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I want to add Bumblebee gobies to my tank but I read that they require table or rock salt in the water in order to remain healthy. Is this salt safe for my other fresh water fish? I have a couple of sword tails, a gold fish, and two otocinclus in my tank.

Bumblebee gobies would not go well in that tank. They are brackish water fish where the others are fresh only. The level of salt that would make the gobies thrive would definately either harm or kill your other fish.

If you must get the gobies, maybe you could do a small 5-10 gallon tank with brackish water only.

Also, what size tank do you have now?

Forgot to add also, the salt you would want wouldn't be table salt. You would need to get aquarium salt. It is available almost everywhere fish supplies are sold, including Wal-Mart. 1-2 tablespoons for every 2 1/2 gallons of water are recommended.

Also, they require live or frozen foods. They will not accept flake foods.

For tankmates, maybe you could try mollies? They are similar to swordtails, but are more tolerant of salt (they like it quite a bit). With mollies, I would reccommend the lower end of the salt amounts(about 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons). Sailfins are supposedly need the most salt of the mollies, but they get 6 inches long.

bumble bee gobies do best with Marine Salt, your current stock of fish won't do well in that kind of salt water.

and Your goldfish shouldn't be in with swordtails and otos anyway, being that the goldfish can grow quite large, produces quite a bit of waste and it prefers cooler water temperatures...i'd get rid of the goldfish
and get something more compatible. If you really want the gobies, you'd have to get an entirely new set up and i'd research a little bit on brackish water tanks before setting anything up. Brackish water tanks need their salt levels monitored on a regular basis so it can be quite a bit more work if you're up for it.

Kingyo, welcome to FP.

First of all, I'd like to reiterate what others have said. Your goldfish will in fact outgrow your tank. They're very cute fish, and they're inexpensive, but they can reach 2 feet in length and beyond. If you like, check out their profile]http://fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/goldfish.xml[/link] on this site, as well as another member's [link=article on them (anything pink in my post is a clickable link).

As for the bumblebee goby, keeping any would require you to completey redo your tank. Also, in order to do so you need Sea Salt, not Aquarium Salt (usually found in a pinkish and white carton). Brackish set ups are quite tricky because each individual species requires a different amount of salt, so you have to choose tankmates carefully.

In order to fill out your tank, as well as your otos and swordtails, I'd add a dwarf gourami as a centerpiece, then maybe a school of smaller tetras, like cardinals, glolites, or black neons, etc., and maybe a school of panda corys (or another species that stays small. There are a few other options as well.

HTH

><>Dani<><

Last edited by gartenzwerfe at 28-Jan-2005 10:25

Ok, thanks. I think that I'll put off the Bumblebee gobies for a while. I'll also go ahead and find a different spot for the gold fish.