Help! Struggling To Feed My Bumblebee Gobys

[Cal116]

Hi, I have 2 Bumblebee Gobys in a 20 gallon tank with other fish who are a lot more active when it comes to eating time. I've noticed that they will only eat frozen foods (i.e. bloodworms and brine shrimp). They try to eat flake and pellet food but spit it out. I'm having a hard time getting food to the bottom of the tank for them before my other fish eat all of it. Are there any strategies for feeding BGs? Please shed some light or experience for me. I don't want these little guys to starve to death.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

A baster or something like that would probably be your best bet. That's what I've used in the past.

 

[Cal116]

Do they sell them in pet stores? What did you feed your bumblebees? Did they accept flake food?

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Just go to walmart or some other store. It's a cooking item. You use it to squirt sauce/juices onto food.

I don't keep bb gobies but I had to target feed my spiny eel and bgk when they were first introduced. I used a baster for this

 

[Cal116]

alright thanks, I'll look into buying one.

 

[nmonks]

Not a chance. They prefer live foods, and grudgingly eat wet-frozen food. They have no interest at all in flake or any freeze-dried food. As I've said repeatedly on TFF, the thing with BBGs isn't salinity (they're as happy in freshwater as brackish) but feeding. They simply can't be mixed with most community fish. In busy community tanks they invariably starve to death.

Best to choose tankmates that feed from the middle or surface layers, such as guppies or danios or halfbeaks. That way, anything that falls to the bottom is left for the BBGs, and they'll feed at their leisure. Take care not to mix with loaches or catfish, since they'll steal all the food you offer them. Exceptions might be made for very small or very slow moving catfish, such as Aspidoras pauciradiatus and Rineloricaria whiptails, both of which I've kept with gobies.

Cheers, Neale

Did they accept flake food?