Twin-Spot Goby

[smokez01]

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts on this fish are? From what I have heard, they can only be kept as pairs for chance of survival, there are a bunch of these at work, and I was looking to get some small sand sifters for my 75g, these guys seem pretty neat, but I have also heard and read that they are hard to care for, and usually die in an aquarium.

Is there a way to tell between male and female?

Anyone have success in keeping these fish? any special care?

Thanks for the help

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

here is a pic of mine, it's not doing to well, i can't get him to eat anything i put in the tank. As you can see he is getting pretty skinny.

 

[mooman]

hey guys. I'm also considering these for my 10g nano. I've heard the same thing about them needing to be in pairs (luckily my lfs has a pair). you can tell them apart by looking at the anal fish, males will have blue spangles females will not (or vice versa, but i think it's the males with the spangles).

I think live pods are the key. I am going to start culturing them (sounds easy really, just put some pods in small tank, bubble wand, and some green water) I also plan on feeding live bbs daily.

How is your fuge set up amber? Seen any pods in there? Seen your fish eat pods? sorry for all the Qs, but your the only person I've found posting that has a live one.

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7245728#post7245728 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mooman
hey guys. I'm also considering these for my 10g nano. I've heard the same thing about them needing to be in pairs (luckily my lfs has a pair). you can tell them apart by looking at the anal fish, males will have blue spangles females will not (or vice versa, but i think it's the males with the spangles).

I think live pods are the key. I am going to start culturing them (sounds easy really, just put some pods in small tank, bubble wand, and some green water) I also plan on feeding live bbs daily.

How is your fuge set up amber? Seen any pods in there? Seen your fish eat pods? sorry for all the Qs, but your the only person I've found posting that has a live one.

Pods are not the key. They eat tiny interstitial fauna in the sand. Some people have had success with target feeding...trying all sorts of things...oyster eggs come to mind...tiny mysis. They take a lot of extra food/effort. I would not casually recommend them.

Here's a link where someone had success with a single specimen

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=210829&highlight=twin+spot+goby

Oh, and BTW,

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

 

[brifirst]

Man , I love these fish. I have tried to keep pairs at least 4 times. never lasted more than a week.

My opinion is to stay away, but good luck

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

mine has lasted for about 20 days, but it's not looking good for him. Here is a pic of him when i first got him, as you can see his stomach is not suken in.

I have tried target feeding him and ever tried hiding food in the sand which didn't work very good and nothing has worked. I have a fuge with alot of pods and i have them in the tank too. Everyonce and a while i do se him trying to pick at the rocks, but mostly it's just sandsifting.

I would really not recommend getting one unless you have a 100+ gal tank that can support one without you having to feed it. If you still want one i would recommend you make sure it's eating at the LFS before you buy it, make them show you it's at least eating mysis (not brine) and you might have some luck. Let's put it this way i have trained a mardarin to eat frozen foods and kept it alive that ways, but this is even harder IMO

 

[clord]

These fish are better left in ocean don't buy them and waste your time unless you see them eat frozen food

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

I agree 100%

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

Amber, Clord

I only partly agree. I have several couples and have no major problems with them. Also I admitt you need to have / know a few things:

* No strong current
* Keep them as a pair and they are more confident
* Feed small (XS) pellets until they are able to take froozen food
* If they are skinny turn off pumps 2 hrs a day and let them feed on small pellets.

On of the recent purchased paris was also rather skinny and it takes really long to fatten them up again.

I indeed do not recommend this fish if one is a beginner in the hobby, if you have fast and very active fish, if the flow rate is optimal for Acropora corals and if you can't spend time to take intensivce care during the first weeks for these fish.

 

[mooman]

Well, unfortunatley my personality is such that I hear difficult to keep, and I see it as a challange. I figure these fish are better off with me, than some tool that will just let them starve to death when they don't eat flake right off the bat. (not directed at you amber, It sounds like you've tried everything for yours).

what do you guys think about microworms? I've also got a culture of those going all the time, plus they sink and stay in one place. Too small?

I'm going to try a trick that I use to feed newly free swimming dwarf cichlids. I put a piece of rigid tubing running down to the bottom (it dosn't move and scare the fish like a turkey baster or pipette). Then I put the food in the top, it floats down and kind of spills out over the substrate.

thak you for the link to that thread (can't seem to access the search tool). It gave me more first hand info in a few minutes than half a day of google searches got me.

thanks again.

 

[SDguy]

No prob Hope they do well by you. Keep us posted. The more info that is public fodder, the more successful I think we can be with this species.

 

[rich415]

mooman,

I used rigid tubing connected to aplastic syringe to squirt live tubifex on the substrate. The action the dying worms cause really stimulates the fish to eat. When I bought my twin-spot goby (without doing proper research) it would not eat any frozen foods. After about aweek I turned in desperation to black worms and it began to eat. After it became aquanted with the feeding tube it began to eat whatever came out of it (except Formula 1 flake). I no longer feed black worms because they are freshwater but the fish eats heartily and has been in my tank since July 2005.

