Red lip blenny and diamond goby???

[Pretty_Puffer20]

My boyfriend and I have a 55 gal tank and we're still fairly new to everything...we just recently got a red lip blenny and a few other fish. While everything else seems to be getting along fine the blenny doesn't seem to like our diamond goby...he was swiping at his cave opening earlier today and seems to chase him around the tank at times. Any suggestions???

They have a habit of staring one another down like gunman in a bad western movie...not sure if this is really bad or not? (Goby on the right, blenny on the left)

 

[Big K]

Welcome to the Reef! I am very jealous of the amount of stores you have to choose from in Knoxville.

They are both bottom fish so will feel they must compete for territory. Since they are also similarly shaped they will have aggression towards each other. With plenty of rockwork for them to stake out and regular feeding they should probably be able to work it out.

We added a Diamond goby last month and he was a bit nervous about our Scooter Blenny but now they glide along the tank bottom with each other!

now for some obligatory "new person" questions:
Did you add all these fish at the same time? Do you have any live rock in the tank?

 

[Pretty_Puffer20]

Welcome to the Reef! I am very jealous of the amount of stores you have to choose from in Knoxville.

They are both bottom fish so will feel they must compete for territory. Since they are also similarly shaped they will have aggression towards each other. With plenty of rockwork for them to stake out and regular feeding they should probably be able to work it out.

We added a Diamond goby last month and he was a bit nervous about our Scooter Blenny but now they glide along the tank bottom with each other!

now for some obligatory "new person" questions:
Did you add all these fish at the same time? Do you have any live rock in the tank?

Thanks!
We do have quite a few places to choose from, although we favor The Coral Reef. People are always helpful and prices are cheaper than other places.

My only worry was the blenny is bigger than the goby and he might actually hurt him...but we do have several rock fixtures and our blenny seems to like to perch on top of them more than anything while the goby has a cave all to himself. And they're fed twice a day, should it be more often?

To answer the "new person" questions:
We did not add all our fish at the same time, we first added our 2 engineer gobies who each picked out a rock and are happily growing in their caves (we also got a cleaner wrasse with them). Then we added 4 clowns (no two the same species clown, but we were told as long as added all together they would do fine). 1 of the clowns started to get pale and thin before dying and after he died two of ours paired up and started picking on our 3rd so we took him back. Then we got our diamond goby as well as about 10 hermit crabs. Then he added our blenny and a sand sifting star.
We do have live rock, I'm not sure the exact pound, but I know we have bought at least about 15 from one of the aquariums around town.

 

[Big K]

Cool. The Coral Reef is our favorite store out there as well. We just got three frags and some Bublebee snails from them over Christmas.

Having one bigger than the other will probably speed up the resolution of the aggression. The smaller one will have to back off. Having them the same general size might make them fight it out to the death. If they have their own areas they should work it out. They're jsut checking each other out at this point.

We have an Engineer goby that's about 8" long now. a cool fish (if your rock is securely set on the bottom of the tank and not on top of the sand).

Good luck!

 

[bwilhite]

Good luck with your diamond Goby, I love those fish but dont seem to have very good luck with them. They find a way to commit suicide.

 

[Big K]

Yeah, our Diamond Goby was actively looking for a place to jump out of our tank before he got settled. Make sure you have a tight lid!

 

[Pretty_Puffer20]

Yeah, our Diamond Goby was actively looking for a place to jump out of our tank before he got settled. Make sure you have a tight lid!

This happened to us too. We were lying down for bed when we heard a loud thud from the tank. We flipped the lights on and he was swimming near the surface. Scared my boyfriend, he loves our goby lol.

 

[Pretty_Puffer20]

Just an update for anyone curious or reading this, the red lip blenny killed our diamond goby today.

 

[reeffreak]

Sorry to hear that.

It happens sometimes with fish that have similar body styles...gobies,dartfish,blennies.

 

[Sakura2282]

Sorry for your loss. :(

 

[Aquarian]

That's too bad sorry for the loss