them tomorrow. I felt I'd been really good with these and finally, truly banished my impulse buying. The first time I saw them I thought they were B. Doriae and left them. The next time I asked a guy in the shop but no-one at the time seemed to know the latin name, but they were sure they could be kept in both Brackish and Freshwater. Not believing them I came back home and dug up an old thread I had on them and cruised through the internet to try and confirm what they were.

As far as I recall, adding salt to DPs is not a desired course as they are FW through and through. However, if the minions see this I'm sure they'll correct me

Cheers for the advice anyhow

Andy

---
Edited to allow for my laclustre performance with the English language tonight )

 

[Mr Miagi]

Lol, they are sooo cute. Yeah, i do believe these type of BBgoby are brackish fish, so do as CfC said before. Great lookin fish though!

I really want too get some puffers!

 

[Joel]

would fan dancer and bumble bee gobies do good with green spotted puffers? I want to start a brackish tank and these are my favorite ones.

 

[chris_1127]

to help with the ID'ing, my xanthozonas have a small black band on the back behind their 3rd stripe that only goes a 1/4 of the way round the body - i saw more xanthozonas in another shop yesterday that all had this 1/4 stripe too. None of my doriaes have this part-stripe. Also size wise the doriaes are much bigger, the xanthozonas are barely an inch and not so darkly coloured

 

[Jezah]

I have some, and you NEED to add salt. They will die if you dont, believe me mine did. I have only one little guy, they are sooo intelligent. All goby's are smart, but Bumblebees are ingenius.

 

[andywg]

Hmm, I'll see how they develop. The only ones that have the 1/4 stripe at the moment are the three largest. If the rest stay looking as though they are doriae then I'll have to look into returning them or setting up a brackish tank.

Cheers for the help peoples, this is the perils of believing the larger LFS when they tell you what they got in.

 

[smithrc]

we used to have bumble bee gobies... we foung the to be viscious little buggers that chased and ate onther fins - they would hunt in the group of 6 we had and harras a fish untill it was dead...

we'll never have them again

But every where we read says they are a community fish