Feeding a Diamond Spot Goby by enriching sandbed??

[brvheart]

There is thread after thread discussing starving Diamond Spot Gobies. It seems clear to me that this is one fish we are not doing favors to by keeping them in this hobby. Even specimens that are readily taking prepared food seem to be starving. It seems that they really need a sandbed that can't be depleated of a food source.

Something I have not seen discussed is somehow enriching the sandbed. I can't say exactly how this would be done, just an idea. Obviously, a very large tank with a healthy seeded deep sand bed could have a good shot at keeping a Diamond Goby happy, but DSB's are not common these days.

And to clarify things a little bit, I don't really want to create a discussion of keeping a healthy population of life within a tank and sandbed. I'm wondering if there is a readily available "not live" food source we could put into the sandbed. Clearly this is dangerous ground for nitrates, etc. but in my particular case, I have a relatively small tank and feel rather confident that my extremely active Diamond Goby sifts the majority of my tank's sand in about a day and might just be able to keep "food" in the sandbed from creating problems. Then again, I could also be crazy.

 

[Winwood]

Sinking pellets

 

[brvheart]

Sinking pellets

Not a bad idea. A couple of things I would be curious about..

My Nassarius snails are unbelievably good at finding food. It seems as though they work better on the surface of the sand, tho'. My DSG is not very good at finding food on the sandbed like you would think. You would think that digging the pellets into the sandbed would be tip the scales toward the DSG in finding the food over the snails..

Comments

 

[Dmorty217]

You would somehow have to enrich the micro fauna and worms that the goby eats while sifting sand

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

IME they will readily eat frozen food, but can still starve if you are feeding too sparingly. As long as they are eating, you don't have to worry about enriching the sandbed, just feed a lot more of whatever frozen food they are eating.

 

[brvheart]

IME they will readily eat frozen food, but can still starve if you are feeding too sparingly. As long as they are eating, you don't have to worry about enriching the sandbed, just feed a lot more of whatever frozen food they are eating.

This works IF they eat prepared foods, which mine doesn't. Hence the enriched sandbed. I wish he would eat it. He's so fixated on filtering the sand that he'll completely miss something right in front of him.

 

[jaa1456]

Mine eats anything in the tank luckily, he will swim to the top of a 24" deep tank to grab food. I feed three times a day. One feeding of mixed pellets(NLS, Ocean Nutrition formula 1 & 2), a second of only mysis amd the third feeding varies of spurlina brine, marine cuisine or emerald entree. My goby is fat and healthy looking going on a year now.

 

[HumbleFish]

Two words - target feed. Every time I feed my tank, I take a baster and shoot some food right at my goby. I'm patient about it. I wait 10-15 seconds, let him digest and shoot some more. My goby and I have developed quite a rapport this way. Sometimes he puts his mouth right on the opening of the baster, and I feed him gently like he's my little baby.

 

[Spork3245]

I must be lucky, my Diamond Goby will eat just about anything that's non-living and edible the floats in front of him; Mysis, Pellets, Flakes, Squid... Heck, even pieces of Nori that my foxface broke off from his clip!
I would try soaking your food in some garlic and target feeding him maybe to get him used to it. Mine honestly "attacks" any piece of food that floats anywhere near him without hesitation... I once saw him eat about 4-6 pellets that were clustered together all at once

 

[ReefKeeper64]

Mine eats live blackworms like they are going out of style.

 

[brvheart]

Any suggestions on getting one to begin eating prepared foods if they don't currently? I will try the above mentioned

 

[ReefKeeper64]

Any suggestions on getting one to begin eating prepared foods if they don't currently? I will try the above mentioned

Try live Blackworms. When fish see them moving they go kinda crazy to eat them. Blackworms are freshwater worms in nature and they don't do well in salt water at all. When put in the tank, they wiggle like the dickens but only for a couple of minutes and then they quickly die. Sometimes a few worms will fall behind a rock and the fish won't see them so they die without being eaten first. When the fish eventually see a dead one floating around, they usually stick up their nose and ignore it. Picky little buggers!

 

[brvheart]

I guess persistence pays off. I've always TRIED feeding the DSG with the baster, but it has never even been close to working. Now out of nowhere, my DSG has turned into a monster at feeding. He tries to eat everything - which include the baster itself, snails, crabs, rocks.. It's strange but welcome.

While I'm quite pleased regarding my own luck with this particular specimen, I will remain curious about the original topic, ways to enrich the sandbed for these guys.

 

[alton]

My pairs love PE Mysis. I never had a DG that didn't eat frozen

 

[ca1ore]

Now out of nowhere, my DSG has turned into a monster at feeding. He tries to eat everything - which include the baster itself, snails, crabs, rocks.

That has been my experience also - no feeding problems. Not so lucky with the Golden Head Sleeper Goby however.