For the Love of Gobies

For the Love of Gobies....

That brings us to today, 4/7/01. At 2PM I added 2 more pieces of the Haitian Live Rock, and 1 Electric Blue damsel. This is my first fish, and it came from the tank that my goby now lives in at the store. First, I floated the bag to acclimate the fish to his new environment. I did this for about 18 minutes, adding about 1/2 cup of tank water to the bag every 5 minutes. After the 3rd "dip", I released the damsel into the tank. Immediately he swam to the far bottom corner and cowered there for a long time. I continued to watch him for about 5 minutes, and then gave him some privacy. I visited the tank about 15 minutes later to find that he had used his tail to dig himself a small dent in the sand, in this corner, and he had also managed to tip over one of the larger pieces of rock. I decided to leave it alone until tomorrow, not wanting to stress the fish any more than I have to right now. I was getting a slight bit worried for a while, the way he cowered in the corner, dorsal fin laid flat against his back. His color had faded and he really didn't look very good. His breating became heav, and I was afraid I'd done something wrong. I quickly checked the SG, and it was at 1.022, and the salinity at 30. The temperature was still at 77 degrees, and just to be sure that this was accurate, I borrowed a thermometer from another tank, and checked it again.

No problem with the thermometer. The heater hasn't had to kick in yet...so I'm watching things very closely. When I checked again at 10PM tonight, the temp had gone up to 78 degrees. If it goes any higher, I'm planning to do a 5% water change to bring it down a bit. The damsel seems to be doing better, acting much more normal again. He is exploring his tank, one cave at a time, and his color has returned to normal as well. If the weekend goes well, I will be introducing 2 more damsels to the tank, 1 each of different species that I've found appealing. These damsels will help me to cycle my tank in preparation for my goby. I have been watching the tanks at work closely, studying it's inhabitants every chance I get. I pay special attention to my goby tank, and this has let me see what is seemingly "normal" behavior for the fish in it. Should all 3 damsels survive the cycling, they will be safe tank mates for my goby. I hope to study their behavior patterns as I introduce each new fish to the tank, also.

Why did I choose the 3 damsels that I did? Let's talk about that for a moment. There were many things that weighed in here. # 1 on my list was aggression level. I needed a hearty fish with a low aggression level, and I wanted something bright and colorful. We didn't have many damsel selections for me to choose from, but I did manage to find 3 that appealed to me.

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