sick-lid boy

Well, I tried to I.D. this fish in another topic in this section, thinking it was some kind of catfish. I went ahead and picked up a few (5) of these guys from the LFS where I saw them last week. Now I'm not so sure it even is a catfish... although they do spend most of the time at the bottom of the tank, or sucking on the glass. Here's some not-very-good pics, but should be good enough for anyone who might know of this fish to I.D. them for me.

Can't tell if they're black with yellow stripes, or yellow with black stripes.
Very small. The biggest one is barely an inch. The guy at the fish store said they've had these guys for 3 or 4 months and they haven't grown at all in that time.
Seem to be some kind of bottom feeder/ algae eater, but I'm not absolutely certain about that. (I've only had them for about an hour)

Butterfly

Do they have a sucker mouth? They look kind of like bumblebee gobys
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile59.html
Carol

COBettaCouple

bumblebee gobys popped up in my head too.. is Dino doing that trick again? :P

sick-lid boy

I can't find anything else that even remotely resembles them, so I'll go with Bumblebee Gobies. Yeah they look like they have suck-mouths.

I just threw them in my 15 gallon, which I keep a small amount of salt in. According to the user comments on that page Carol linked me to, people have had success keeping in freshwater. I have a really cool LFS very close by who will take any fish I bring them and give me something in trade if I decide to get rid of them... which I probably will.

Thanks Carol... or thanks Dino, if you are the one who temporarily alienized Carol.

Tom

They are a bumblebee goby for a 100% guess from me.
Tom

Butterfly

I hate to throw a wrench into our theories... Bumblebee gobys don't have sucker mouths. I was just asking because it looked like one was sucked to the glass. Look really close and let us know if it has a sucker mouth ok?
Carol

capekate

Those are real kewl little fish, love the markings. Have to ask tho, why would you want to bring them back?

COBettaCouple

Don't tell me that you're still traumatized by that old smashing pumpkins music vid? !

Callum The Cat

sick-lid boy

It looks to me like they DO have sucker-mouths. They do spend alot of time what looks to be sucking on the glass. Is it possible for fish to suck glass without a sucker-mouth. It's tough to tell for sure if they definitely have suck-mouths because they're so small.

If they ARE Bumblebee Gobies, according to the profile that Carol linked me to, they are a brackish water fish, and I don't have a brackish tank. Thats the only reason I would trade them in.

Butterfly

I keep a magnifying glass that I look at my fish with occasionally, could you maybe look at one while it's on the side of the tank with one?
We see Bumblebee gobys in freshwater at the LFS all the time but I'm not sure they would be happy that way permanently.
Carol

Radcliffe

They are bumblebee gobies :-) I know because I have some too!

There are two types of them, solid black bands that can do freshwater, but prefer a little salt, and broken black band ones that need to be strictly brackish.

Here is a very useful link:
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...ee_Gobies.html

and a link with people talking of their personal experience:
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_bumble.php

and a pic from a quick google search:

Wolfgang8810

they do not have sucker mouths however True gobies all share certain features. These include a sucking disc formed by the pelvic fins which lets them stick to glass.

Tom

I know my 4 just love being in brackish water and having lots of empty snail shells in the sand for them to hide in. I think there are about 20 or more shells and they each have a certain number for themselves and they chase the others away if they go into another shell. If you want anymore info on there guys, let me know.
Tom