Can different nano gobies be housed together?

[SauceyReef]

I have two masked gobies in a 13.5 fluval evo. They are very nice fish and apparently school in larger numbers. I am wondering if other species of nano gobies can be added together with no conflict. I would assume yes seeing how most of these smaller nano gobies are so docile/peaceful, but want to hear any experience from others.

List:

Red Striper (Trimma Cana)
Masked Goby (Coryphopterus personatus)
Neon Goby Fish (Elacatinus oceanops)
Clown Goby (Gobiodon)
White Spotted Goby (Trimma cf. caesiura)
Starry Goby (Asterropteryx semipunctatus)

 

[LandLockedJones]

I have two masked gobies in a 13.5 fluval evo. They are very nice fish and apparently school in larger numbers. I am wondering if other species of nano gobies can be added together with no conflict. I would assume yes seeing how most of these smaller nano gobies are so docile/peaceful, but want to hear any experience from others.

List:

Red Striper (Trimma Cana)
Masked Goby (Coryphopterus personatus)
Neon Goby Fish (Elacatinus oceanops)
Clown Goby (Gobiodon)
White Spotted Goby (Trimma cf. caesiura)
Starry Goby (Asterropteryx semipunctatus)

Mind you I do not have any gobies, and claim no expertise. But, I’ve done a bit of research on the topic in the past. As I love the green clown and the court jester gobies and wanted to know if they could coexist in a small tank.

From what I remember reading, most gobies do not like fish of the same shape, nor of similar coloration getting too close. Though this might only apply to the flashier colored ones.

That being said, your aqua scape is something to consider. Aggression seems manageable to a degree as long as everybody has a place to escape to.

Also, consider where everybody will want to be. For instance, sand sifters likely will not be bothered by clown gobies hanging out up on the rocks. But a green clown and a citron may fight over territory. Or not.

This is just what I recall from previous digging. Unfortunately, I have yet to get any gobies. I fear my clownfish might beat them up. So I am waiting for them to FB C a . move to a larger tank.

I again, am no expert on the topic to be sure. I am curious to see what others have to say though.

Just thought I’d add my two cents before sailing away.

LandLockedJones~

 

[DaJMasta]

As basically said above, stay away from similar body shape/diet/behavior for ones that need or are specifics, but generally they should be pretty compatible.

So something like a hector's goby would get along with masked gobies (I've got some together with no issues), but a hector's and a rainford's goby would probably fight. A clown goby would likely be fine with another masked goby, but another perching goby or a different clown goby could be trouble together. I wouldn't put a firefish in that size tank, but I'd expect one to be just fine with any of the aforementioned gobies.

Of the ones you've mentioned, I'd be a little hesitant combining a red striper, a white spot goby, and a starry goby in some combination, and only slightly hesitant with a clown goby as a potential other tankmate, but I'd expect the masked goby and neon (or sharknose) gobies likely to be fine with the rest, especially given that the neons are cleaners (different primary behavior).

 

[damsels are not mean]

depends a lot on how much habitat there is. In a tank with lots of corals and rock for them to establish territories I suspect no problem. A "minimalist" scape with little coral cover is not going to house many.

 

[SauceyReef]

As basically said above, stay away from similar body shape/diet/behavior for ones that need or are specifics, but generally they should be pretty compatible.

So something like a hector's goby would get along with masked gobies (I've got some together with no issues), but a hector's and a rainford's goby would probably fight. A clown goby would likely be fine with another masked goby, but another perching goby or a different clown goby could be trouble together. I wouldn't put a firefish in that size tank, but I'd expect one to be just fine with any of the aforementioned gobies.

Of the ones you've mentioned, I'd be a little hesitant combining a red striper, a white spot goby, and a starry goby in some combination, and only slightly hesitant with a clown goby as a potential other tankmate, but I'd expect the masked goby and neon (or sharknose) gobies likely to be fine with the rest, especially given that the neons are cleaners (different primary behavior).

I think if I try to add any with the masked gobies it would be a neon first.

 

[DaJMasta]

That is one nice thing about masked gobies - since they're always swimming and don't sleep, they won't be competing for burrows. Most of the gobies will want to stay in a burrow (usually preferring in the sand vs. in the rocks) to sleep, so getting ones that won't compete for space (or just making sure there are plenty) should help as well.

