Blue neon cleaner goby

[TJ Merrells]

I recently purchased 2 captive bred blue neon cleaner gobies. Both were very healthy, active and eating for weeks after adding to my tank. Both fairly small... Less than 1 inch long.

I kept a close eye on them to ensure that none of the other fish were picking on them and have never observed any aggression or damage to fins etc.

But the 2 fish never paired up as hoped, they always stayed on opposite sides of my 55g.

About a month goes by then one morning the smaller of the two is missing. Have never found any signs of what happened to the fish.

The remaining fish is still alive, healthy and no signs of aggression towards it.
Starting to think the larger of the two cleaner gobies killed the smaller one at night.

Is it worth adding a second one again with hopes they pair up or will it just mysteriously disappear again?

Thx

 

[jsker]

You could always try. I am going to call in the #reefsquad for a better answer

 

[GoVols]

I recently purchased 2 captive bred blue neon cleaner gobies. Both were very healthy, active and eating for weeks after adding to my tank. Both fairly small... Less than 1 inch long.

I kept a close eye on them to ensure that none of the other fish were picking on them and have never observed any aggression or damage to fins etc.

But the 2 fish never paired up as hoped, they always stayed on opposite sides of my 55g.

About a month goes by then one morning the smaller of the two is missing. Have never found any signs of what happened to the fish.

The remaining fish is still alive, healthy and no signs of aggression towards it.
Starting to think the larger of the two cleaner gobies killed the smaller one at night.

Is it worth adding a second one again with hopes they pair up or will it just mysteriously disappear again?

Thx

I would not add another:

Over time they get territorial by nature within their own species.

You would need a buy a mated pair in the future to pull it off.

Sometimes, Divers Den WYSIWYG in Wisconsin posts mated pairs of Neon Gobies.

 

[TJ Merrells]

I would not add another:

Over time they get territorial by nature within their own species.

You would need a buy a mated pair in the future to pull it off.

Sometimes, Divers Den WYSIWYG in Wisconsin posts mated pairs of Neon Gobies.

Thx but I'm in Canada. And just assumed that when I ordered 2 of them (online order, overnight shipping) the lfs would have put 2 and 2 together and put in a male and female if not an already pair. But I guess that's why they shipped them in seperate bags and I should have been more specific. And I agree, unless I'm able to sex the one I currently have and add another one of the opposite sex, it also would most likely go missing again

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If you have a serpent star that might be a possible reason for your missing fish. My serpent ate some clown gobies and a couple of blue neon gobies before I figured out what was going on. Those small fish sleep in the holes in the rocks and they get picked off at night.

 

[TJ Merrells]

If you have a serpent star that might be a possible reason for your missing fish. My serpent ate some clown gobies and a couple of blue neon gobies before I figured out what was going on. Those small fish sleep in the holes in the rocks and they get picked off at night.

No I don't have any inverts like that in my tank