Common name: Bumblebee Goby, Banded Goby

Scientific Name: Brachygobius xanthozona

Family: Gobiidae

Origin: Sumatra, Borneo and Java

Maximum Size: 1 to 1 1/2 inches

Care: Bumbleebee Gobies are often sold as "freshwater" fish but truely they will not survive long in a completly freshwater tank. They need salt in their water in order to survive. They are also sensitive to PH, it needs to be alkaline in order for them to thrive. Being tiny, a 5 gallon tank is suitable, but as with most fish, the bigger the tank the happier the will be. Bumblebee Gobies have no swim bladder, so they "hop" around the bottom using a modified cup-like pelvic fin. They can also cling to glass using that anal fin, as it works like a suction cup.

Feeding: They prefer Live or frozen, I have personally never seen a Bumblebee Goby eat flake food or pellets. Bumblebee Gobies are carnivorous, they will eat brine shrimp, daphnia, mosquito larvae, bloodworm, whiteworms, pretty much any aquatic creatures small enough for them to fit into their mouths.

Sexing: Impossible until spawning. When spawning the males turn a uniform gold/browish color with their stripes barely visible.

Breeding: Spawning in the wild occurs during the rainy season so adding fresh water, lowering the salt content and increasing the temperature usually triggers spawning. Males turn golden brown when ready to breed, and if you have both sexes you will soon find a tiny sack of eggs. The eggs are usually layed in a little sack underneath a flat stone or in a cave. The male guards the eggs until they hatch, usually in 3-5 days, however once free swimming it is a good idea to remove the fry as sometimes the male will accidently mistake them as food. Bumblebee Goby fry are nearly microscopic when born, and need to be fed immediatly as unlike most species their yolk is nearly consumed when they hatch. Feed brine shrip or Liquifry.

Comments: Bumblebee gobies are great little additions to any community tank! They are definatly more intelligent then most other fish and I think have the cutest expressions. Just remember to add salt to the tank and you will have some happy Bumblebees!

As feeding can be difficult with these little guys, I've found success with feeding the bees platy fry and ghost shrimp fry, well not really "fry" but very young and small ghosties. (along with other foods.) Also another big problem with feeding is that they wont take anything that isnt moving, so if you put in frozen foods carried a small gentle current they may gobble it up. ( I usually do this put placing the food in the filter output)

I've found frozen lobster eggs to be cheap and convenient. They're not usually sold for freshwater fish, but if you go to a place that deals with marines, you'll quite likely find them. Filter-feeding marine invertebrates such as clams and corals take them, apparently. They're sold in the same blister packs as things like frozen bloodworms and cost about the same. As foods go, they're quite oily and rich in protein, so a little probably goes a long way.

Shrimp from the seafood counter also works well. If you break it up into tiny, tiny pieces, the gobies seem quite happy to eat it. Mine also love prawn eggs, which come on the frozen coldwater prawns in late spring (at least in the UK).

By the way, it's worth mentioning that the bumblebee gobies found in the fishkeeping trade are highly unlikely to be true 'Brachygobius' xanthozona. They're more likely to be Brachygobius doriae, Brachygobius nunus, or Brachygobius sabanus, though other species turn up from time to time as well.

Cheers,

Neale

A female Brachygobius in my aquarium:



This post has been edited by nmonks: Jan 24 2006, 08:07 PM