Do diamond gobys burrow

PirateLove

New member
I only have about an inch of sandbed. Does a diamond goby need a tunnel? I have a watchman and pistol in my other tank with a 3 inch fine sand bed and they live under the rocks. Is this the same with a diamond?
 
If I were going to keep a sand burrower fish I would make sure it had more than enough to make it happy living in my tank. So IMO I would give them at least 3"-4" average in the tank. This way if it wanted a deeper sand place it could move sand to make the sand a good 6" without much trouble. Also make sure you provide plenty of rock and shell rubble so they can line the inside of their den with it. Place the pile close to the burrow hole and if the fish uses it all then provide more.

Also, most important part is to make sure your rocks are on the glass or on eggcrate so your rocks don't come tumbling down if they burrow under the rocks.
 
Mine has tunnels everywhere. He has his favorite dual tunnel under a rock structure but is constantly sifting the sand for food. A decent sanded is needed. Also a screen top. They will jump right out!
 
They do, but they'll deal with what they have available. The bigger issue their dietary needs. They filter feed the sand bed, for lack of better phrase. They need a lot of sand to turn to eat well.
 
They do, but they'll deal with what they have available. The bigger issue their dietary needs. They filter feed the sand bed, for lack of better phrase. They need a lot of sand to turn to eat well.

But they will eat the mysis when I feed the tank right?
 
But they will eat the mysis when I feed the tank right?

Yes at least mine will.

I use a turkey baster to feed my tank BECAUSE of my diamond goby. He definitely likes and eats mysis but isn't going to swim to the top to compete with the savages in my tank. So I put some food in to distract the others and then target feed the goby. He loves it but wouldn't get any otherwise.
 
Mine has tunnels all over the place. I have about 2 inches of sand and it doesnt seem to phase him at all.

He does feed on mysis readily, however they can be quite shy at first. I started feeding mine with a reef feeder pipette from Kent Marine that I snipped the end off of to make the hole bigger for the mysis. Now he will swim halfway up into the water column to feed. I still use the pipette though to make sure he gets some at each meal time.

They are very active and you need to make sure they are getting enough food. When I first got mine, my tank was still very new (2 months old) so there wasnt alot for him to eat in the sand. I fed him 2x a day with mysis and also sprinkled some small pellets of Marine One around his burrow so he had something to sift through.

Now the tank is about 6 months old and he has grown almost an inch since I got him. Ive cut back to one feeding a day because the tank was getting too much food. Sometimes on the weekend Ill give him an extra sprinkle of pellets.

You need to keep an eye on him. Look at his stomach every day and if it he starts to look sunken in you need to feed him more. Mine had a bit of a sunken stomach when I first got him but he was very active sifting sand at the store so I knew he was healthy just a bit hungry. This is where the pipette really came in handy. He is now fat and happy.
 
They're not sand sleepers like some wrasses, but they will dig tunnels under your rockwork if you let them. One trick is that when you set up your tank, put the lowest layer of rock directly on the bottom and build the sand up around it. Though mine will eat all frozen fare, it does not come up to the surface, so you do need to make sure enough food is reaching the bottom. One way to do this is to NOT turn off the pumps when you feed.
 
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