Gobies
Gobies
Rous,
I've only begun to try to raise neon gobies, so I'm no expert. I will say though that I've done a fair bit of research into it. From everything I've read, you have virtually no chance of successfully raising neon gobies by just letting them hatch out in your display tank.
There's a lot of reasons, but the number one is that they'll starve in a few days once their egg yolk is depleted. Gobies are small fish with very small mouths, so even copepods are too large for them to eat. Gobies stay small a lot longer than other common captive bred fish, so this feeding challenge lasts a long time.
You're right that the goby larva aren't removed in the wild, but that's why most of them die. Goby pairs in the wild will lay tens of thousands of eggs over their reproductive lifetime, and only a handfull of those eggs survive to become reproducing adults. Sounds like the only predators you'll have in your tank is the parents which will help initially, but you still won't have enough food of the right size and nutrition to keep them long.
I wish you luck though. Maybe you'll discover a new way of raising them.
Regards,
Jon
