new watchman goby

[Shock130]

Well picked up a little diamond watchman goby, he is really active, digging holes, a real blast to watch, anyways. my tank is around 6 months old and has no "sifters" other than snails.

My question is, the goby seems to makeing a huge mess while he digs and sifts, that is, there are little particles flying everywhere. Im not sure if its "sand" but more like crap caught in the sand. After he does a good job cleaning the sand, will these little particles become less and lesS?

 

[Ruskin]

That depends. How often do you vacuum the sand in your tank? Him stirring up the "crap" will help, because the skimmer(if you have one) will have more of a chance to get to it if its in the water column. But if it is detrius,he is just sifting through it along with the sand, and then spitting it back out.

 

[Shock130]

ive never vacuumed the sand, when i do it just sucks it up so i have occationally stired the sand up myself and sucked up the loose distrius. but other than that i have left the sand alone... i do ahve a skimmer, remora with a skimmer box, and i might add on my old hob canister filter with a filter floss media for a day or two, to try and catch the stuff flying around, he is doing a great job with keeping the sand turned, my sand looks really white again, so i dont know.

my LFS said they would take him back if it doesnt work out. so we will see

 

[Ruskin]

Yea, i bet he's cleaning the sand bed for sure, they are cool fish. But as for remving the actual matter, I doubt he is effectively doing that, more just turning the sand over, which is good as well! Hope he works out for you too.

 

[PuffersKick]

yes they are helpful. they don't really eat the junk, but they stir up the sand which helps your filter and/or skimmer pick up the particles floating around.