 

[areefer01]

For what it is worth I have a starry goby, Biota, and it is an amazing fish. However, good luck seeing it . Little lads or lasses find an area with a few nooks and crannies and if I'm lucky I see it once a week. Usually around feeding time and even then if I blink I'll miss it. Super fast fish but oh so amazing looking. Then again I have a 210 gallon display with a lot of rock so easy to loose it.

I think in nano displays with a proper setup it would be awesome sauce. Speaking of maybe shoot Biota an email and get their take. They have a few different gobies and I think some can be mixed. Again assuming you have enough rock with nooks and crannies to call home.

If that criteria is met then I think it would be ok but I'd reach out to them to see what they think. I love the Starry.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Mostly all gobies and blennys are compatible. U can have a tank full of 40 of these small fish.
D

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Mostly all gobies and blennys are compatible. U can have a tank full of 40 of these small fish.
D

What are you basing this statement on?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

To a point. To an extent.
You can mix em but the colors and body's will need to differ or the sex's.

Nothing stopping someone from doing a tank with 30 or 40 neon gobys or 20 sexy shrimp and a bunch of mini maxi nems.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

And adding additional gobys and blennys.
D

 

[i cant think]

As I’ve already put a post in the other thread I won’t say much else other than you need to be VERY cautious with what inverts/coral goes into the tank with the gobies as not only are they small but also slow moving depending on species.

What are you basing this statement on?

Actually, that statement is VERY true. I’m basing the truth on this from actually having experience with living gobies of similar appearance and body shape and even behaviour quite successfully in a RS max nano.
I even have gobies with very similar diets in there so… it’s VERY possible to mix many if not all gobies.

Anyone curious I will have a thread in the future once I get my plan of my tank together and explain a lot of why it works.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

my yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp take up the bottom left half of my 32 gallon, and I mean the entire left half of the tank, their tunnel runs under 6 rocks. Any fish that comes near the left side bottom gets the open mouth threat.

Seeing as how one tiny goby takes up half a 32 gallon, its hard for me to think of several gobies living comfortably in a 13 gallon. They wouldn't act naturally.

 

[i cant think]

Here’s just 2 of my 6 gobies in my RS max nano, for an example.

 

[Phuture]

I have two masked gobies in a 13.5 fluval evo. They are very nice fish and apparently school in larger numbers. I am wondering if other species of nano gobies can be added together with no conflict. I would assume yes seeing how most of these smaller nano gobies are so docile/peaceful, but want to hear any experience from others.

List:

Red Striper (Trimma Cana)
Masked Goby (Coryphopterus personatus)
Neon Goby Fish (Elacatinus oceanops)
Clown Goby (Gobiodon)
White Spotted Goby (Trimma cf. caesiura)
Starry Goby (Asterropteryx semipunctatus)

Okay so i originally had one purple firefish goby then i got a watchman goby, 2 weeks after that got 4 basic firefish gobys and finally a mandarin goby. I have zero goby aggression they really do not like other fish near there caves though especially the watchman. Mandarin is chill with everybody. I hope that give you an idea. Not a large tank either

 

[SauceyReef]

First off let me explain my tank a bit. It is a 13.5 fluval evo. A very small tank. Also, I have not listed any burrowing gobies. You all are brining up yasha gobies, YWG, and other burrowing gobies that I did not include in the list and have tons experience with. @monkeyCmonkeyDo a post like that should get you banned as it is just disgustingly wrong information. I would appreciate if you stayed off this forum.





Would you mind listing off what 6 gobies you have and your gallon size? Curious how long have you had everything? No aggression?

Here’s just 2 of my 6 gobies in my RS max nano, for an example.

 

[i cant think]

First off let me explain my tank a bit. It is a 13.5 fluval evo. A very small tank. Also, I have not listed any burrowing gobies. You all are brining up yasha gobies, YWG, and other burrowing gobies that I did not include in the list and have tons experience with. @monkeyCmonkeyDo a post like that should get you banned as it is just disgustingly wrong information. I would appreciate if you stayed off this forum.





Would you mind listing off what 6 gobies you have and your gallon size? Curious how long have you had everything? No aggression?

I’d happily do that and actually out of my 6 only one is a Known “Burrowing” species. If you give me a couple minutes I can name them all and give you extra information beneath each of their names

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I'm sorry you feel that way

 

[SauceyReef]

I’d happily do that and actually out of my 6 only one is a Known “Burrowing” species. If you give me a couple minutes I can name them all and give you extra information beneath each of their names

Thank you!

