Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

My small yellow watchman goby died yesterday; 2nd one in a span of a few weeks. What's odd is that my other fish, including the yellow tang, and 2 other gobies, are doing great. Not sure if it's b/c the yellows that I've gotten were really tiny and more sensitive to their environment or what. I'm gonna hold off on trying to keep one of these yellow ones unless they're a rather large size. There's not many more fish I have on my wish list anyway.

Its hard to tell just from the names you gave which exact gobies you have but there is a possibility that the other 2 gobies did not like the addition of a yellow watchman goby.

I have a med. size orange spotted goby that came with the tank, and a few weeks ago I picked up a huge (5" or so) blue spotted goby. Both of those are fine. The blue spotted big guy has found him a little cave in which he stays in. You can see his head if you look in the cave, and he'll occasionally poke it out to see what you're doing or to eat. The orange spotted guy stays on the other side of the tank and likes to sit out in the open sand and stare at you. I figured one would pair up with 1 of the 2 pistol shrimp I have, but I haven't seen that happen.

Here are two different orange spotted gobies, which one do you have?

Diamond Watchman Goby (Valenciennea puellaris) http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... pcatid=220

Orange Spotted Goby (Amblyeleotris guttata) http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... pcatid=195

Here are some blue spotted gobies:

Bluespotted Watchman Goby (Cryptocentrus pavoninoides) http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... pcatid=218


Sleeper Blue Dot Goby (Valenciennea sexguttata) http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... pcatid=211


Not all gobies pair up with shrimp.

I definitely have the Orange Spotted Goby (2nd one), and the Blue Spotted Goby (1st one--gray with blue spots).

those should both pair up with a shrimp. Now I don't know which shrimp those gobies perfer. I like the randalls shrimp because they stay smaller and most of the smaller gobies tend to pair with them. Those tiger pistol shrimp get bigger. You also mentioned that you got a bullseye pistol. I'm not sure which gobies they tend to pair up with. I think they are a real cool looking pistol shrimp but they just might not pair up with the gobies that you have in your tank.

You may want to pass on another shrimp goby. You already have two that you said were on the larger side. They may not want another goby in the tank and may have been going after them.

those should both pair up with a shrimp. Now I don't know which shrimp those gobies perfer. I like the randalls shrimp because they stay smaller and most of the smaller gobies tend to pair with them. Those tiger pistol shrimp get bigger. You also mentioned that you got a bullseye pistol. I'm not sure which gobies they tend to pair up with. I think they are a real cool looking pistol shrimp but they just might not pair up with the gobies that you have in your tank.

You may want to pass on another shrimp goby. You already have two that you said were on the larger side. They may not want another goby in the tank and may have been going after them.

Looks like nitrates aren't quite as horrible as I thought. I had Andy come over and bring his different test kits. (I'm not too well at reading those color charts). His test showed 10-20ppm for nitrates, which isn't awesome, but it's not as bad as I thought they were. I've noticed a little improvement by doing a water change, and changing out the sock filters twice this week and making sure my skimmer is cleaned out. I think things are slowly, gradually getting better. The fish are active, all eating, and seem happy. We had to add some superbuffer and calcium to put the #s were they should be; otherwise everything seems fine.