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OK guys, what is the lowdown on these little devils?

For a start, other than bloodworms what will they eat? I'm getting some mysis into them but they aren't enthusiastic about it.

What do they like living with? they are currently in a 2' tank so no archers or anything, but i'm wondering about mudskippers? If I install a floating perching area for them?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I have read that Bumblebee gobies will usually only accept live foods, and brine shrimp seems to also be a good choice for them.

Mudskippers may be a bit small for that tank, not only because they can reach 7", but also because only 1/3 of the tank could be water. After doing a bit of research, I have found that livebearers, blue-eyes, celebes rainbows, and orange chromides are good tankmates for bumblebee gobies.

Here is my set of tips on what and how to feed these little guys:
1. Live black worms are the best thing in all the world
for them, they take them very easily
2. Live/frozen baby brine shrimp are the second choice to
to go with.
3. Blood worms come in third only because I've never been
able to get live blood worms that look good enough to
feed to my fish.
4. small live bearer fry
5. small sinking pellets
6. live glass worms

It seems that no matter what you feed the real trick is to make sure it moves(or looks like its moving) and it goes past the gobies(lazy little buggers). Live black worms have both of those qualities that is why work the best. A small power head, air stone bar or turkey baster helps when feeding frozen foods.

Now thats not to say that my gobies never touch pellet foods because thats not true. They can eventually be taught to take pellets but never go crazy over them. Also a word on the glass worms. They should only be fed to the biggest meanest bumbles, as a large glass worm can be an even match for a bumble.

Tank mates and lay out.......

Tank mates in order:

1. glass fish("Chanda lala" I think)
2. nerite snails
3. ghost shrimp(or any other nonaggressive shrimp of
simliar size)

4. other small gobies(fan dance comes to mind)
5. celebes rainbows

Ok the key to your situation with such a small thank is finding small tank mates. You must also consider the fact the bumbles are ambush hunters and if the other fish in the tank are too fast they will eat all the food leaving the bumbles with nothing. That is why glass fish will make good tank mates as they are usually not active eaters but stay about 2". Nerite snails make great algae/extra food cleaners. Shrimp help with this as well, though expect some losses if the shrimp or less than the size of the gobies. Other small gobies will work only if you have enough caves and hiding places and partition the tank so they aren't constantly in site of each other. Celebes rainbows work ok, I have had problems with feeding if the school was rather large but a small school of them should not cause too much of a hassle. I left off live bears because they get kinda big and you would have a heck of a time feeding(darn things are always hungry).

One last thing, besides all the caves and such small anubias plants and java fern(and to a lesser extent java moss) provide much loved shading from tank lights. A sandy bottom is prefered as well.

I think that covers it....

Edit:
And of course I forgot to address the mud skipper situation. My vote is no. I even if you can get your hands on the small indian mud skippers they would really prefer more of a terrarium set up.

Rightio.

Currently I have 2 gobies, one is looking a bit sorry for itself but as they have come from all FW and have been quarantined here for a week on FW, i'm not that suprised.

I'm bringing up the salt levels slowly, and already its making a difference.

Current tank setup is 2' with beach sand and a mass of pots in the bottom. No plants at the moment, but that can be fixed

So Ideal tankmates are small, not voracious feeders and from the not-so-salty marine section?
I can't get proper FW ghost shrimp, but I assume you are talking about salty shrimp? If so, that might be doable.
Glass fish I can do, but finding non-painted ones could be tricky. (which is really sad whejn you think about it)
Fan dance gobies might be possible, but I haven't ever seen them around the place... though I haven't ever been looking either.
I can do livebearers, and would really love platies, but they'll just roll the gobies for food
All the blue eyes and celebes I've ever met have had jaws of steel, so i might give those a miss too.
Never seen an orange chromide, but i'll have a look-see.


I know this is a long shot, but are there any sorts of hermit crabs or crabby things that would work? My original plan for this tank was to have it be for crabs, and then the gobies showed up and well, plans have changed. I really like them, but i'd still love to have some sort of crabs if thats at all possible. If not, i'll just ohh and ahh over the shrimp





For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Ah, ok this can be done. The key once again is choosing the right species and having the right setup. Steer towards fiddler crabs(uca sp.) most are native to the U.S. either U. Pugilator or U. Pugnax should work best. And most fiddlers sold are Uca sp. so you should not have trouble with that. Anyway, just stay away from "red claw" crabs(Sesarma bidens) as they are mean little buggers. As for the hermits, you can't have those neat little marine red and blue legged creatures but land hermits could work with the right set up.

The fiddlers do well in aquatic setups as long as they have easy access to some amount of space above the water. This can be done several ways.

Bogwood: if you can find a "tall" piece that sticks just above the water in your tank when you stand it on its end and has a wide area up on top then that could work.

Rock Work: Slate,Tufa, lava rock basically if it is aquarium safe and can be stacked to the surface of the water without fear of in falling over then your good to go.

Artificial Climbing vine: A little something I have been playing with. A good example of the stuff is this....
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9538&N=2006+113872
its nontoxic and looks very real with some java moss or fern stuck to it.

Cork Bark: This stuff is great for this type of setup though I mention it last because it must be combined with the choices above. It provides a nice floating platform but the crabs still need something to climb up to get to it.

mix and match as you see fit.

Land Hermits require similar setups but keep in mind that they are not as nimble climbers as the fiddlers and need sturdy structures that are close together. Also they require at least a square foot of space to walk around on. Another little thing to keep in mind is to always have slightly bigger shells available to the hermit crab on the island that you make for them.

As far as numbers go I would say no more than 3 fiddlers or 2 hermits.

CAUTION: Crabs are great escape artists, they climb up everything from filter intakes to airline tubing, keep a tight lid on at all times.

Just combine this with the goby setup previously described and you will have a working goby-crab community.

Brill

I'm not sure about finding fiddlers over here, i'm sure we have native ones, but I'm not sure if they are commercially available. I may have to grab a collecting licence and a really good ID book. I'll go hunting, maybe they are hiding out in marine tanks.

The land hermits are a possibility, I know we can get those here, but is it OK for them to have such a humid environment? I could make a flyscreen fitted lid, but the loss from evaporation would be quite great.

The BBs ate a bit of mysis shrimp yesterday, and I have located a small powerhead that I might install for whoosing water during feeding time

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Land hermits thrive in high humidity, they can actually dry out if kept in a dry environment and not soaked every other day or so. No worries there.

Edit:

I suppose I should have looked for this earlier but it completely skipped my mind. I found a list of fiddlers native to australia at http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/backwell3/fiddlers.htm
never kept any of those species before but anything uca sp. should do, just research the size and if it stays 2 inches or under you should be good.

We have eating! I piled in the blackworms and every few days i'm moving something and a bunch whoosh up, shortly after, tweedledee and tweedledum come in to inspect and snack One still has a skin issue, and both are minus their caudal, but otherwise things are looking up

Found out that they hadn't eaten since they were imported so they must've been very very hungry!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Good to hear . I wouldn't worry to much about the skin condition, it is quite normal for brackish water fish to develope skin problems when kept in fresh water. Normally things clear up pretty quickly once brackish conditions are restored.

Good to hear . I wouldn't worry to much about the skin condition, it is quite normal for brackish water fish to develope skin problems when kept in fresh water. Normally things clear up pretty quickly once brackish conditions are restored.