I think I have a holding goby. I looked in the tank this afternoon, and her throat seems to be distended. She looks a little different than a holding tropheus, but I'm pretty sure she's holding. How long will she hold for before passing the eggs to the father? How long does the father hold before spitting out the fry? I can't do it now, but in the future, if I were to set up a tank for fry, would a 10 gallon do?

The female holds for about 2 weeks then the male little less. A 10 gallon would be great for fry.

Here's a picture of the holding goby.




Here's a picture of the tank. Anyone know how to catch a goby without removing a ton of rocks? I probably will let dad spit in the tank this time around, but I'd sure like to have some goby fry in the future.

She looks like she is holding to me too. lol you can for get about catching a gobie without removing the rocks...won't happen and you will probably have to remove a lot of water too!

Yeah, I'm sure you're right, Debbie. I don't relish the thought of taking out rocks though. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the fathers will find a rock up high near the surface of the water, to spit the fry onto. Do you think if I gave him a ledge just a couple inches under the water, that he'd use it, or that it would keep the fry safe long enough for me to put a big 12 inch net underneath them and scoop them out?

Oh how very exciting, they're so cute!!! I have some Tang Irsacae and 9 months later and still no spawns...they're crazy buggers though and ya gotta love em!

I sure have to agree with Debbie here, no way to get them out without removing the rocks. I have given up on that a while back. dumb dumb

That was kind of one of those "afterthought" things with me when I dropped those gobies in with my Tropheus...I thought, okay, I finally found something I can keep with the Nangus, but I'll never be able to salvage any of the fry without disturbing the Nangus too much!

And, mine were like Steph's...They never spawned, and I am down to one now. I sold one, and one got killed by the remaining jerk goby that I have...

They are very interesting little fish. My solo goby is in a tank with my meanest mbuna and still gives them a run for their money...He's just awful!

I would really have liked to experience the biparental mouthbrooding, though!

Kim

Hi Kim. Guess I'm pretty lucky with the gobies. I started with 6 when I first got them. The two biggest ones hid almost all the time, and died within a couple of weeks. The smaller gobies seemed to adjust better to the boisterous tropheus colony for some reason. These are wildcaughts, so maybe the big gobies were too old for all the activity, who knows?

The remaining four seem to be doing well. There seems to be enough rock cover at this point, that no one is getting harassed too much. I have two that actually like each other, and will more or less swim together. The other two get chased, but then they just duck into the rocks, which seems to be good enough for the chasers so far. The chasers have not gotten into the "I'm on a mission to kill you" yet. Hopefully with six feet of tank and two big rockpiles, this will be enough room for the four. I don't know if I have two pairs out of the group, or just the one pair.

You can try leaving them in, not sure how the fry will do, and you will have to remove the rocks to scoop up the fry anyway s they will hide as soon as you get ner the tank with a net...I think that is instinctul.