Bumblebee Fish or Bumblebee Goby

Bumblebee Gobies.  Everyone loves the little bumblebee gobies, but not everyone wants to go to the trouble to take care of them.  Unfortunately, bumblebees usually fall into the hands of small tank owners -- not a good mix.  Bumblebees can live in small tanks, but most small tank owners lack the experience to keep these cute little dudes alive and kicking.. 

Species.  Several types of bumblebees pop up from time to time -- much depends on where they came from.  Some sport different bar patterns.  Different species?  Masts niches.  You keep them all the same way.  We like the four-barred ones.  The different species have different numbers of rays in their various fins.  As the famous ichthyologist, Elizabeth Barrett Browning said, “How do I i.d. thee, let me count the rays.”

Feeding Time.  Your new bumblebee gobies probably will ignore flake foods at first.  They prefer live foods  (like black worms) or at least frozen shrimp (thawed, of course). Lots of other frozen bug-size foods trip their triggers -- especially when other bees compete with them.  If you keep a few large female guppies with them, your bees will find some live food on their own.  Too large a fish will intimidate them.  They have a big mouth for their size, so we plan to experiment with glass worms.  California black worms go down very smooth. 

Mixers.  Bumblebee gobies move slow, so leave out the speedy zebras and other zippers.  Good candidates include other brackish fishes such as glass fish (Indian), flounders, and dragon gobies.  Mollies like the same water but get to the food too fast and stuff their guts while the bees just haven’t quite got the buzz yet.

Scavengers.  Since snails hate salt and catfish don’t like it much either (except bull sharks), we’d recommend ghost shrimp as scavengers.  If you feed flakes, these semi-invisible arthropods will make excellent cleaners.

Fierce Little Beasts.  From the front, bees look to be all mouth especially when yawning, eating, or arguing during spawning.  Bumblebee gobies can nip long-finned fishes.

Plant Decor.  Salt in their water puts the kibosh on most plants.  Plastic plants always work.  Some of the best live plants to keep with bumblebee gobies include Java moss, the slow-growing Java lance fern, and the fast-growing water sprite. 

Comfort Decor.  PVC pipe pieces and resin caves on the bottom serve as security and breeding sites.  More natural choices include empty snail shells (not little shells, tho).  Look into those shells available for hermit crabs.   Axelrod’s Atlas of Freshwater Fishes has some great bumblebee gobs shots with the little twits defending their snail shell homes and hearths.  They look like fierce wee beauties with their huge (comparatively) mouths ready to bite whatever approaches -- mostly other male bees.