Group of Gobies in 40 Breeder

[Darth_Tater]

Hi again everyone,

I was a big fan of my Yellow Watchman Goby until it got chased out of my tank a few weeks ago. The offending fish has been rehomed and the tank cover has been updated so now I'm thinking about Gobies again.

I started a thread a couple weeks ago that made me want to try a pair of Yellow Watchmans. However, believe it or not, they're kind of hard to find around here. There is a LFS that stocks Stonogobiops Nematodes pretty regularly though. I was thinking if a pair of Yellow Watchmans would be cool, how much cooler would it be if I could get a small group of Gobies??? The Stonogobiops Nematodes are much smaller than Watchmans, so I was considering keeping a group of 3 or 4 of them.

Like the title of the thread says, this will be in a 40 Breeder. They will have the bottom of the tank to themselves (except for a couple Peppermint Shrimp). The only other fish in the tank are a tiny Royal Gramma and some Cardinals.

Could this work in a 40 Breeder, or will it most likely end up being a giant mess of a turf war between a couple pairs?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[collegereefs]

I've seen a picture of 3 of these gobys swimming together. I think it's likely you will end up with separate pairs. Whether or not a 40B is enough space for them to cohabitate is up to the fish. But it would be cool if each pair claimed ~1 Sq ft and you had three of them.

 

[Darth_Tater]

Ideally it would be great to have 2 pairs and be able to watch them interact. I'm just wondering if the space is too small. By interact I don't mean kill each other off!

 

[Darth_Tater]

Hmm. According to this thread:

Mated pairs are a rare find. Black-rays are monogamous by nature. It is best to keep a couple. A single goby will not feel at home in your aquarium.

Reefkeeping.com and Advanced Aquarist articles also both state this fish is NEVER found alone in the wild and that they never move more than a foot or two from their burrows. I think I'll give 4 of them a try (or maybe only two if I can't find 4)

 

[collegereefs]

Being a goby they should be able to switch sexes in at least one direction possibly both ways.

 

[teemee]

While I don't have the black finned ray gobies, I have about 7 other goby species in a 20g, among which:
White capped goby, multiple Grissingeri gobies, multiple Eviota pellucida, Eviota bifasciata, Eviota nigriventris, and a couple of species I need to look up to remember, altogether a lot more than what you're thinking of, albeit smaller... Used to have many more, including 20 Aeliops megastigma, Redeye gobies, Trimma benjamini, etc. but lost several when I got a bigger tank (had a 10g before), and there is/was almost never any aggression....
Not all goby species can change sex, once/back and forth/etc... I suggest you try to find a group at the LFS, and introduce them at the same time. The tank is big enough that even if they don't get along so well, they can go to different parts of the tank, though I hope they don't!

 

[Darth_Tater]

Thanks for the feedback!

I tried to grab a group yesterday and it's not going to happen for a couple reasons. First reason, the LFS wanted $10 more per fish than I remembered.

Second reason, my favorite LFS seems to be going downhill very fast. Really sad to see. In every system in the store most fish looked sick. Not sure what to do now. The LFS in this area are all quite disappointing, which is saying something because there's probably 7 or 8 within an hour and a half (not counting Petco).

 

[collegereefs]

It's to bad It didn't work out. If it helps if you order 9 for liveaquaria you can get them for ~$20 a fish.