Freshwater Gobies!?

[kylealastairlove]

having seen at my local pet shop the saltwater gobies, i found them quite fascinating and beautiful, i've heard there are freshwater gobies but dont know any names can someone help me out and give me some names so i can look into what specific one i might want to keep
and what kind of fish are suitable to keep with gobies ? as im not too sure about this either! thankyouuuu

 

[Crossfire]

having seen at my local pet shop the saltwater gobies, i found them quite fascinating and beautiful, i've heard there are freshwater gobies but dont know any names can someone help me out and give me some names so i can look into what specific one i might want to keep
and what kind of fish are suitable to keep with gobies ? as im not too sure about this either! thankyouuuu

Don't know of any completely freshwater gobies, but there are brackish gobies out there, like the Bumblebee Goby. Freshwater Flounders are brackish too and very cool looking

 

[kylealastairlove]

aahh right, my mistake, i knew there were such thing as a brackish goby, i thought there might be freshwater ones too, just wondered but thanks for your help anyways

 

[MBOU]

There are LOADS of species of freshwater gobies!

Some of my favourites are the Stiphodon and Rhinogobius families.

At the moment we have (excuse spellings) Rhinogobius leavelli, Rhinogobius duospilius and Rhinogobius shennongensis (though i suspect the wholesaler got this name completely wrong and it ought to be either 'Rhinogobius changtinensis' or 'Rhinogobius chiengmaiensis'). Bloomin hard to figure it out when there seems to be no info or pictures of them anywhere online..

 

[nmonks]

Agreed.

Rhinogobius are great, but do bear in mind most are coldwater to subtropical species so they'll need an aquarium maintained at the right sort of temperature, typically room temperature. Stiphodon are tropical fish, yes, but they're from mountain streams so need a "hillstream" type environment similar to that you'd use for hillstream loaches. Lots of water current, lowish temperature, and plenty of oxygen. They're fiddly to feed, too.

There are some nice sleeper gobies coming out of Southeast Asia and New Guinea. Sleepers tend to be easier to feed than regular gobies, though they are also more predatory as well as territorial. The pick of the bunch are surely the Mogurnda species if you have the space for them. They're hardy, adaptable, eat anything (mine enjoys cichlid gold pellets), and get along fine with robust community fish. Other choices include the Black Toraja Goby (Mugilogobius sarasinorum) and the Golden Nugget Goby (Giuris margaritacea). In small, soft water tanks, the Peacock Gudgeon (Tateurndina ocellicauda) can be fun to keep and breed. In the UK, the larger branches of Maidenhead Aquatics, among others, seem to get these sleepers fairly frequently.

Cheers, Neale

There are LOADS of species of freshwater gobies!

 

[MBOU]

We've split our gbies into two groups per species, half in tropical and half in coldwater/room temp and the warmer ones are winning, going to move them back over as they all sem to prefer the 25 deg C

 

[nmonks]

What do you mean by "winning"?

Rhinogobius can be kept at 25 C, and the males especially will colour up nicely. So they'll look especially nice, and being warmer, they'll have a higher metabolism and therefore become hungrier and will spend more time foraging for food as well as engaging in breeding behaviours.

But the downside is they won't live as long, and in my experience become prone to bloating and secondary infections. Obviously I don't know every Rhinogobius species, but Rhinogobius duospilus is certainly a subtropical fish and best kept around 18-22 C. You could certainly have success keeping them with low-end tropical fish like dwarf golden barbs, variatus platies and ricefish.

Cheers, Neale

We've split our gbies into two groups per species, half in tropical and half in coldwater/room temp and the warmer ones are winning, going to move them back over as they all sem to prefer the 25 deg C

 

[Biulu]

Peacock goby (Tateurndina ocellicauda) are beautiful fish and not difficult to care for. If you provide them with caves, such as PVC pipes, they breed easily. They can be kept in community set ups with other small peaceful fish and make a great addition to your tank!

 

[magpie]

I just posted about my stiphodon elegans gobies in another thread. They're great little fish but I've not had them all that long.

I have seen the peacock gobies at my LFS and they are beautiful. I didn't research them enough to give you any input other than that they were on my "interested - read more" list.

 

[MBOU]

Its probably just time of year then, our unheated system is liable to drop really quite low at night. Sorry about "winning", i meant they were doing a lot better on th warmer system. The sub tropical ones werent really eating and hid all the time. But then again the system does drop too low for them at night.

Will get some photos up tonight of all three species, maybe someone can give me a definate ID on one of the species.

 

[magpie]

Would love to see your photos...

Yes, mine seem quite happy at 77F or so (about 25C).