Interested in Diamond Watchman Goby? Watch this...

[mmittlesteadt]

If you are interested in getting a Diamond Watchman Goby, you should know that they are quite adept at landscaping your sandbed to their liking, which may or may not be to your liking.

I happen to think they are fascinating fish, and your sandbed will be super clean. Just be sure you consider where you place your corals.

Here's a video I recorded of my Landscaper.

 

[Kardjunkie]

Interested in Diamond Watchman Goby? Watch this...

Loved the video, poor coral. My goby rearranges the sand bed every day. He tries to bury snails and hermit craps all the time. Yesterday he picked up my scooter Blenny and moved out him from in front of his hole under his rock. They are great fish to watch but the bottom belongs to him.

I have much smaller sand which gets on everything and requires daily blowing it off coral. I am building a bigger tank setup. Any one have suggestion of size that are safe and good for diamond watchman but prevent the sand storm they create? What size sand is that in your video? Sorry not trying to steal thread just looking for advise on the a similar topic.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jml1149]

I have the same question, any help appreciated!!

 

[Xxero]

.....but prevent the sand storm they create?

Even in a 1000g aquarium, the Diamond Watchman Goby will always churn/carry/displace sand.

It is what they do! :bigeyes:

 

[relexus]

Every day a different landscape. Love it [emoji106]


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

 

[Jeff4777]

I use to have a diamond goby and I traded him in for this reason. I like corals on the sand bed!

Otherwise his personality was awesome!!

 

[snorvich]

Even in a 1000g aquarium, the Diamond Watchman Goby will always churn/carry/displace sand.

It is what they do! :bigeyes:

Yup. Corals may suffer.

 

[A.Astore]

I got lucky with my Tiger watchman... or maybe it was the multiple naturally occurring dens he had to pick from the moment he was placed. Even when he does swift he stays right on the sand and does it so there is no storm. His one den was pushed in a bit yesterday and he very nicely re-opened the thing without causing my OCD to kick in. I think the watchmans are one of those fish that you just never know...

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I used Carib-Sea Aragonite (about .5 to .10mm in size) for the substrate. Small enough for him to sift it, but not so small as to make a huge mess from my circulating pumps. I chose it mainly so my pumps wouldn't blow it all over, but I did also consider what a Goby would do to it as i wanted creatures that take care of the reef. My Lawnmower Blenny takes care of the rockwork and the Goby takes care of my sandbed. They work cheap...they'll work for food.

The only coral that is getting slightly affected is a Kenya Tree, which will just grow out of it anyway. Those are hard to keep down. LOL. I have no other coral that will be affected by his "landscaping". For as much as he moves around, I'm not concerned.

My rockwork is ALL completely right on the glass bottom, with the sandbed just pushed around it. Also something to consider if you plan on getting sand sifters. If my rockwork was sitting on the sandbed he could easily make the rockwork topple as he's even dug out many burrows around and under the rockscape, but the way I placed it he can't make it topple.

And yes, every day I have a new sandscape, but it was all taken into account when I built my reef.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Here's another video of my Goby, and also my Lawnmower Blenny. My Blenny doesn't care too much for the Goby, but the Goby tolerates the Blenny's attitude. My Blenny will sit on the sandbed and roll over his fat stomach and pick up something and look at me like, "See? I can take care of your sandbed, why'd you get the Goby?" Um...Mr. Blenny, stick to the rocks and let Mr. Goby do his job. And the Goby does a fantastic job of cleaning the sandbed. Between the Blenny and the Goby, my rocks and sandbed are super clean because they work it over real well.

You can also see that where the Goby is working over the sandbed in this video, is the same area where he later (in the previous video) piled up that huge hill of sand.

 

[Xxero]

mmittlesteadt, that Blenny's belly is HUGE! :lmao:

 

[mmittlesteadt]

mmittlesteadt, that Blenny's belly is HUGE! :lmao:

Yeah, he is a FAT pig that eats anything and everyting thrown into the tank. He makes short work of any algae...and anything else for that matter. He is the first fish I've ever seen that I would consider obese. LOL.

 

[kl3377]

I just lost mine to jumping. Had it for 7 years, survived the move to the new system and was doing excellent. I have a custom clear screen top that I built but it can not go tight to the back glass because of my Kessil mount (<3/8"). He was minimal impact on my sand, definitely not the digger in the video, and a great character fish.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I just lost mine to jumping. Had it for 7 years, survived the move to the new system and was doing excellent. I have a custom clear screen top that I built but it can not go tight to the back glass because of my Kessil mount (<3/8"). He was minimal impact on my sand, definitely not the digger in the video, and a great character fish.

Sorry to hear. They are great fish. I have my tank pretty well secured to prevent jumping. I too lost one (a chalk bass) to jumping before I secured escape routes. My firefish is quite the jumper as well.