Need Help With Bumblebee Gobies And Brackish Setup

[hjkaga]

ok, I plan on turning my 5.5gal tank into a brackish tank for my bumblebee goby. I want to add a few more bumblebee gobies and possibly a fish or two....

first thing - i was told that bumblebee gobies dont really need brackish water, that they can live prefectly fine in freshwater.....is this true? should i even set up a brackish tank for him?

second thing - about how much marine salt will it take to get a salinity of 1.005 in a 5.5gal tank? (i need to know about how much to buy)

third thing - how many bumblebee gobies could i put in the 5.5g and what other fish would go nice in there then too. the gobies will be on the bottom so i wanted something that will swim in the top/middle region.

any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[konenn]

Correct me if im wrong but I think 5.5g is too small for more than one bbg

Depends on which bumble bee goby your getting, some are freshwater and some are brackish I think Brachygobius xanthozona is a brackish species. So try and find out which one it is

Not sure about how much salt

Once again not sure if 5.5g is enough for bbg's. But if it is mollies would be good i think, they stay at the top if I remember correctly. I read somewhere that some people have kept them with figure eight puffers (depends on your puffers temperment) but 5.5g wouldnt be enough for that. Aqualandpetsplus's website says they can co-exist with "freshwater" soles, and dragon gobies But both of those would outgrow a 5.5g pretty quickly.

Maybe if you got a bigger tank you might be able to keep some bbg's with other fish

I had a pair of bbg's that were in a 10g together, had plants, and caves so they could hide. Unfortunatley they died when I moved So I dont really have a lot of experience with them. Just telling you some stuff I found while searching the forums, and the internet.

Sorry if any of this is wrong, my first time trying to give advice. I'm sure nmonks, Fella, or AMS can give you some more information

 

[hjkaga]

the gobies dont get very big, but i probably wont have more than 3 at the most, maybe just 2. mollies won't work for a 5.5gal. they get like 4-5 inches long, so even one would outgrow the tank, plus i have never had luck keeping mollies alive anyway. i was looking up info on the bbg's and i think the kind i have is the one that should have brackish water....but i will look into it more....but from what i read the one that needs brackish is the more commonly found one in pet stores. i have a 10 gal tank but I was planning on having other fish in there and dont really want to set up another 10g.....dont really ahve the room to do so.

 

[DarkEntity]

bumblebee gobies are fresh or brackish, and will happily live in either. You could get 3 or 4 without problem in thier as long as its well planted so they have places to call their own.

As for other fish, tbh, not that much space for anything else

 

[ac106]

Correct me if im wrong but I think 5.5g is too small for more than one bbg

Depends on which bumble bee goby your getting, some are freshwater and some are brackish I think Brachygobius xanthozona is a brackish species. So try and find out which one it is

Not sure about how much salt

Once again not sure if 5.5g is enough for bbg's. But if it is mollies would be good i think, they stay at the top if I remember correctly. I read somewhere that some people have kept them with figure eight puffers (depends on your puffers temperment) but 5.5g wouldnt be enough for that. Aqualandpetsplus's website says they can co-exist with "freshwater" soles, and dragon gobies But both of those would outgrow a 5.5g pretty quickly.

Maybe if you got a bigger tank you might be able to keep some bbg's with other fish

I had a pair of bbg's that were in a 10g together, had plants, and caves so they could hide. Unfortunatley they died when I moved So I dont really have a lot of experience with them. Just telling you some stuff I found while searching the forums, and the internet.

Sorry if any of this is wrong, my first time trying to give advice. I'm sure nmonks, Fella, or AMS can give you some more information

heya konenn

no need to apologize just make sure the advice you give is correct

1) 5.5 gallons is fine for a few BBGs. They need tiny territories and produce little waste
2) while in nature most BBGs live in pure freshwater, all the traded species appear to to better in lightly brackish water ~1.005
3) Brachygobius xanthozona is not currently traded at all. It is impossible to obtain

 

[hjkaga]

bumblebee gobies are fresh or brackish, and will happily live in either. You could get 3 or 4 without problem in thier as long as its well planted so they have places to call their own.

As for other fish, tbh, not that much space for anything else

since they can do both fresh and brackish i will just add 1 tbsp on aquarium salt to the tank. i currently have a couple danios in the tank with him for now. i may move them into my 10gal once i get the 29gal setup......not sure yet.

