urbanrat84
New member
Thank you everyone for your input. I'm picking up my engineer's from the airport tomorrow!! Very excited, will let you know how it goes.
Engineer gobies and seahorses
- Thread starter urbanrat84
- Start date
JennyL
New member
Megan,
I must say you are really flirting with disaster here and not being fair to the fish already in your care.
You have a small 48G tank which because of water displacement holds less than that and you already have 10 fish plus other animals in this tank.
Now you are adding a species that obviously needs a much larger tank.
I really hope you will reconsider what you are doing. After all, it's their home and they depend on us to provide the best care possible.
I must say you are really flirting with disaster here and not being fair to the fish already in your care.
You have a small 48G tank which because of water displacement holds less than that and you already have 10 fish plus other animals in this tank.
Now you are adding a species that obviously needs a much larger tank.
I really hope you will reconsider what you are doing. After all, it's their home and they depend on us to provide the best care possible.
I bought 2 [2 inch long] for my 95 gal seahorse/ reef tank without knowing anything about them. Once they grew to 8 inch long eels and competed to see which could move the most sand, I evicted them. They now live in our 215 fish only tank and continue to practice "enginering" the landscape. At 12 and 14 inches they are truly monsters!!
They never bothered the seahorses, tho.
tiger johnson
New member
I can feed my 12" engineer by hand, he will eat anything that will fit in his mouth. I watched in horror the other day as he quickly grabbed 2 smaller hermits and yanked them into his maze-like cavern. I've seen him eat numerous smaller snails, too. I'll admit they are cute and neat to watch the first year or two, then their mouth gets too big for my comfort. I have had a rash of invert disappearences lately and as soon as I tear down my tank, he's going to the LFS.
urbanrat84
New member
Anyone interested in an update? Based on the responses from here it looks like I have ventured into new waters. So far the engineers have been model citizens. They are well into developing their adult markings, are currently 15cm long and have created tunnels for themselves around the rockwork. At first they swam up and down at their reflections at the end of the tank but are spending majority of their time in their burrows now. They come out at feeding time and also take a tour of the tank at lights on before they go back to their burrows all day so they have filled a niche nicely and do not interfere with the seahorses daily activities. I find their sand moving quite a charming aspect of owning these fish and love to sit and watch them as they go back and forth putting it into a pile.
So at this stage they are an ideal seahorse tank mate. I will post my experiences with them as they gain maturity, particularly as there seems to be little info on how they go long term.
So at this stage they are an ideal seahorse tank mate. I will post my experiences with them as they gain maturity, particularly as there seems to be little info on how they go long term.
urbanrat84
New member
Wikipedia says that the Gobiidae family is one of the largest families of fish with more than 2000 species, so the answer to your question is referring to many different kinds of gobies and I can't comment if all these may be suitable to keep with seahorses but....
I personally have kept clown or coral gobies (Gobiodon okinawae) with them and can say that they are completely fine, there are a few different colours of these fish - yellow, green, black, red. Catalina gobies (Lythrypnus dalli) are also said to be a suitable seahorse companion and they are ideal because they do best in the lower temps that tropical seahorses are kept at. I've also considered keeping Twin-Spot Gobies (Signigobius biocellatus) with them but did not as they have a poor record of survival. In general, most gobies collected for aquariums get no larger than 10cm and are said to be good community fishes - its important you do your research on any kind of goby you are interested in keeping as some have specialised dietary requirements and do not have a good survival rate in captivity.
Also, be aware there are other fish that are sometimes referred to as gobies but are not - engineer gobies are a perfect example (they are also called convict blennies but they are not a blenny either). So again, research is important when considering what fish you want to keep.
This article on suitable seahorse tankmates might help also:
Seahorse Tankmates
As for your question on pistol shrimp, I am unsure if they are ok with seahorses as I have never kept any.
urbanrat84
New member
Hi everyone,
My engineer gobies are still going well with the seahorses. Unfortunately I lost one as it jumped from the tank, but the others are thriving as they are very easy fish to keep (there are 3). It really appeared like 2 distinct pairs were forming so I was excited at the prospect of engineer goby fry at some point down the track - hopefully the 2 that stay together constantly are a pair and will continue to accept the 3rd engineer present. They spend most of their day beneath the rocks peeking out and are most active at feeding time. There is plenty of food for everyone and they do not affect the seahorses activity or feeding.
I will continue to update as they grow.
Thanks,
My engineer gobies are still going well with the seahorses. Unfortunately I lost one as it jumped from the tank, but the others are thriving as they are very easy fish to keep (there are 3). It really appeared like 2 distinct pairs were forming so I was excited at the prospect of engineer goby fry at some point down the track - hopefully the 2 that stay together constantly are a pair and will continue to accept the 3rd engineer present. They spend most of their day beneath the rocks peeking out and are most active at feeding time. There is plenty of food for everyone and they do not affect the seahorses activity or feeding.
I will continue to update as they grow.
Thanks,
skeeter-doc
In Memoriam
can we get some pics of the engineers?
gatorolsen
New member
Shiggs - saw you are a Mote intern - loved the engineer goby exhibit there - great idea to put mirrors under the tank so everyone could see them in their burrows - the ones I saw were huge.
urbanrat84 - never housed with sh but were peaceful in my clownfish tank so I will be interested to see how your 3 do. Loved watching the stripes change from horizontal to vertical - really neat transformation. My understanding was juvie stripes enabled them to mimic a catfish that can be toxic and then the gobies change to the vertical stripes - hence their other name the convict goby.
Good luck with them
Gatorolsen
Gatorolsen
urbanrat84 - never housed with sh but were peaceful in my clownfish tank so I will be interested to see how your 3 do. Loved watching the stripes change from horizontal to vertical - really neat transformation. My understanding was juvie stripes enabled them to mimic a catfish that can be toxic and then the gobies change to the vertical stripes - hence their other name the convict goby.
Good luck with them
Gatorolsen
Gatorolsen
