Above: In the picture is a nice premium quality Bumblebee Goby in one of our aquariums.

Comments: This species is small, interesting, and fun to watch.

Origin: This Goby comes from parts of Borneo in South Asia. Some of the areas are brackish water with high pH and high minerals, but other areas have a lower pH and lower minerals.

One might expect that there is more than one species, and their marking do vary.

Maximum Size: 1.5" long

Behaviors: Hopping along the bottom or climbing on rocks, plants, or driftwood. Males quarrel with each other but do no harm.

Compatibility: White Clouds, Danios, and perhaps Rainbowfish.

Temperature: cooler than most of the fish we offer for sale. 65 to 75-degrees F. with 70 ideal.

Feeding: usually they will eat only live foods such as small worms, brine shrimp, daphnia, etc. They seem to love eating tiny newly hatched brine shrimp.

Water Conditions: pH of about 7.5 to 8.2 and highish hardness, which is close to most of the water in North America.

So it's probably best not fiddle with your water, unless low in pH and minerals. Then you might add some marine salts.

Aquarium Size: a few can live in 10-gallon aquarium. Probably a so-called 20-gallon long aquarium is best.

Decor: They love caves but do not need gravel, and a layer of gravel more than 1/4" thick will usually fill with bits of uneaten food that will contaminate the water.

Click here for more about aquarium gravel. They will also need rocks or driftwood to climb on.

Live plants are beautiful but rarely do well in water with marine salts.

Aquarium Filter: Bio-Wheel Filters are highly recommended. Most 20-gallon aquariums will do well with one Penguin 200B Filter.

But this fish is from rapidly flowing streams, so a Penguin 350B Filter is probably even better, because it will creat more water flow.

Click here to learn more about aquarium filters.

The addition of Lava Rocks will keep nitrates in the ideal range. Click here to learn more about using Lava Rocks in aquariums.

Life Span: unknown to us but probably at least a few years and hopefully more.

Gender: When mature, the female becomes rounder-bodied.

When spawning, the male takes on a red tinge to his first bar, while the female becomes brighter yellow.

Breeding: pile up some rocks and the male will choose a cave in the pile. Then he will dance around the opening to his cave to attract a female.

The eggs are laid in the cave, and he cares for them.

Click here for a lot more about breeding various tropical fish in aquariums.

Popularity: this fish is rarely seen in aquariums.

Variations: There are at least two similar species and some others that look like a hybrid of these two.

Names: the scientific names are Barchygobius doriae and B. sabanus, and perhaps naturally occuring hybrids of these two species.

We hope you've enjoyed reading these comments.