Also, Peter Schmiedel is spot on about how timid they are. Mine will now stand up against my ocelaris clowns but swims away from by big cleaner shrimp. I also turn off one of my pumps when feeding because the fish refuses to swim after food. He does attack the rigid tubing when I lower it in the water though.

 

[mooman]

Thanks everyone. I brought the fish home a couple days ago. here's what i've been doing.

i have my filter hooked up to a timmer set to "on" 23 hours a day, so all i do to feed is give the dial a twist untill it shuts off (don't have to worry about forgetting to turn it back on).

I use some rigid tubing propped on some LR over thier "front yard" so the food kind of spills out over the sand. I started with easy stuff.

-cyclops (no go, seemed to come right out their gills, but they might be eating some)

-live bbs (again, seemed to come right out their gills, and tended to spread around the tank).

-Live microworms (BINGO!) When i add these thier foraging behavior goes through the roof, so they must be eating them. I soak them in Zoecon for 5-10 before feeding. I also did a test and found that the worms stayed alive in the salt water for several hours (surprised me for sure)

-Flying fish roe (scooped it up, but could not seem to "pop" them, just chewed on them forever. I on the other hand found them to be delicious.)

I will continue to feed a staple of microworms with various other frozen foods mixed in. I think they'll eventually take to it. They are a little timid, and have a little trouble keeping the cleaner shrimp out of their territory, but he doesn't hang around for too long and they still spend alot of the hour sifting.

I would really like to get an ocelaris for this tank. Do you think it would be ok if I fed the clown on the surface, and just squirted the gobies food into the sand, or will the clown figure it out and start harrasing them?

PS These fish are awesome and sooo much fun to watch moving sand, rubble, and the occational snail around the tank. I will continue to post on progress as first hand accounts of keeping these fish seem to be few and mostly limited to: " I brought them home, and they died within ( 1-6 ) month(s)." Is it cool if I hijack this thread or should I start a dedicated one?

Edit: are tubifex hard to cuture?

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

the f. percula will go after the food, but you could always try. When i would target feed my sun coral he would always steal the food from it.

Also i haven't tried micro worms, could you give me some info on these, i have never seen them at my LFS (are the SW?)

 

[mooman]

microworms

microworms

They are very very tiny worms (about as thick as a human hair and probably less than a mm long). usually cultured for freshwater fry that are too small to be fed bbs. You will have to shut down filtration and wait a couple minutes or they will just blow everywhere, but they are a cinch to culture.

1. Take a disposable tuperware container and fill it with enough corn meal to coat the bottom.

2. Add enough water so that the media is the consistancy of a millshake (use a spatula to scrape any media off the sides at this point).

3. Place a spoonful of media from an established culture in the middle. Put the lid on the container (cut a small hole and stuff some poluester filter fiber in it to control evaporation, but maintain circulation).

In about a week you will notice a "coating" of microworms climbing up the sides. You just run your finger around the inside of the container and you will get millions. It's literally imposible to over harvest these guys, and the culture continues to grow for about a month with NO maintainance from you. After a few weeks start a second culture from the first, when it's producing, you can clean out the first one. Just keep them rotating. They are a little smelly so you'll need to keep them in a cupboard or closet, but it's nothing that's going to puke you or anything. It's becuase they feed on yeast that grows on the cornmeal. You get both the worms and the yeast whenever you get a starter culture. I put mine in a little cup of water, let them settle to the bottom and suck them out with a pipette to minimize the amount of yeast water that goes in the tank (although i don't even bother doing this with my freshwater tanks)

Get in touch with a local freshwater aquarium club, or ask some employees at a LFS (one is bound to be keeping a culture going). woste case, give me your address and I'll stuff some in a ziploc and mail them to you. All you need is a small spoonful.

they really did take to them right away.

PS I've started a thread on nano-reef.com (since that's what I'm keeping them in) I'm asking for all the first hand accounts I can get. The more detailed the better. Anyone who's kept these guys, please check it out.

Twin Spot Goby Thread

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

I'll see what i can find, thanks for the info..............it does seem kinda gross though lol

 

[rich415]

mooman,
I would not keep more than the pair of gobies in a ten gallon. If you up grade to a larger tank then yeah, Clowns would be fine. Just make sure the goby is getting its fair share of the food.
I have no idea if you can culture tubifex but they only cost $1 an ounce. which should last two weeks if you keep them refridgerated and with the least amount of water possible. They are also known as black worms. Just about every LFS will have them for sale. I weened my goby onto frozens and never feed tubifex anymore. Some people say it does not have the proper nutrition for marine fish. I have no idea if that is true but hey why bother if the goby eats frozen prepared foods.

It looks like you will be successful! These fish are awsome but a little time consuming. Kinda like a sun coral.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

i have had a sun coral and even kept a mandarin alive on frozen food, but this little guy is killin me lol I can't find the microworms, so i think i'm going to try the tubifex worms, maybe that will work...........