Start With the Ordinary Sale Record
Begin with the basics that should accompany any fish: a receipt or short transfer note naming the seller or breeder, how many bumblebee gobies you are taking, and their condition at handover. If you are buying a small group, which suits these territorial little fish better than a single specimen, the note should say how many came from the same tank. That shared-tank detail matters because gobies from one system share one water history, while fish mixed at the shop from different systems may arrive with very different needs despite sitting side by side in the same display. Keep the note even if the fish cost little; origin questions tend to surface weeks later, not at the till.
The Salinity Record That Decides Everything
The single most important piece of paperwork for a bumblebee goby is the specific gravity of the water it has been living in. Many of these gobies do best in brackish water, yet shops hold them at anything from fresh to moderately brackish, and a fish moved sharply between the two can fail without any disease being present. Ask the seller to write down the reading from their own hydrometer or refractometer, and whether the fish were wild-caught and acclimated, or bred and raised at that level. With that figure recorded, you can match your tank before arrival or adjust gradually over days instead of guessing. Without it, every later problem becomes harder to explain.
Feeding History for a Notoriously Picky Eater
Record what the gobies have actually been eating, not what the species is supposed to eat. Bumblebee gobies are famous for ignoring dry foods entirely and holding out for frozen or live offerings, and a newly homed fish that refuses flake may simply never have recognised it as food. A seller's note listing accepted foods and feeding frequency gives you a starting menu that works, so the fish eats while you slowly broaden its diet. Add which foods in your own tank get taken in the first week. If a goby thins despite offering food, that written comparison between the seller's menu and yours is the first thing an experienced shop will ask to see.
Health Notes and Your Own Arrival Log
Ask whether the selling tank has seen recent losses, sunken bellies, or fish hiding constantly, and note the answer alongside any quarantine the seller carried out. Wild-caught bumblebee gobies in particular can arrive thin, so record each fish's condition on day one, who claimed which cave or shell, and how they settle over the first fortnight. Because these gobies are tiny and bottom-dwelling, small changes are easy to miss unless something was written down. Your log of feeding responses, perching spots, and squabbles builds the baseline that makes a real change visible.
Keeping Goby Records Together for Future Moves
A bumblebee goby may outlive its first tank arrangement several times over, moving between brackish setups, species tanks, and new homes, and its salinity and feeding history should travel with it every time. File the sale note, the specific gravity reading, and your arrival log together, and update the salinity figure whenever you deliberately change it. Whoever takes the fish next, or advises you at a vet or shop, needs those numbers rather than a verbal summary. Storing the goby's sale record and water history in the Pet Passport in KinsLe keeps that fragile information attached to the fish wherever it goes next.