Is my Diamond Watchman Goby Starving?

[Tennyson]

I was just reading about my first fish, the diamond watchman goby, which I have had for a really long time, and in the book "Reef Secrets" it says it is very hard to keep them well fed and that they usually starve in captivity (it also mentions this with every other sand sifting goby also).

I've known this for quite a while, but ignored it since this hasn't been mentioned in any other books, but now I'm noticing that my goby is becoming more active, swimming around looking for food, and was thinking that it was hungry. And I also never recall him becoming full either, so I was thinking that he's starving, but I'm not sure.

Here are some pics.

Does it look like its starving? And it normally doens't swim above the sand, its doing this because its looking for floating food.

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

looks fine to me. mine sifts all day long but will still eat mysis and other food that passes by. don't know why they are called "hard to keep" unless they are talking about jumping out of the tank. They do that often....HEY LOOK tWINS

 

[rlf_racing]

I have a 2" diamond goby in my 75 and sifts all day. He also eats seachem pellets in the morning and mysis and brine shrimp at night. They only state hard to keep if they are in an enviroment that is not feed daily. At least to my understanding.

Rob

 

[edwing206]

I had one a while ago and he started to get skinny real fast. I fed a lot each day and he wouldn't eat barley anything. I eventually found him a home in a bigger tank with more food.

 

[mrp2g]

The key IMHO is to get them to eat pellets or frozen. If he only sifts sand, that will not be sufficient in my exp.

 

[Tennyson]

ok thanks. I guess the book meant if they only depend on when they feed from the sand. So he should be ok then since he gets alot of food.

Anything on why he's swimming alot for food because thats the only reason I was think long that he was starving.

 

[reef_doug]

Mine eats anything. IMO... the trick is to feed near his burrow through a piece of PVC pipe. I've had mine for 3 yrs now.

 

[MTB]

I've had mine for 18 months. He eats anything I put in the tank.

 

[rlf_racing]

They are just very active fish from my experience. I have had mine for a couple months now. And still fat since the day I got him.

 

[darkcirca]

I've had 2 diamonds in the past year (first one took a long leap out of the tank--we have glass tops now), and both will eat anything and everything. My current one will swim right up top with the clownfish and wait for food. He eats everything, including flakes, and multiple pellet types.

He's the most greedy fish when it comes to getting food...he doesn't like to share.