Purple Firefish - are these a bonded pair or not??

[Nici]

I bought a pair of decora gobies about two weeks ago, and the guy selling them to me assured me they were a bonded pair. They were getting along fine for the first week or so in my tank, but over the last few days I've been noticing that one has been hiding, and not even coming out for food.

It finally came out of hiding today just after feeding time, however the other one appeared to be chasing it whenever it came in it's vicinity. Fearing the worst, I caught one of the fish and placed it in a temporary holder inside the main tank, so that I could return them tomorrow (and so they don't kill eachother tonight). However, I've now been noticing that the goby in the main tank keeps swimming up to the container holding the other one, and just hanging around next to it. Could they possibly be a pair after all?

 

[eastlake]

I was going to suggest that what you were seeing could have been spawning behavior but there is not a ton of info out there about spawning these particular fish. Is the fish that is outside of the holding box still acting in an aggressive way through the glass so to speak? If so then you may have to males, if it's just hanging out then maybe you do have a pair. If you can, keep a close eye on what I would think is the female and see if her belly becomes a little fuller than normal over the next few days/week, if so shes likely full of eggs and you may have seen breeding behavior. Good luck and if they are breeding keep us posted

 

[Nici]

Can fish actually begin spawning so soon after being introduced to a tank??

It’s night now, so the fish outside the holding box is just hovering above the sand bed in the middle of the tank (is this unusual behaviour? I thought they sleep under the rocks usually). When it approached the holding box earlier, it didn’t seem to be acting aggressive; it would just swim from its usual spot above the sand bed up to the fish in the box, hover there for a few seconds and then swim back down. It then repeated this several times until the lights went out.

Still, I’m mostly concerned about why the other fish hadn’t been eating and had been hiding for days. I know firefish are timid, but I hadn’t seen any other fish bother it besides it’s partner. Do bonded pairs of firefish ever fight/harass eachother??

I think I will release the one in the holding box tomorrow and observe their behaviour closely for a little while. I panicked since I’d read so many awful stories about firefish murdering eachother if they’re not a true pair!

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

As far as I know, firefish do not form bonded pairs. People typically struggle to keep more than 1 together. Plenty of fish (including other gobies) come together for breeding but prefer to otherwise live solitary.


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[Nici]

As far as I know, firefish do not form bonded pairs. People typically struggle to keep more than 1 together. Plenty of fish (including other gobies) come together for breeding but prefer to otherwise live solitary.

Oh wow! I hadn't heard that before. If that's so, then they're both going back to the fish shop tomorrow - I really don't want them to die

It's such a struggle to find consensus on their behaviour. I thought I'd done my research beforehand and seen so many people recommend keeping them in pairs, but you're right in that a lot of people seem to struggle with pairs so perhaps they don't form permanent bonds at all.

Thanks for your input!