Why are my gobies exceptionally grouchy to each other?

Hello. I have a group of 5 stiphodon ornatus (+ 1 rhinogobius duospilus and a Lentipes sp) and for some reason the male goby is really territorial. Like he can't let anyone in his quite large area. I also believe I have a young male as it appears to chase the females away sometimes and its got a bit of colour in its fins.

I see all these videos of gobies in tanks the same size and smaller than mine and the males are fine with each other and the rest of the gobies. Is it just the temperament of my gobies or is it something else?
Thanks

 

I don't keep gobies but it does sound like territorial behaviour, hopefully someone who keeps them can tell you more

 

Thanks for replying.
I managed to fix the problem by doing a rescape. I out wood down the middle if the tank and then placed rocks around the wood. It doesn't look much like a hillstream anymore but instead of the bully goby owning half the tank he only owns a little slice near the front.
I even saw him sitting with the other gobies (outside his area) and for a few minutes he allowed a goby to eat algae next to him. Then he chased it off

 

That is normal behavior for male stiphodon and most other goby. They won't hurt each other and you will be able to tell the level of dominance by the amount of colors they show. They get more aggressive when there is another male regularly challenging the alpha male. Throw a little solient green in there and they forget everything except eating.

 

That makes sense. I'm guessing that the possible male goby is so low down its made itself appear to be a female. If that's possible?

 

Yes, most subordinate males will look very similar to females, displaying no colors. Dominate males will move to their black colors, my dominate neon blue is always in black and is most bright blue when challenged.

 

That's really odd. I thought they'd be going all out to try and become the dominant one, not making themselves look like the opposite gender!

Are your neon blues s. Semoni? There's a place near me that has a large group And I was thinking if buying them.

I've seen a promising sign if the rescape working; 3 females (or 2 f and 1 m, I'm not sure) have set up camp under the little brown/red rock that is in the dominant males area! He doesn't seem to care which is very odd for him. (Sorry about pic quality there's algae on the glass so it didn't focus properly)

 

Well today the male is being 'grouchy' again. So I've separated him for a bit. Its kind of annoying and upsetting seeing him harass the others. And it also stops me from seeing their natural behaviour as they're constantly being chased.

 

That really is just natural behavior and in separating the dominant male, another will just take his place. They usually take over a prime spot but will chase the others every once in awhile to get their attention, to say "hey I am the man". He will eventually allow others to graze near him and go into his territory, as long as everyone accepts that he is the boss. SemonI is the cobalt stiphodon, where as the neon stiphodon are atropurpureus. I took a quick video of the ornatus, atropurpureus, and sicyopus exallisquamulus, that I will post later. It will show you how they behave and the dominance they play. All the goby are male, so you can see how the low dominant ones are showing only blue tints. The betta was hiding, but he was sporting all black with almost no blue showing when I saw him earlier.

 

Oh yeah I see what you mean. Maybe they just need more time to get used to where the territories are based and the male needs to get used to the females and other gobies being near to him.

Out of interest, what size is your tank?

 

That one is a , there is a picture of it in the builds section that I can link when I get home. You can also see my 20Long on another I posted in this section.


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