Engineer Goby making his own dsb

[Savant]

My engineer goby likes to move sand to a back corner of my tank from under his rock pile. He always seems to pile the sand in the same spot no matter how much i try and spread it around, he will get more sand and pile it up. Because of where he does it I never really took a close look and after a while just gave up on fighting it. Well due to my negligence/laziness it now looks as if the sand is turning black close to the bottom of the pile.

My question is this:
what do I do about this "Dead" area of the sandbed? I pretty sure I dont just want to stir it all up and release hydrogen sulfide but I have to do something right? the sand pile is about the size of a computer mouse with the dead area maybe an inch from the bottom.

 

[snorvich]

You now understand why I would never try to keep this fish.

:fun2:

 

[Savant]

lol yep. He seems to have plenty of real estate under my rock work, I guess he just likes to keep it tidy. Thank goodness I placed all the rock work on the bottom of the tank before I added sand. My wife hates it, says its creepy looking when he pokes his head out of one of his caves. I think it is a pretty cool fish and he seems to leave his tank mates alone.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Hence the name Engineer Goby - Loves construction!

 

[Savant]

agreed...but what to do about the black sand?

 

[rwb500]

i wouldn't worry about it if i were you. but if you want to worry about it, you could hook up a small pump to some rigid airline and poke to pile to stir things up and break up the anaerobic zones. do a little bit at a time.

 

[BlackTip]

It is his home. Let him decorate it the way he wants to.

 

[Savant]

i wouldn't worry about it if i were you. but if you want to worry about it, you could hook up a small pump to some rigid airline and poke to pile to stir things up and break up the anaerobic zones. do a little bit at a time.

do you mean inject water into the pile with the pump?

 

[reeferstace]

It is his home. Let him decorate it the way he wants to.

Yes. It's what they do.

 

[DasCamel]

If it's a small area that's deep, just leave it. If it's a larger area, need natural critters to tend to it.

 

[ThRoewer]

Back in Germany a fellow reefer had one of these and it was quite an interesting fish. Though I feel they do best in a special tank and then in a group. With some luck, after a while you may have so many that you can start selling them

 

[Savant]

If it's a small area that's deep, just leave it. If it's a larger area, need natural critters to tend to it.

Thanks! Its relatively small, slightly less than the diameter of an orange,

He seems to be very curious about his surroundings to the extent of the couple of inches he will poke his head out of one of his many caves

 

[Betta132]

I doubt an area that small can cause any issues. Just leave him be and see what he does.

 

[rgulrich]

They are fun, and fascinating to watch. Here's one of mine I gave away when I moved everything from a 180 in the old house the 300 in the new (5 gallon bucket). Planned the new setup with minimal substrate, and wanted to keep it pretty much in place - where I wanted it. When I removed them it was some work due to the extensive (in a 2' X 6' footprint) tunnel network under the rock. Large net (goldfish/pond net) and they were pretty good about it, though.


They really are fascinating to watch mover through the water after food. Mine ate pretty much anything I tossed in the water, sometimes not waiting for frozen cubes to thaw and happily chasing pellets in the current. They even wore occasional bristle-worm mustaches. I didn't worry about where they piled the sand in that aquarium.

Cheers,
Ray