YWG Pair bickering

[JGoog]

Hi All,

My tank is a 25g cube 18". It has been up and running for about 3 months now.

I have a pair of YWG. The first goby was put in about 3 weeks ago and is a bright yellow juvenile. The second goby was put in a week after and is about the same size but a pretty light grey color.

Both seem fine and are eating well but I notice maybe 3-4x a day they get into territory spats. I work from home so I keep an eye on them for about 12hr a day.

I am wondering if this is a standard amount of bickering or should I consider re-arranging the rockwork to reset territories?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

are you sure they are male/female? If they are same sex, they likely wont get along.

 

[JGoog]

I had read somewhere that yellow is male, light gray is likely female... It is definitely possible they are the same sex.

How long should I have to wait for them to establish a pair if they ever will?

 

[Zionas]

How big are they and were they added at the same time? If not, your tank is small and depending on how many hiding places they have, might take a while to sort things out. They’re hermaphrodites though so one will hopefully change sex.
When pairing or getting a harem of any fish, you usually have two routes: 1 big and the rest smaller, or all small juveniles.
Sufficient hiding spaces, and monitor aggression. If they aren’t outright killing each other I’d say give it some time.

 

[JGoog]

They are both juvenile, maybe 1.5-2" length. The one that was put in the tank first is bright yellow and about 2" in length. A week later I put in another that is light grey with barring on the side and is ~1.5" in length. So far i've only seen aggression in the way of the larger one chasing the smaller one off when the smaller one ventures too close, i've never seen aggression from the smaller one towards the large one. I just re-arranged my rockwork to create more spots to hide and reset any territory standings, we will see what happens!

 

[Zionas]

Keep us posted!

 

[JGoog]

Pictures of the culprits... seems like they are chasing eachother around still but it seems like it is going down.

Funny thing is the yellow one which is the aggressor is harder to get a picture of because the second I get close to the tank he hides. The grey one doesn't care if I am there whatsoever.

 

[JGoog]

Update:

I think they are good now. They have found a common enemy... me. Also the yellow one strongly dislikes the emerald crab.

 

[Zionas]

Only a matter of time before they pair up, I hope. They’re hermaphrodites.