bautin2 Posted December 15, 2002 Share Posted December 15, 2002 I recently put two catalina gobies in my 10 gallon. The tank had a cleaning crew of various hermits that had been at work for about a month or so when I introduced the gobies. All was well for about a week, but this morning when I wake up, the redlegged hermit is chomping on one of the gobies. Has anyone had this happen to them? Are gobies hermit-targets? Is this a freak accident? Should I exile little red to my 56 gallon fish tank? Thanks for the feedback... Link to comment
glazer Posted December 15, 2002 Share Posted December 15, 2002 I seriously doubt your hermit took out your goby.... more than likely the goby "passed on" sometime during the nite and the hermit was just doing it's job... cleaning up the place. I don't know what "recently" means as far as when you placed the gobies in your tank. Catalina gobies are temperate water species... in my opinion (flame on Cat goby keepers,hehe) they do not belong in the warmer water conditions we keep our reef tanks at.... Cool little fish but seldom does anyone take the steps to provide them with the requirements they need to do well. Fish die... for many reasons, I don't have any more insight as to why yours did other than the reason I provided. Sorry 'bout your fishie. Link to comment
Chromis Posted December 15, 2002 Share Posted December 15, 2002 I agree that your fish most likely died and the hermit was just doing his job as a scavenger. About water temperature... Catalina Gobies are definately "cold water" species as I have snorkeled in some frigid water off Catalina Island and seen many of them BUT most small "cold water" fish that you would invision being in tide pools can handle higher temps because they often get caught in tide pools that can quickly heat up. With that being said ... although they are one of the most beautiful gobies IMO I would never keep one unless I could provide a cold water system. Link to comment
Catspa Posted December 15, 2002 Share Posted December 15, 2002 Actualy, i have to pipe in - if the goby was small enough and the hermit large enough, and hungry enough - it could easily take out the goby. I've got zebra hermits, suppose to be herbivors, but they are NOT. point is they've goten quite Large, and are very aggresive. I have no doubt that they would try to, and would be susfull in taking out a Catalina Gobie, but as previously mentioned they are a cold water fish - in the 60's - but generaly they usually servive for a couple of months at the higher temps before htey sucomb. So if they were small hermits - then you can bet that they didn't kill him. If they were Large, and agresive, they may have. p.s. Hermits require a lot more food then you think!, and if they don't get it the blue legs and scarlets, just kind of waist away, and the Zebras get extremely visious, and will go after anything, including each other! Link to comment
bautin2 Posted December 15, 2002 Author Share Posted December 15, 2002 thanks for the suggestions guys... I believe the warm water may have done it, I keep the tank at right around 80-82 degrees. I've been testing my water with a tetratec testing kit that I had from a previous aquarium. Although my regular testing since I put the fish in (a week ago) have yielded no ammonia, nitrates or nitrites, I think the testing kit is crap. I've never got any kind of reading other than minimal for the ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. I don't know if maybe the two fish created too large a bioload for my system. All the snails and hermits seem to be doing fine. Anyways...thanks for the info... Link to comment
Pikelet Posted December 16, 2002 Share Posted December 16, 2002 Yet another reason to boot hermits out of your tank. Goby killers!!! Link to comment
BCOrchidGuy Posted December 16, 2002 Share Posted December 16, 2002 Test kits can do that, try to take a water sample into your LFS and ask them to verify your test results, if they differ buy a new kit. Link to comment
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