Twin-Spot Goby training

[ThorReefer]

So I have recently heard that the Twin-Spot Goby can be a very difficult fish to keep, I was really surprised to hear that, so I thought I would share my story on how I have managed to keep 2 of these alive. They are each in a different aquarium. One is in a 20 gallon IM nuvo fusion and has been in there for about 9 months. The other is in a 90 gallon aquarium and has been there about a year. When I first got them they both lived off of the sand bed microfauna, and then I slowly trained them on prepared foods. Now, both are taking frozen, carnivore and herbivore pellets, and even flakes if I slow the current down enough. I can post a picture of my two fish, if there is any interest, but they are both healthy looking and don't look too skinny.

 

So the way that I trained them was to just do my regular frozen feedings, add the food while the current was running and let it get well distributed throughout the water column, and then kill all flow to the aquarium. This allows the frozen to slowly settle to the sand bed, and as the twin spot gets accustomed to this (at first they would just dive into their hole when the flow stopped) they will just continue eating and taking mouthfuls of sand, and will start to notice that there is something more substantial in their bite. Once they get on frozen then I would kill the flow and sprinkle a healthy pinch of sinking pellets around them. I try to get the pellets to land just in front of their face, so that they get some in their mouth as they keep snacking on sand. After a few tries they start eating the pellets instead of just filtering them through their gills. Now that I have been feeding them these things for awhile, my gobies will actually start swimming up a few inches off the sand bed when I feed frozen and try to grab the frozen out of the water column (they are terribly slow and very uncoordinated, so I still have to kill the current if I want them to get a good meal). I feed frozen to my aquarium every other day, and target them with pellets at the same time, and they are both fat, happy, and active!

 

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like an update of how the fish are doing. I don't imagine much will change, as they have both been in their respective homes for long enough that they aren't slowly starving.

 

Both are about full grown (around 3-3.5 inches long I would guess). The one in the 90 gallon came large, but the one in the 20 gallon I bought at about half the current size and it has grown to its current size.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Any pics? I've always been curious about this fish but stayed away from them because they perish easily in nanos. Also heard they're harder to train than dragonets. 

[ThorReefer]

16 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Any pics? I've always been curious about this fish but stayed away from them because they perish easily in nanos. Also heard they're harder to train than dragonets. 

Yeah I can definitely post some pics. I won't be home until tomorrow, but I will try to remember to take some pictures then. But yeah I was really surprised to hear that people have such difficulty with them in nano aquariums. I have kept one of mine in a 20 gallon aquarium for 9 months now with great success. It is very active, looks healthy, and eats anything I add to the tank as long as I slow down the flow. I have had more success with training the goby than I have had with dragonets, so from my personal experience that isn't true. I have a mandarin in my 90, but it just eats copepods and is doing well. Wasn't able to keep a mandarin successfully in a nano.

[ThorReefer]

On 9/19/2018 at 1:03 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

Any pics? I've always been curious about this fish but stayed away from them because they perish easily in nanos. Also heard they're harder to train than dragonets. 

Alright so here are some pictures, as promised. I'm not going to pretend like they are good pictures, as they were taken with my phone and I really wasn't wanting to clean the glass before taking the pictures, but you get the idea. This is just pictures of the little guy in my 20 gallon who has been there for 9 months. Keeps my sand bed looking pristine!

[RayWhisperer]

Not trying to be a dick, but that fish looks a bit on the skinny side.

[ThorReefer]

On 9/20/2018 at 6:50 PM, RayWhisperer said:

Not trying to be a dick, but that fish looks a bit on the skinny side.

Well it has been like that for 9 months. And if you look at the stock photos available from many companies that sell them then mine actually looks pretty average. There is no "negative belly" on it and many stock photos show that. Yeah I don't really see any pictures of fish that look significantly fatter than mine..In any case, that fish has been stable in my tank for 9 months without requiring any special attention, so i'm not worried about it.

[CoralCubeCleaner]

Such cuties aren't they. I bought mine last week. They are one of few gobys that take a good while to adapt to aquarium fare. Hence difficult to keep for most. If a skimmer is run it’ll knock out the fauna a wavemaker can tire them and sandbed not fine enough they won’t be able to process their food in hood enough quantity. If all of these are kept in check then they are fairly easy to keep 🙂

also try to keep salinity in balance. Another reason they don’t have much success in nano as a swing will create cyano which is a very toxic bacteria that they will then eat from the sandbed. 
i really wish I had obtained a pair. Not sure how successful they are if another is added does anyone know?