Bumblebees

[geo7x]

hi,
I have a 10g tank and am hopefully going to make it a little bumblebee goby species tank. I know they are brackish, so ill need to get marine salt and a hydrometer (how much are they? ) but what salinity is good for bumblebee gobies? also, in my lfs im not sure that theyre in brackish water, so would i just have to acclimatise them for longer/ more carefully?

thanks for any comments

edit: is there such thing as brackish shrimp? just to add as cleanup crew

edit no.2: i read that adding salt to a tank that has been cycled in freshwater could affect the bacteria my tank has been cycled in FW, is there anything i can do? shall i just risk it?

 

[nmonks]

Ah yes, the perennial question... are bumblebee gobies brackish water fish. There's no simple answer to this. In the wild, they most certainly are not, and can be found in freshwater habitats (pH 6.0!) of the type inhabited by rasboras and dwarf puffers. But in captivity, they do at least as well, if not better, in brackish water.

Regardless, they don't need much salt. An SG of 1.003-1.005 will be fine. This will be well within the tolerances of your freshwater filter bacteria provided you make the adjustment over a week or so by doing water changes and adding brackish water each time. Many plants will adapt, too, which is good because these gobies love planted aquaria.

If the gobies are in the freshwater tanks st your local store, simply leave the tank as freshwater for now, add the gobies, and then do a 25% water change adding brackish water. This will raise the salinity slightly, and both gobies and filter bacteria will adapt at the same time. Do another change in a couple of days, and so on until you have reached your desired SG.

Piece of cake, really.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[geo7x]

thanks alot nmonks, that was really useful i think my tank should be perfect for these little critters as i plan to plant the tank

 

[MoMa]

be sure and check out the Planting Brackish Aquaria sticky. also make sure to give the bumblebees plenty of little caves and such.

 

[geo7x]

thanks for that MoMa, although as nmonks said, i think with such a low salinity most plants would be fine

 

[Gill]

Bumble Bees are such Characters.
Lots of attitude for a small fish.

If you get them and they start Courting + Displaying just watch the light show. its amazing.

 

[AMS]

edit: is there such thing as brackish shrimp? just to add as cleanup crew

Certainly are brackish shrimp and other inverts, problem is they practically never make their way into the aquarium hobby. Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica) make a great addition to a low end brackish tank, excellent for algae eating. MTS would also work well.

 

[geo7x]

Gill: thanks, im really looking forward to getting some

AMS thanks for that, i do have loads of mts in my other tank, but i dont think ill be addin any, they breed too much amano shrimp would be an option, trouble is i cant seem to find any round here

 

[geo7x]

i got them today, all 10, infact they are just acclimating now. the tank is currently FW and i will follows nmonks' advice on how to get them used to bracksih waters. They are so cool, and such comical little faces

 

[James B]

got any pics

 

[geo7x]

sorry no, batteries are dead i wish i could though, i put them in a couple of minutes ago and they are swimming around and look really happy, hopefully even happier once i make the tank brackish

 

[wendywc]

ditto... I'd love to see your setup!

 

[geo7x]

ill try and sort something out soon, the tank isnt much at the moment, but i plan to make it quite well planted in the future, my first aim thoughis to get it brackish and let them settly in first.

 

[geo7x]

i got some batteries! so i took some pictures and a video, unfortunately only one of the pics came out half decent.

comments welcome, a full tank shot is at the end of the video