Gold Headed Sleeper Goby

[tinyfish]

Today Aug. 8, 2009 I decided to once again try a sand sifting goby. My two previous attempts failed because the fish starved. I felt really bad that I could not provide them with what they needed to eat.

This time I have an established tank and sand bed that I know has edible things in it. The key thing that I learned today was that food has to be on the sand for these fish to eat it. They will rarely feed from the water column. That means I can use pellets to feed it along with the nassarius snails and also mysis shrimp.

Once introduced, the fish immediately started sifting sand. Since this fish is in a 75g there is lots of sand for it to sift. I think it started looking fat by the evening which is encouraging.

One other observation is that although peaceful, it is territorial and does keep other fish, like my chalk basslet, away from wherever the goby wants to go.

 

[snorvich]

Unfortunately, in my opinion, your prognosis is not good. Sorry.

 

[tinyfish]

snorvich, I wish you had put more information with your post.

I have said that very thing to others. I don't know now whether an individual fish may be different than all of their kind grouped together. Meaning maybe this particular fish might be OK where as a group, sand sifting gobies usually die or this species might usually die.

Is it as hard to care for as a Mandarin or a Copperband Butterfly?

 

[snorvich]

Copperbands are very individual, that is some will eat, some may never eat in captivity so you could accidentally find one that will make it. But how many will not make it in order to the find the one in three (approximate) that will?

All mandarins will eat frozen mysis but they need sufficient copepods or they will starve to death. The problem is that their metabolism is predicated on constant grazing rather than sporadic feeding coupled with the fact that is is very difficult for them to compete for food.

A golden headed sleeper goby eats organisms in the sand which it obtains by sifting them out of the sand. Unfortunately, normal aquaria have a finite amount of live sand which can easily be depleted. Worse, is that the live sand will soon cease to be live.

 

[WarpedKiwi]

Lifespan

Lifespan

Been a lurker on here for ages but this is my first post.
Snorvich what is the lifespan in an aquarium for this Goby?
I have had mine in what equates to a 90 gallon for 8 months so far and is very healthy, constantly sifting sand and making a hell of a mess and sometimes takes small floating pellets as well.

 

[snorvich]

That is impossible to say.

 

[tinyfish]

snorvich, I did wonder about the ability of the sand bed to maintain a certain level of viable creatures. I don't think I realized the speed of how these gobies feed. Its like a bucket shovel operating 2-4 times per minute throughout the day.

So what you are saying is that there will be a time when the goby runs out of creatures (food) in the sand-bed to be sifted out. And then it will decline and starve. And I think you are saying this depletion in the sand-bed is unhealthy for the entire aquarium.

So in conclusion, no one should ever have a sand sifting goby in an aquarium.

Did I understand correctly?

 

[RoastReef]

I may just be lucky, but mine eats NLS pellets, flake, mysis, just about anything and it will take it out of the water column as well.

 

[tinyfish]

Everything still doing well as of today.

 

[blface]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15510755#post15510755 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RoastReef
I may just be lucky, but mine eats NLS pellets, flake, mysis, just about anything and it will take it out of the water column as well.

Mine is the exact same.

 

[Apercula]

I had a Valenciennea sexguttata, cousin to your fish. It did very well in my tank for about 6 months, eating prepared foods from the water column as well as sifting, after about six months it began to lose weight, and by 9months it had starved.

 

[tinyfish]

Losing a fish is sad, apercula, and yours was a nice looking one too.

So what is suggested? Take it back for credit? They are difficult to catch.

 

[the_rider]

I have one for about a year now. He was hard to get to eat since it was my first fish so nobody around to "show" him how to eat but he's doing well and he's eating from the watercolumn. He's sandsifting a lot less then in the beginning. He's only sandsifting when he's really hungry. Here's a pic of mine

 

[kvn1691]

I hate my gold headed sleeper goby, it always picks up the sand and pours it onto my corals anemones and Blue spotted jawfish's cave.

 

[tinyfish]

I finally sold mine.