neon goby pair
 

Right now i have one neon goby but i was thinking that seeing the interaction of a pair would be cool (like with clowns) so i thought i would go pick up two more neons (that would give me a fairly good chance of having a male and female right?)

so my question is that if two of them pair up, is the interaction interesting or am i wasting my time? also what do i do with the loner that doesn't pair up? will it get beat up on or should i remove it?

Hey Justin, I've never kept them before, but I found this on the web for you.

Hope it helps:

Social Behaviors:
In their natural environment Neon Gobies are seen singly, in pairs, and also in groups of 30 or more. A good community fish, the Neon Gobies are generally not aggressive except to members of their own species, unless they are a mated pair.

They will set up and defend territories if there is more than one.
They will also set up "cleaning stations". Other fish will indicate their desire to be cleaned by tilting and spreading their fins, and sometimes by changing color.

They can be kept with a variety of small and medium sized fish as well as corals and invertebrates. Be cautious with some larger fish and predatory type fish.

From my experience two doesn't work. I had two neons in a 90 gallon, one constantly chased the other into the overflow and eventually he disappeared. Then I tried a sharknose goby in with the neon. The sharknose harassed the crap out of the neon and eventually the neon made it into the sump where I rescued him and put him in a 5 gallon nano tank. SamW had an interesting video of aggression between neon gobies that was rather unsettling to watch, one got the entire head of the other in its mouth.

So no I wouldn't suggest more than one especially in a smaller tank.

whoa seriously? huh, okay scratch that idea then, ill stick with one lol.

btw christy do you have that vid by any chance? i found the thread that he posted it in but it doesn't work... "URL not found" or something.

No I don't have it but I wish I'd saved it. Sam never seems to be around here anymore, he probably has it saved somewhere.

weird - I've seen SWARMS of them in little tanks and they've been nothing but cute with each other, or they'll just ignore each other!

I guess this is a YMMV sort of situation, just like angels and SPS... I know I'm going to get one for my nano and I was going to do 2 in my 45g reef.

Wonder what would happen if you took 2 from the same tank and added them at the same time there'd be as much an issue? I know J&L has a ton in the same tank right now, might help remove aggression?

I tried taking two out of the same tank from J&L and put them in a 75.....it was full on war from the moment they were put in the tank. Thought I would wait a couple of days and they would each find a corner...but no. After about 3 days one was just gone not to be seen again. I think when you see them in large groups they don't have time to become aggressive.

I also had the same experiance with yellow clown gobbies at the same time with near the same result except I was able to rescue one and put it in another tank. It was amazing how big their little mouths got.

Scott

I think when you have "a ton" in a tank theres so much crowding, no single individual is picked on. But when theres only another individual in a sea of open space they sort of fixate on it and the harassment begins.

Kinda like 2 people and the last air conditioner on a hot day in Home Depot :razz:

Refer to what I posted.

According to the mini article, the gobies are seen singly, in pairs (I'm assuming mated pair, thus no aggression), and a super large group which is similar to what you're seeing at JL.

It had all the answers. My best guess is that some fish naturally pair up easier than others ie, clownfish/bangaii cardinals.

skylord's experiences go completely the opposite to that, however. He had 2, in a 75.

I think in general they might be fine, but not always.

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.