Were they a mated pair or just two fish he put in at the same time? That's what I'm wondering:

Most people seem to agree that just throwing two in the same tank will provoke a war between the two. However, the site says "in their natural environment, they can be seen singly, in pairs, and in large 30+ groups" which brings me to believe that the said pairs naturally came together as a mated pair, thus no fights whereas two random neon gobies will destroy each other.

You're right though. It could depend entirely on the fish but no one's had a good experience with introducing two at the same time yet :(.

@justinl, I googled more information about the pairing of neon gobies:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...3/breeder2.htm

If you look on Reefkeeping.com as well, some reefers briefly talk about neon goby pairs in their TOTM article. I would say definitely try for a neon goby pair, as I've yet to experience a boring pair of organisms.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...totm/index.php

If a pair does form, remove the loner as the pair will start to defend their marked territory.

thank you all for the great info. I think i will attempt to form a pair by buying three more neons (total of four in the tank) allow a pair to form and then remove the extra fish. this is ideally of course... hopefully none die. or if they are getting eaten i hope i have a camera nearby at least!

Wow, just found this thread. Yeah, I once bought 2 and had them delivered from J&L (way back when they did free local deliveries) to my work place. Within a short time, one had ripped the other one up so badly (while they were in the same bag), it died by the time I got home.

I probably still have that video of the gobies (other ones that I bought) fighting.