Do not get a Twin Spot Goby if...

[mmittlesteadt]

...you have a saltwater aquarium.

Seriously. These are harder to keep than a Mandarin. Tell everyone you know to not buy one and every LFS you go to, to NOT order or stock them. PLEASE!

These fish belong in the ocean, not in aquariums, of any size or any length of established sandbeds.

They feed on zooplankton that lives within the sandbed, NOT copepods that live in rockwork or can be maintained in a refugium.

Here's my thread on the one I am trying to keep alive and healthy...

Twin Spot Goby.

 

[Sk8r]

THat is very sad. Have you tried oyster eggs or other coral food?
Basket stars are another that should stay in the ocean. Sea apples. Scallops, in general.
If it's really odd, don't buy it. At least the store won't order another one. And if it goes up the chain so the distributors will not buy them, they stay in the ocean.

 

[CStrickland]

Hmm...
I think the mandarin sticky has prolly saved a bajillion fishes from terrible fates. But there's so many others.
Also, linckia and cbb.

 

[gone fishin]

Thanks for sharing I have looked at them online but never really researched them. In general I tend to stay away from expert or difficult fish. It seems these critters need some sort of special diet and I know I am not willing to do that long term.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I have a progress thread on keeping him HERE.

I have some sinking pellets in there this morning, and as usual a lot of them end up swirling about the sand in little eddy's by his rock caves that my water flow creates. I've just witnessed him eating them! So between the pellets and the Reef Chili, with any luck at all, perhaps I can help him live as long as possible. It is not ideal, but I still hold out hope. I will keep reporting as to it's progress in that other thread.

On a side note my LFS is in a department where I work and after a good conversation, they agreed NOT to get any more in. MY LFS is very responsible, yet were just unaware it required so much care.

And please, I urge everyone to tell their LFS not to get them either. They are wonderfully fascinating fish, but are best left in the ocean where they belong.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

THat is very sad. Have you tried oyster eggs or other coral food?
Basket stars are another that should stay in the ocean. Sea apples. Scallops, in general.
If it's really odd, don't buy it. At least the store won't order another one. And if it goes up the chain so the distributors will not buy them, they stay in the ocean.

Currently I'm target feeding him Reef Chili (with a squeeze bottle, highly concetrated injected directly into the sand bed nears his caves. I know he is eating that, and this morning my New Life Spectrum sinking pellets (which always settle on the sandbed in little swirling eddys right by his caves) landed right by him when he was out. And I saw him eat those.

Any chance at all is a chance he'd have nowhere else. My LFS agreed not to ever get anymore in.

 

[Sk8r]

I certainly applaud you for doing the best you can for him. Including advising the stores.

 

[T Haynes]

Hmm...
I think the mandarin sticky has prolly saved a bajillion fishes from terrible fates. But there's so many others.
Also, linckia and cbb.

I know it stopped me from buying one for my 65

 

[Grizz717]

Nice work Mark!

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Thanks everyone. He ate a lot of sinking New Life Spectrum pellets today (which I watched him eat).

This is what he's been up to today back where the pellets were...

Twin Spot Goby making cave.