It's Mr. Sand Man

[brayden]

Can anyone tell me why this San Man does this with my sand? What do you call him?

 

[ssavader]

You have a Gold-Head sleeper Goby (Valencienna strigata). These gobies are natural sand-sifters, stripping anything edible from the granules, while helping to keep the surface sand turned over.

 

[snorvich]

That is what they do. But keeping one alive is not easy in smallish tanks. They run out of food.

 

[risin]

I had one for 18 months. It was my favorite fish even though it would bury some corals in sand every day. I hope yours is used to aquarium life, I'm sure mine was caught in the wild.

I found it very hard to feed this fish. Mine would get spooked pretty easily and if it happened during a feeding he wouldn't come out to eat, and these fish need to eat 2-3 times a day unless it can sustain itself from the sand bed (from what I read it would have to be a huge, mature sandbed, several square yards I think). It would also back down from any other fish if it were going for a piece of food. I even tried to place frozen mysis right near it's home, but it would get really spooked if I put my hands in the tank and the other tankmates would get to it first.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

I agree with the other posts. One person that I know had good luck with getting his to eat live brine. Unfortunately the fish would never eat anything else and his sandbed didn't have enough to keep the fish fed so my friend took to raising his own brine.

 

[01saleen]

I agree with all of the replies.

 

[01saleen]

I agree with the others.

 

[turbo21]

i have kept a variety of sandsifter gobies over the years, and have never had a problem. one thing i always do is to put a flat rock on the sand bed to give them a place to make their home. i have a diamond goby in my 210 and he will eat anything i feed in the tank. (i feed a variety of frozen foods)

bob