Adding shrimp to your home aquarium can be a great idea if you consider all the pros and cons beforehand. Shrimp will happily eat waste and any food that has not been eaten by the fish in your tank. This means that there will be no leftover food particles floating around in the water, polluting it and making it dirty.
So, shrimp can help with the maintenance of your tank. However, there are some cases where other methods of tank maintenance are preferred and where adding shrimp is not a good idea.
Unfortunately, some fish will eat shrimp when placed in the same tank. This means that your new additions will quickly become food and will not be able to help keep your tank in top condition.
You will also need to consider the conditions of your tank as bumblebee gobies prefer slightly salinated water (1.002-1.006 salt grade). This means that their preferred water salinity is between freshwater and saltwater (brackish water). This salinity level can be a problem for some types of shrimp, for which high salt levels are toxic.
So, if your new shrimp additions are not immediately eaten by your gobies they may fall victim to the salinity levels required by your bumblebee gobies.
Will bumblebee goby eat shrimp?
The answer to this question lies almost entirely in the size of the shrimp that you intend to introduce into your tank with your bumblebee gobies. If you are planning on adding in small shrimp then it is highly likely that your bumblebee gobies will indeed eat the shrimp.
However, if you are looking at and considering shrimp that are on the larger size then they have a much better chance of survival. In this case, your bumblebee gobies will not look at the shrimp as a meal but rather just as another inhabitant in your home aquarium.
So, for example, adding cherry shrimp into the same tank as bumblebee gobies is not a good idea. However, adult amano shrimp stand a much better chance of not being consumed by your bumblebee gobies.
How many bumblebee gobies should be kept together?
If you are looking at adding a whole collection of bumblebee gobies to your home tank then considering a group of at least six is a good idea. This is because they are particularly territorial fish and can become rather aggressive. By ensuring that you have enough of the same species you can eliminate the problem of bullying.
If one bumblebee goby becomes particularly bullish then its frustration will be divided among the group of gobies rather than at ay one fish in particular.
Are bumblebee gobies aggressive?
At first, you may notice that your bumblebee gobies appear a little shy in nature but this will soon vanish. They are rather territorial by their nature and so if this is threatened then they can become aggressive towards what they see as a threat.
However, they are not bullies. They will not be unnecessarily aggressive. They will only exhibit this behavior when they believe that they are under threat or that something is encroaching on its territory.
What can I feed my bumblebee goby?
Bumblebee gobies are rather fussy eaters. They much prefer to eat live food rather than flakes or manufactured food. This is why you must be careful when considering other small creatures and crustaceans that you have in your tank. If you are only offering them prepackaged fish food they may soon turn to your other creatures as a source of food.
Variety is the key to keep your bumblebee gobies healthy. Providing them with a rich diet means that you should always feed them live small creatures such as bloodworms, daphnia, and shrimp.
Do bumblebee gobies eat snails?
It is very unlikely that your bumblebee gobies will cause the snails in your tank any harm. They will normally leave any snails in peace in favor of other sources of food such as shrimp and any sources of meat that you offer them, like bloodworms.
So, if you are looking for a fish to eat snails in order to keep the snail population in your tank under control then you should avoid adding bumblebee gobies for this purpose. Other fish, such as loaches, are much better suited to this job and will help provide a solution to a snail infestation.
Bumblebee gobies will provide no solution to a high snail population.
How big do bumblebee gobies get?
Bumblebee gobies are a particularly small species of fish. When fully grown they will range in size from 1.5 – 4 cm. The females are typically larger than their male counterparts, making them easy to sex. Female bumblebee gobies also have rounder and smaller heads.
Because of their size, they are perfectly fine in a standard 10-gallon tank without incurring any problems. Obviously, you should not overcrowd your tank with corals, algae, and other fish and crustaceans.
To sum up
If you are planning on housing bumblebee gobies and shrimp in the same tank then you should carefully consider the size and type of shrimp that you want to add.
Bumblebee gobies will happily eat any small species of shrimp, such as red cherry. This means that you should only place bumblebee gobies in the same tank as larger species of shrimp. For example, they will not attempt to eat adult Amano shrimp.
You should make sure that your bumblebee gobies are kept well-fed with live food such as worms in order to give your shrimp the best fighting chance possible. Your shrimp can then live off of the excess food from your gobies.
Lastly, consider the conditions of your tank. Bumblebee gobies prefer brackish conditions which can be fatal to some species of shrimp.
Ensure that you do sufficient research to make sure that your chosen shrimp can live perfectly fine in the conditions set up for your bumblebee gobies. Otherwise, they may simply not survive in your tank due to its conditions, not the fish
