Will a Swissguard basslet eat my trimma gobies?

[dixiedog]

I'm planning to replace my royal gramma with a Liopropoma rubre, the Swissguard basslet.

My only concern would be for the safety of my smaller fish. I have three Trimma cana and two Trimma rubromaculatus, in addition to a masked goby and a pair of neon gobys. I can't imagine him harming the neons or the masked goby, but the little trimmas I'm not sure about.

If anyone has housed a Swissguard with these or other very small fish, I'd be interested in how it worked out.

 

[dixiedog]

Bump.

FWIW, it looks like I''m going to give it a try. It should definitely be okay for a while at least, since the Swissguard is only about 1 1/2" and the trimmas are about 3/4". So I don't think he can eat them just yet.

 

[dixiedog]

.... or, maybe not.

Since adding the Swissguard, all five of my Trimmas have gone missing. The neons and the masked goby are all still present and accounted for, for now.

The Swissguard may be a more voracious predator than I thought.

 

[drouner]

Did the trimmas show back up? i'm thinkig about adding a few trimma to my tank but worry about my perchlet/geometic hawkfish.

 

[dixiedog]

Nope, they're history.

I have come to the conclusion (since this was not my first failure with Trimmas) that IMHO these tiny fish are not well suited for anything over 20 gallons at most.

 

[drouner]

Thanks, as I'm looking at putting them in 34 gallon. You kind of confirmed my worries about Trimmas. Cute fish, just way too small.

 

[pstank1]

I don't know if it's the size of the tank or the size of the other fish in the tank. If kept with appropriate tankmates, they should be ok in any sized tank.

 

[snorvich]

I don't know if it's the size of the tank or the size of the other fish in the tank. If kept with appropriate tankmates, they should be ok in any sized tank.

this. If you add fish that eat small fish, small fish will get eaten.

 

[dixiedog]

I don't know if it's the size of the tank or the size of the other fish in the tank. If kept with appropriate tankmates, they should be ok in any sized tank.

Yes, of course. But tankmates overwhelmingly tend to be sized in proportion with tank size, and very few people would want a decent sized tank with no fish in it larger than a Trimma.

Powerheads eat Trimmas also, I've learned. I lost one to my Vortech within hours of transferring him in from the QT. And Trimmas have a difficult time with the volume of flow we associate with larger tanks, particularly SPS tanks. And speaking of QT, they are highly sensitive to copper. I lost two that way.

Also, the bigger the tank, the more they tend to get "lost" in the rock scape, and you get precious little return on your investment unless you buy a whole bunch of them (and they're not cheap!). Not to mention the moral issues involved with plundering a fish from the ocean, to place in an inappropriate environment. Nobody likes to see fish die.

Again, not a fish I personally recommend except in a pico or a small nano.

 

[pstank1]

I can see them getting sucked into a powerhead if they're too close to the intake, but I have seen trimma's in the wild handle more flow than I've seen in anyones tank. You'd be suprised by what those little guys can take.

I'm actually in the process of getting all the large fish out of my 50 gallon so that I can fill it up with little gobies. My daughter loves to watch them which is reason enough for me. I will need to make some modifications to my overflow to make sure I don't slurp any down. And thanks to you pointing out the powerhead problem, i'll need to put some foam on my vortech.