Yellow Watchman Goby and Firefish Paired?

[Christopharo]

I'm very new to the hobby but I have a suspicion, and I know it's very unlikely, but I believe my Yellow Watchman and my Firefish have paired almost like how Gobies and Pistol shrimp usually do. My Watchman will come out into the open door or my Fire will and when startled will retreat to a spot they have chosen behind and under a rock and almost watch each others "backs" and lay next to each other. I'm very confused and my suspicion peaked even more when this just happened a few moments before this post and the Firefish latched it's mouth to the Watchman, who didn't seem to mind that, when it retreated to there hiding spot then resumed there body to body position. Anybody have any idea what is going on? Thank you for your time.

 

[Christopharo]

Door = or*

 

[Christopharo]

I don't know if anyone can see but the Watchman is behind the Firefish.

 

[Tori]

That surprising. My yellow watchman goby doesn't seem to like anyone and chases all the other fish away from his cave. I guesd he's mostly just trying to protect his shrimp though

 

[saltyphish]

Odd but pausible i would say as long as you dont see aggressive behavior between the 2 then nice. It happens some fish form abnormal relationships with other tank inhabitants we would not expect. Thought my clown and six line were going to pair up the way they were behaving at one time. Turns out the clown was just trying to make her clown partner jealous. Worked for her.

 

[Eva Rose]

Watch for aggression as advised previously. But unusual pairs can form! See my avatar. When my YWG lost her mate she started sharing cave with my jawfish.
If it is a symbiotic relationship you will see them share duties of 'guarding' their cave etc. These 2 get tail to tail and watch their cave.

If it's aggression, one of the fish will block the other in the cave, back the other deeper into the cave etc. Just keep observing & keep us updated. It is cool to see unusual bonding in tanks but it does happen.

 

[eatbreakfast]

They are not forming a bonded pr.

Firefish and dartfish utilize 'boltholes'. Places of cover they can dart to that serve as shelter. However, they don't build or maintain their own bolthole.

Watchman gobies are quite tolerant of firefish and dartfish. This is just a case of fish low on the food chain working together.

 

[Christopharo]

Well thank you for all the feedback and valuable information but I'm sorry to say I just found out not 5 minutes ago that my Watchman was missing and found out he had jumped and died.

 

[Christopharo]

I'm even more curious now to wether he jumped by accident or jumped because of the odd "relationship" or was it between the 2

 

[TreyC2010]

Sorry to hear that, bud.

 

[Tori]

Sorry for your loss man.

 

[van7271]

Bought two fire gobies today and they immediately started sharing housing with my yellow watchman and pistol shrimp. Don’t know how long it will last but wow.

 

[reeferdugong]

Bought two fire gobies today and they immediately started sharing housing with my yellow watchman and pistol shrimp. Don’t know how long it will last but wow.

im gonna add my firefish goby today to the main tank where i already have a YWG+pistol pair. im crossing my fingers that it’ll work out like yours did

 

[Randomblackreefer]

I'm very new to the hobby but I have a suspicion, and I know it's very unlikely, but I believe my Yellow Watchman and my Firefish have paired almost like how Gobies and Pistol shrimp usually do. My Watchman will come out into the open door or my Fire will and when startled will retreat to a spot they have chosen behind and under a rock and almost watch each others "backs" and lay next to each other. I'm very confused and my suspicion peaked even more when this just happened a few moments before this post and the Firefish latched it's mouth to the Watchman, who didn't seem to mind that, when it retreated to there hiding spot then resumed there body to body position. Anybody have any idea what is going on? Thank you for your time.

I know this is old but mines is literally doing the same thing. It’s like the watchmen guards the door or something

 

[PR_nano]

Mine share a cave for a little while but watchman won and Firefish had to find new home.
Firefish was first inhabitant and bully at first but once the YWG mature he took over the bully role.

 

[reeferdugong]

my YWG has gotten quite big now, he's not afraid of any fish anymore. In fact, he's the boss in my tank.

 

[Chikok]

At first, both my fire fish and ywg live in separate caves for about 2 months. One day, my ywg suddenly decided to squeeze into the fire fish cave. Days later, fire fish squeezed into ywg's. Hopefully, all ends well