 

[dilbert]

second thing - about how much marine salt will it take to get a salinity of 1.005 in a 5.5gal tank? (i need to know about how much to buy)

I recently bought a small box "ULTRAMARINE Synthetica sea salt" for £ 4.77. It doesn't have any info about weight or size on it but it looks like it's roughly the equivalent of a liter.

It says it's for 5 Imp. gallons or 25 liters approx. My guess is you would need then a quarter of this to make SG 1.005 brackish water as this is roughly 25% of the salinity of sea water.

The good thing with brackish water is that the salinity is often changing but to be sure and accurate overall I presume you would need a hydrometer or salinity or specific gravity meter.

The simple mechanical ones have often their scale widened only for sea water and brackish water of SG 1.005 is somewhat difficult to guess at the margin of the scale. In Leeds it costs also £ 15 so I would go for a digital one on www.digital-meters.com for about £ 30 + PP. It's out of stock at the moment but should arrive at the end of this week.

 

[konenn]

heya konenn

no need to apologize just make sure the advice you give is correct

1) 5.5 gallons is fine for a few BBGs. They need tiny territories and produce little waste
2) while in nature most BBGs live in pure freshwater, all the traded species appear to to better in lightly brackish water ~1.005
3) Brachygobius xanthozona is not currently traded at all. It is impossible to obtain

Sorry for the trouble, just did a quick search on google for some info, shoulda looked a bit longer Next time I'll try to make sure the info I give is accurate

 

[DarkEntity]

If you want to make water brackish of about 1.005 then its 100grams of marine salt per 10 litres of water @ 26°

 

[andywg]

since they can do both fresh and brackish i will just add 1 tbsp on aquarium salt to the tank. i currently have a couple danios in the tank with him for now. i may move them into my 10gal once i get the 29gal setup......not sure yet.

Aquarium salt will do nothing, don't waste your time and money putting that in. You need marine salt for a brackish tank

 

[hjkaga]

If you want to make water brackish of about 1.005 then its 100grams of marine salt per 10 litres of water @ 26°

Ok, im not good with the grams and litres and celcius....lol

From what I can figure that would be about half a cup of marine salt per 5 gallons of water, right?

 

[Fella]

If you want to make water brackish of about 1.005 then its 100grams of marine salt per 10 litres of water @ 26°

Ok, im not good with the grams and litres and celcius....lol

From what I can figure that would be about half a cup of marine salt per 5 gallons of water, right?

The best way to do it is to buy the biggest box of marine salt you can afford, and then get a hydrometer/refractometer. Add salt and warm water to a bucket with an air stone, and leave overnight. water will become seawater. measure the strength. If it's not the strength you want, add more salt. If it's too much, then add more water to the tank.

I do it by trial and error, but, it's easier to do than it sounds.

 

[dilbert]

If you get a conversion table in a book or on a Web site then this you can set the water up without an instrument. It's fairly accurate.

BTW, I bought a digital salinity meter which measures the conductivity and has automatic temperature correction for 30 GBP + PP. It's from Daeyoon.

The reason for the airstone and the long time leaving it is the ph figure only. I can prepare the water dissolving the salt within 15 minutes. The only problem is it has then a ph of 9.4 in the bucket and the tank has a ph of 8.0.

 

[ac106]

If you get a conversion table in a book or on a Web site then this you can set the water up without an instrument. It's fairly accurate.

Only at first though. Once the salt has been exposed to air it absorbs moisture and measuring will not work. However this is only really important with sensitive marine fish and inverts. Brackish fish can handle salinity swings, although the filter bacteria can't always. It's just a good idea to get a hydrometer. The Instant Ocean model is like $10 at PetCo and is accurate enough for brackish tanks.

 

[Bling]

I keep 5 BB gobies in a 10-gal, 1 tablespoon of marine salt per gallon. So far (over 3 years) no problems. They don't breed, though; heard you need to go more freshwater for that (I'm not into breeding right now). A Whisper hang-on filter and a mangrove for the first few years, but it got too big so I had to take it out. They eat live food (mostly mosquitoe larvae and bloodworms) but will sometimes take dried brine shrimp. Adorable little fish!