Our Twin Spot Gobies
It's 9 months on and we still have our cute little twin spot gobies. I wouldn't say it's been easy at all keeping these little guys but it's defiantly been worth it.
As mentioned in a previous post somewhere I did purchase the pair of twin spots before I new of their terrible survival rate in the home aquarium. Given the words of warning to begin with they were kept separate from the main 4x2 and put in a tiny 30L. They stayed in here for at least a month or more (really can't remember). We started feeding live brine and crushing hikari sinking carnivore pellets, so when they sifted the sand they would get some food given the tiny size of the sand bed in the 30L. Eventually frozen food was substituted slowly for live and they began eating that and moving to the food a few centimetres. The water needed frequent changes with the over feeding and small size of the tank but we persisted until they put on some weight.
We finally bit the bullet and decided to join them in with the main tank, the 4x2. The other fish didn't cause any troubles just swimming past to check out the new arrivals. The entire time we've had twin spots they have never bullied or have been bullied by other fish, though they can get intimidated by larger fish even if they're just swimming past. Actually they do mouth the spotted mandarins, I guess it's a fish their size they can pick on, though the mandarin's don't pay any attention.
Over the next couple of weeks one of the pair in particular lost considerable weight it was caught and put in the sump for a few days before re-joining with it's mate up the top. If I could have caught both I would have, but catching one was struggle enough.
Both twin spots then maintained weight and have been left to their own since. That was about 6 months ago as we have had the 8x2 and the twin spots were one of the first fish introduced into that tank. They do a great job sifting our fine sand and still mange to dig holes under corals making them fall over much to Brendan's disgust. They now chase frozen food at a fast pace and leave the sand bed vertically about 15cm or so. Meaning dropping in frozen and letting it float around allows them to get something extra as well as the sand sifting. We also stopped putting in the crushed pellet without any weight changes as but larger fish caught on and were eating it all off the sand bed.
They are so different to anything else we have. Most of the time in the day they are on their own since they've become comfortable in the 8x2 but at night they pair back up sleeping together in a dug out hole.
As mentioned in a previous post somewhere I did purchase the pair of twin spots before I new of their terrible survival rate in the home aquarium. Given the words of warning to begin with they were kept separate from the main 4x2 and put in a tiny 30L. They stayed in here for at least a month or more (really can't remember). We started feeding live brine and crushing hikari sinking carnivore pellets, so when they sifted the sand they would get some food given the tiny size of the sand bed in the 30L. Eventually frozen food was substituted slowly for live and they began eating that and moving to the food a few centimetres. The water needed frequent changes with the over feeding and small size of the tank but we persisted until they put on some weight.
We finally bit the bullet and decided to join them in with the main tank, the 4x2. The other fish didn't cause any troubles just swimming past to check out the new arrivals. The entire time we've had twin spots they have never bullied or have been bullied by other fish, though they can get intimidated by larger fish even if they're just swimming past. Actually they do mouth the spotted mandarins, I guess it's a fish their size they can pick on, though the mandarin's don't pay any attention.
Over the next couple of weeks one of the pair in particular lost considerable weight it was caught and put in the sump for a few days before re-joining with it's mate up the top. If I could have caught both I would have, but catching one was struggle enough.
Both twin spots then maintained weight and have been left to their own since. That was about 6 months ago as we have had the 8x2 and the twin spots were one of the first fish introduced into that tank. They do a great job sifting our fine sand and still mange to dig holes under corals making them fall over much to Brendan's disgust. They now chase frozen food at a fast pace and leave the sand bed vertically about 15cm or so. Meaning dropping in frozen and letting it float around allows them to get something extra as well as the sand sifting. We also stopped putting in the crushed pellet without any weight changes as but larger fish caught on and were eating it all off the sand bed.
They are so different to anything else we have. Most of the time in the day they are on their own since they've become comfortable in the 8x2 but at night they pair back up sleeping together in a dug out hole.