 

[i cant think]

Sorry, I left it a while accidentally (I got stuck in the LFS looking at gorgonians).
Anyway, here you go.

Background information:
My tank was set up on March 11th 2021, it was an upgrade to my previous nano which was a FW tank converted to SW. It has 20 gallons of water in the whole tank however the back of it removes about 5 gallons so the display is about 15 gallons. There’s about 4 pieces of rock on the main structure of rockwork (Only 1 bit is manmade, the rest was all bought as live and was well aged).

Gobies:
The gobies I currently have involve 5 different species and actually 5 different genera. The only gobies I lost was a pair of Panda Gobies, Paragobiodon lacunicolus. I lost them due to not having the right food in enough amounts in the tank however do hope to attempt another paragobiodon species later on in my max nano’s life.

• Stonogobiops yasha (Yasha Shrimp Goby)
• Gobiodon acicularis (Black Clown Goby)​
• Koumansetta hectori (Hectors Goby)
• Discordipinna griessingeri (Flaming Prawn Goby)
• Trimma tevegae pair (Sold as Unidentified Nano Gobies)

First let’s go into the Yasha Goby, S. yasha.
I have had this fish since March 16th 2020 (I’m assuming it was before that however the very first record I can find of him is from a message from 16th March 20), so he’s a good 2 years and almost 3 months old at this point which is shocking as their life span is 2 years, very few reaching 3 years. As for aggression it’s VERY little, when I got my third goby there was a bit of aggression at first but it looked more like he thought it was food haha. This is my only known “Burrowing” goby, the rest of them are much more out and about fish. Although this guy will sit quite happily on the sand and remain on the look out and be in sight. He did lose his high fin some how but when he had it it was beautiful and extremely long.

Now let’s do the Black Clown Goby, Gobiodon acicularis.
This one I do have a photo of when I got him so I’ll attach both a photo from today and back then. I got my Black Clown Goby back on October 31st 2021, so around 9 months ago. As for aggression, absolutely none! Even when my 5th and 6th gobies went in there was still no aggression. This guy perches on the glass a lot more than I expected. He does go in the rockwork a lot more now though. He has a ton of personality and will sit on the glass and watch me if he wants to. He’s one of the first gobies to greet me in the morning, yes you heard me they actually greet me!
The first photo is from October 31st as yes I had to get a video and rewatch it several times to see him haha.

Now let’s do the Hectors Goby, Koumansetta hectori.
This goby I got back on January 16th 2022 and I do have a photo from when I got it so I’ll do the same as I did above. Also if you can see a pattern then yes I’m doing it in order of when I got each goby. I’ve had this goby around 6 months now and he does eat frozen which for him to be a wild caught specimen and eat frozen is already a big accomplishment. Aggression wise he has also been very model and had absolutely no aggression towards anyone in the tank. He was shown aggression from the yasha but that was simply just a swim from the cave and show territory. The yasha most likely wasn’t sure about sharing a cave with anyone else as he used to share his cave with an old Yellow Head Jawfish. This guy will hover quite merrily over the sand, my mushrooms probably don’t like it as if he spits sand on anything it’s usually them as he rarely goes up to the top of the rocks with sand. He too will greet me for a short time then go back to building his burrow and shifting sand out of his way. Same as before, top is from when I got him and bottom is today.

Now let’s do my 4th goby, The Flaming Prawn Goby - Discordipinna griessingeri.
This goby I got on February 27th 2022, so I’ve had this guy for around 4 months this is another that isn’t known for eating frozen however mine will if it’s infront of him. As for aggression there’s absolutely none, even sometimes he shares a burrow with the Yasha. These guys are extremely interesting and I have a whole article on both species in the genus Discordipinna. This guy will also greet me if I walk by, these are a less researched species but man they’re so interesting!
Again, top is from when I got him and bottom is the most recent photo I have of him.

And finally, my 5th and 6th gobies, the Tevegae Pygmy Gobies, Trimma tevegae.
I got these guys on May 21st so haven’t had them too long however they’re extremely peaceful and ignore everyone in the tank. These guys also took to frozen quite fast after establishing to the tank. These also have an interesting behaviour, very unlike the other gobies I have. Also, I don’t have a photo of them from today as lights are off so I’ll add my most recent one.

Hope this helps you