Bumblebee Goby

[seads]

hello,
just wondering; if bumblebee gobies are kept in fresh water, does it reduce their life span?

regards

 

[Teelie]

There is some debate as to whether Bumblebee Gobies are freshwater or brackish. I think they are freshwater and just improperly housed and fed so when they die, people attribute it to they are brackish. It's just my theory and one I haven't tested yet but makes sense to me. Bumblebee Gobies are best housed in a species tank and fed on a mixed diet including some live foods but a lot of people keep them with other fish or feed them just flake or pellet foods.

 

[geo7x]

in my opinion its not so much a case of reducing the life span as in they drop dead for no reason, its more that they are harder to keep in fresh water. This is mainly because i think they are prone to get whitespot and other diseases in fw, which is less probably in bw.

BBGs are caught in fresh and brackish water in the wild, some people (such as myself) prefer to keep them in bw as in captivity it is easier.

 

[Rex740]

It is actually really hard to feed bumble bee gobies, there very picky and usually only eat live foods.

 

[AmberMc]

I have seen tankfuls of these at the lfs last for less than a week... and I would certainly hope no one was purchasing them at the state they were in. Definitely a cool fish, I might give it a whirl if I ever found a healthy one to buy. Good topic!

 

[fishboy619]

you have asked the question that nobody knows the answer to
its a matter of opinion based on peoples own experiences.
i keep mine in freshwater, and they are doing very well. they arent to hard to feed, mine will take frozen or live foods, and sometimes go for flakes and other fishfood. when i quartined them, they were just them in a tank, and were easy to feed and look after, then i placed them into a community and were still easy to feed, as the learnt to look out for the pipet with frozen food in. there isnt any aggression from these guys.
so to end with, no i dont think keeping in freshwater will reduce there life span, to me, they are found in freshwater so are able to be kept in freshwater, they are a bit like mollies in a way.

 

[dizzied]

I agree with fishboy619.

I keep mine in freshwater and they're great. They are quite easy to feed, I feed mine live and frozen. Generally speaking, they're interested in anything that moves (though mine spits flakes back out should they catch them), so good water movement helps. I haven't seen any aggression in mine either, or even the "territorial disputes" a lot of people experience - although I was kinda looking forward to see these infamous disputes. They follow each other around loosely, much like livebearers.

 

[geo7x]

It is actually really hard to feed bumble bee gobies, there very picky and usually only eat live foods.

since when?

If you are extremely unlucky then they may not take anything other than live, but that isnt "really hard to feed" as any good lfs has live bloodworm etc. on average they will take frozen food absolutely fine, and in some cases (like my own) they will take dried flakes and pellets etc.

To me, fish that are "really hard to feed" and "very picky" are the kind that wil only take live fish, if anything.

 

[seads]

thank you all for your advice. at the moment i have one in a 5 gal and i was told on other forums that they must be kept in bw or they will die, and everywhere else has been saying that they can either be FW or brackish, and the people on the other forums are usually on the money but apparently not always.
once again thanks for all the advice, and keeep it coming if you have any other info on them, they are a very cool little fish.
regards,
sam

 

[andywg]

The fish appear in both FW and BW in the wild, including soft acidic streams. It appeasr to be easier to keep them in BW, or at least hard alkaline FW, but this might be because those people who are prpeared to set up a brackish tank will take more care with the feeding requirements.

The closest thing to an expert on this would be the gobioligist Naomi Deventhal, who has kept them in FW and BW and noticed no difference in what to keep them in.

Feeding some frozen, or live, meaty foods instead of just flake and pellet is going to be the important thing to keeping BBG. I have around 8 in a FW community and they are doing absolutely fine. I am not sure of their captive lifespans, but mine have been with me at least 2 years now.