Peacock Gobies

[starsplitter7]

A friend gave me 4 juvenile 1" Peacock Gobies. Does anyone keep these? Any advice? I am mostly worried about feeding them. They appear to have small mouths. I read they need live foods, and I don't feed live. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Diana]

Well, you can try frozen foods, these are the closest to live that you can get without actually raising the food yourself. Smallest frozen foods are:
Daphnia
Baby Brine Shrimp
Glassworms (Mosquito Larvae)

[starsplitter7]

Thanks Diana, I have been feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp and daphnia, but I can't tell if they are eating them. I have lots of plants, but I think they are too big to munch on the critters in the plants. I am thinking about adding some baby gammarus shrimp to their tank. I have a good colony in my betta tank. The adults would be too big for the gobies to eat.

I can get live black worms, but I think they are too big.

[starsplitter7]

I had a piece of sponge in the betta tank, and I moved it to the Goby tank. The sponge is full of snails, shrimp and planaria, and as soon as it went in the tank, the Goby scooted over to investigate. They can't manage the adult shrimp, but they were chasing something. I also caught one munching on a frozen baby brine shrimp. I hope this works.

[Diana]

Sounds like you have some good options, keep trying things, and whatever works, go for it!

[starsplitter7]

Here's a quick update. The peacock gobies have grown 1/4" and are getting chubby and coloring up beautifully. They are pink, blue rims around the eyes, blue bars and yellow fins. Very, spunky little guys. They have been eating blood worms, gammarus shrimp and black worms. They are doing well and I am very happy.

[SgtMajWiggles]

I got a pair at a swap meet last weekend and the male is sitting on eggs right now... hopefully I'll get some fry but this was sort of an unplanned pregnancy, if you know what I mean! I did not expect them to settle in so quickly... they're still in the QT tank!

P.S. I never see mine eat. I don't watch that much though. they have daphnia in the tank and I give them a little bit of something different I think they might like every day... hopefully I will pin down some favorites soon...

[starsplitter7]

Congrats on your eggs. May have been unplanne don your part, but they sure had a plan. My guys are just at an inch, so not breeding age yet, but they are doing very well. They are coloring up, and I think I may have 3 females and a male. The pink is brighter and the blue stripes are coming in well. I hope they will breed when they are older. Mine are also in the grow out tank. I think I may set up a breeding tank for them and my red lizard catfish.

I have been feeding mine frozen bloodworms, live black worms and other stuff. I have live gammarus shrimp in the tank, and I think they are nibbling. I was very worried about them, because their mouth is so tiny, but now that they are bigger , I have seen them swimming with two black worms in their mouth.

[SgtMajWiggles]

It sounds like mine are a little bigger than yours, and yet I still feel like mine have the tiniest mouths ever! I've been feeding them grindal worms and baby daphnia, and frozen blood worms. I will have to try black worms with them... they just looked so big by comparison!

[starsplitter7]

Mine were so tiny when I first got them that I watched them compulsively for days. Now they look pretty chucky and their colors are good. They were moved to a new tank yesterday and they were really tough to catch.

[starsplitter7]

As soon as I got them moved to the new tank, they had to be moved back to their original tank. They immediately started stalking my BN fry. They were so intent on the fry they were easy to catch. The gobies are 1 inch and the fry are 1/2 inch, but my gobies actually thought that was very suitable for dinner. Augh! Reminded me of FogHornLeghorn and the chicken hawk. I won't allow the gobies to eat my BN fry. Silly fish. When the peacocks are bigger they will go to another tank with larger fish. They live with a bunch of guppies, and I didn't see a reduction in guppy fry so it didn't occur to me they would stalk BN fry.

[SgtMajWiggles]

Sorry about your BN fry... the peacocks do seem to like live food! My peacock eggs hatched well and the fry are all tucked away in a large mass of java moss, but also in the tank are week-old BN fry, daphnia and snails. They are so small and grow so slowly...

[starsplitter7]

I don't mind feeding my peacocks gammarus shrimp and balck worms, but it just never occured to me that BN fry would be appealing. They aren't small fry. I don't think they actually got any of the fry, because I evicted them immediately.

It is great your eggs hatched and the fry are hanging out in the java moss. What are you feeding them? Insuforia in the java moss, I imagine, daphnia, . . . how large are the fry? I think java moss it the wonder plant. Hard to kill and the fish like it.

[SgtMajWiggles]

The fry are (still) infintesimal... clear, skinny, 3mm long at best. My girlfriend wondered if the daphnia could eat them.

[starsplitter7]

Do you have the big daphnia? I know there are two types. One that is about the size of hatched brine shrimp and one about the size of adult gammarus shrimp. I would think your baby fish would swim away. Are they with the parents? Do the parents eat them? I think that is so amazing you were able to hatch fry. I hope moine will breed too. I think People would be interested in them. Mine are about 1.25 inches now and their colors are great.