New to AA and I have a new bumblebee gory.

[india]

i have a 5g that im trying to cycle right now. its been about 20 days now. I had 3 cherry barbs cycling it when i decided to buy 2 bumble bee gorys after week 2 of the cycling. the guy at the fish store told me they were community fish and would work perfect. after 24 hours one of the cherry barbs died and a bumble bee. so i returned to both stores(pet smart for the barb and a lfs for the bumble bee). petsmart gave me a refund for the dead fish and the other store gave me crap about the fish being dead me me not bringing in a water sample. they told me that just this once they could refund me, but they ended up giving me another bumble bee(the last one). so all of my water readings had been normal when i noticed the levels had peeked in everything. So i took the new bumble bee home and did a 40% water change. next day he was dead. at this point i gave up on working with the store. i decided to just let them keep the $2.95 i paid and for me to not shop there anymore for fish. this was my first week shopping there and i had spent about $100 buying plants and goodies. Then someone told me the bumble bee was brackish. DOH! so i just took out the cherry barbs and added them to a 20gal which had 4 ADFs. i know nothing about the bumble bee except hes does have a high bio load(i believe). I did another 40% water change, added a bunch of plants and used some Amquel Plus.

do i need to turn this 5gal into a brackish tank? where can i find more information on brackish water/fishes. how much of a bio-load does this guy have. what should i feed him?

i also was told that he could live in fresh water but wouldn't last as long. is this true? the tank was being cycled for 2 dwarf puffers that i got about a month ago. I dont think 2 baby dwarf puffers could last in a 5gal tank with the bee? could he? also how do i know which dwarf puffers are brackish and which ones are freshwater?

thanks guys.
-india

 

[Blucat]

8) Welcome to AA 8)

I think your fish keep dying because the tank hasn't cycled yet and there is prob high ammonia and nitrate present.

 

[india]

8) Welcome to AA 8)

I think your fish keep dying because the tank hasn't cycled yet and there is prob high ammonia and nitrate present.

thanks for welcoming me, but do u know if the fish is brackish?

-india

 

[Blucat]

Bumblebee goBy
It is brackish

 

[Blucat]

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile59.html - Bumblebee Goby

Feeding your gobies will be the most difficult part of maintaining them. They will eat only live food such as Brine shrimp, Daphnia, Cyclops and Mosquito larvae. Some have had success in getting the fish to eat frozen, however they seem not to recognize it as food unless it is moving. Although they can be kept in a community setting with other salt tolerant species ( Mollies or Platies ) they will remain shy and not flourish. They will be happiest in a species only tank. Keep a fairly large number, ten or more, in the tank and provide plenty of hiding places such as stones tubes and caves. Plants will be limited to salt tolerant varieties and probably the best choice will be the die hard Java fern, plastic may be a better choice. The water should have a small amount of marine mix to increase the salinity. One to two teaspoons per two gallons should be OK. Although you do not want heavy circulation, aeration and filtration should be efficient.

 

[Felf]

it's brackish. i just got some dwarf puffers and from what i read you can get away with putting 2 in a 5gal but the general rule is 3 gallons of water per puffer. also the tank usually has to be a heavily planted species only tank since they can nip much larger fish to the point of killing them. i think it'd be ok to put the goby with the puffers in the 5 as long as it's heavily planted and you have a really good filter. dwarf puffers are freshwater fish but they will tolerate some salt. you could slowly aclimate them to brackish but i'm not familiar on how to go about doing that. before you try anything else make sure your tank is fully cycled; that's a good start. HTH

 

[india]

what im going to do is just let the tank finish its cycle and im going to add some salt to it... im also going to add more plants to the tank. right now i have about 45% of the tank filled with live plants. after the tank is cycled im going to try adding another one to the tank.

my dwarf puffers can just stay in their 10gal that is divided in half with a mollie and 2 guppies on the otherside that i have them in right now. im also going to fill that tank with live plants and get another cave.

thanks for all the info guys! u rocks!

-india

 

[Blucat]

Sounds like a pretty good choice!
Hope to her the updates and some pics would be interesting, the bumblebee goby sounds like a very interesting fish.

 

[Guest]

What kind of plants are you planting? adding too much salt might be harmful to your plants and not adding enough salt could be harmful to your puffers. Hopefully you can hit a happy medium
HTH
-Stewie

 

[india]

What kind of plants are you planting? adding too much salt might be harmful to your plants and not adding enough salt could be harmful to your puffers. Hopefully you can hit a happy medium
HTH
-Stewie

im not sure yet. :?

-india

 

[CiRXSi]

I've got bumblebees, and they're not in a brackish tank. Yes, I do have some salt in there for them, but not enough to consider it brackish. Just the recommended dosage on the container. They've been doing well for the last six months. Just thought I'd share. Every one has fish that are exceptions. Try your idea of adding just a little salt first without making a full conversion to brackish. It works for me.

 

[Menagerie]

For a brackish water tank you will need to add marine grade salt and get a hydrometer. I keep a 29 gal brackish with 6-10 bb gobies and Celebes rainbows. They all eat frozen foods just fine. The salinity is around 0.010-1.015. They are great little fish that do best in brashish water. Do lots of searches for brackish setups on the web and look over many profiles of the bb goby to give you different perspectives.

 

[india]

For a brackish water tank you will need to add marine grade salt and get a hydrometer. I keep a 29 gal brackish with 6-10 bb gobies and Celebes rainbows. They all eat frozen foods just fine. The salinity is around 0.010-1.015. They are great little fish that do best in brashish water. Do lots of searches for brackish setups on the web and look over many profiles of the bb goby to give you different perspectives.

where can i get a hydrometer and do i really need one for a 5g tank? also whats the bio load on the bb's? can i have 2 in 5g with no prob? also if i had a 10g what other fishes would go good with them(brackish)?

thanks for the help guys!
-india!