Bumble bee goby in fresh water?

[Krisvalkyrie]

So, someone gave me several pea puffers and a bumblebee goby. From what I have heard they prefer brackish water, but as the person who gave it to me said, it is thriving and active in fresh.

Can they live ok in fresh water? My daughter adores them and I was thinking of getting a few more.

[Austy16414]

It will most likely tolerate fresh water, but from my experience most brackish fish live much shorter lives in fresh water. Also, you might never see the full potential of the fish

[troy tucker]

There are fresh water gobys but bumble bee gobys are brackish.

[mnemenoi]

Bumblebee gobies are a bit complicated. Species ID is very important. There are 9+ species that all look similar. Only a few are truly freshwater, the rest are varying degrees of brackish (usually low end, but some are high end and can go fully marine). Here is a list of some of the species on Seriously Fish that might help in identification and determination of its specific demands.

[AquaticAddict]

I agree with Austy I've never had good luck with brackish fish and most sold at these chains are sold as FW...I've bought 2 in the last year sold as FW and both are gone and they were pretty expensive like $13ea...but beautiful fish, couldnt resist

[AquaticAddict]

Didn't mention though that the ones I bought recently were not bumblebee gobies and I did keep 2 bumble bees in my planted community for about 2 years before the came up missing...those little guys were awesome

[Krisvalkyrie]

From the coloration I think I have a b. Doriae. Seems really happy in my driftwood heavy slow flow tank. Bright colors, social with the other fish, loves bloodworm.

[mnemenoi]

I can honestly say that many fish that are in the hobby that are 'brackish' tend to do very well in the liquid rock we Houstonians call water. I've seen scats, monos, and archers (not clouded) used in rift lake tanks and appear fit and healthy. My only guess is the TDS and minerals we have in our water combine to buffer the Ph up enough to ease the issue. I will always recommend using marine salt, but have to honestly say that the fish I have observed appear to be doing fine and certainly not suffering the ill effects often associated with brackish fish kept in FW for too long. This could be another area of the hobby that is applicable outside our abnormal water parameters and an issue that little knowledge exists for our specific parameters and maintaining brackish fish in a long term set up. Keep us posted should anything happen to it and let us know how it all works out. Does anyone else keep a brackish fish in Houston tap? What has been your experience?

[Krisvalkyrie]

This isn't Houston tap but chappell hill municipal well water.

[mnemenoi]

What are your parameters? Here in Spring we get 8.2-8.4 Ph, 300-450 TDS

[AquaticAddict]

I found this pic while going through old ones todaybb goby.jpg

[Krisvalkyrie]

That pretty much looks like what I have.

[black_knight]

image.jpg These are the most common ones encountered in the hobby. All of which tend to occur in brackish conditions. We tend to see B. doriae ( more brightly colored). It is mainly brackish but can be found in full freshwater habitats in Indonesia ( pH tends to be high- much like our liquid rock here). There is another one that is more rarely seen B. xanthomelas - it lives I leaf litter pools and peat swamps, and not usually seen in brackish conditions. For the most part all of the fish we tend to see in the hobby will do better in hard alkaline water with salt, except for the later. The Wet Spot- a retailer in Oregon, will occasionally have some of the rarer ones. They have the personality of chihuahuas. You'll want to keep them in slightly larger quarters than you would fish their size (about 1 inch) because of aggression, sensitivity to ammonia (esp higher pH), and feeding ( if your not feeding live brine they will only accept frozen foods which really foul the water quickly).

[black_knight]

I'm pretty sure, fish in the pic is B. doriae. The stripes are unbroken and the head is almost black.

[morpheus]

lot of good information through the thread....and maybe i am over complicating...but as far as i know pea puffers are 100% FW

looks like you keep one or the other. convert to brackish and keep the gobys, or keep the puffers and stay fresh?