Another survival story...so far anyway (Catalina Goby)

[joefitz]

So I bought three Catalina Gobies from Skiptons back in August, not realizing they were colder water specimens and not being informed of such by the salesperson I was speaking with when asking about appropriate care for them...errr (only time that has ever happened to me there). In any case, my fault for an impulse buy. I did find out about them before I put them in my tank though and decided to try to see if I could find a way to acclimate them to higher than normal temperatures for them.

I'm glad to say that I know at least two of them are still alive and kicking. I've never seen all three at once so I can't honestly say whether the 3rd is alive or not.

I kept them in a separate tank and slowly (very, very slowly; 3 months) raised the temp up to my normal tank temp at which point I put them in the main tank. I'm not sure if that helped or not and I'm guessing these guys are going to have a much shorter than normal lifespan because of the temperature, but they are gutting it out and I thought I'd report it. Just about six months now.

And finally one of them has found a home where he is almost always visible. They are very cool looking critters.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Joe,

I had a pair in my 65 gallon tank for about 1 year. I picked them up at Tropic Isle probably back in about '97. The pair I had did very well (I was also not told about the low temp thing) and was laying batches of eggs every week for a long time. Their lifespan might have been reduced due to the tropical temps in my tank (78-80 I believe). After they died (disappeared) I assume of old age I tried a second time, but had much worse luck and was never able to get a healthy pair again. Cool fish...but as you now know....it's a cool fish.