Randalls pistol/yasha goby

[spieszak]

Morning all

Anyone have recommendations on the size (not depth) of the sand bed a pair like this would "like" to have? Do they need lots of _open_ sand bed?

I'm wanting to add a pair to my pico, but I'm concerned that they won't have enough room to tunnel given the small footprint and the live rock.

(Eco pic, so I have more height than width/depth, and the LR doesn't really leave for more than a couple of 3x3 squares of uncovered sand bed... )

Also, I have eggcrate on the bottom of tank so as not to have the LR sitting directly on the glass... will this pose a problem for them?

The more I look at the tank, the more worried I am that it would be too constricting, and keep wavering back to just a clown goby (and possibly a neon goby) rather than the pair.
Thanks
-Stacey

 

[jr_casteel1999]

yea i wouldent do it. they need more open sand bed and deeper. with the egg crate i would take it out completely. i only use that stuff for frag plugs.

 

[spieszak]

Little to no chance I'm taking the egg crate out... even if it didn't involve ripping everything else out of the tank. With a tank this small, I can't afford "large" dead spots where the rock is sitting on the glass. Thanks for the opinion on the sand bed though...

 

[spieszak]

Lots of views, one response. If you read this and are in agreement with the response, please note it.... Normally when I'm unsure of something I figure it's best not to do it, but I'm really on the fence with this one and could use the opinions...

 

[spieszak]

bump

 

[spieszak]

Standing at 83 views, and one response from someone who isn't me. Sure would be nice to hear some more opinions.

 

[EllieSuz]

Better to have lots of views and few responses than a lot of responses from people who don't know what they're talking about. Hang in there, somebody will offer some good advice.

 

[spieszak]

Better to have lots of views and few responses than a lot of responses from people who don't know what they're talking about. Hang in there, somebody will offer some good advice.

I'm in total agreement with that.. the longer the question sits though, the less likely it seems i'm going to see answers...,

 

[spieszak]

bump for the back to work after the long weekend morning folks ;-)

 

[rambochu]

I don't know quite what to tell you. My Yasha came in as a hitchhiker when I got my tank from my boyfriend (long story short, we thought he was dead for a long, long time. He abandoned his pistol shrimp and disappeared for months.) and I never tried to pair him. He did fine for a some time, but he disappeared again and I think he may actually have died.

But from my experience, they don't need a huge sandbed. The pistol always dug under rocks and seemed to prefer a tunnel about 3-4 inches. The goby, on the other hand, preferred to live in the live rock (I assume it was just this particular goby. We got a high fin red banded that was happy to pair with the pistol.)

 

[stewartms]

I can't speak for a Randalls, but I do have experience with Tiger Pistols. They aren't very interested in "open" sand bed. They prefer to burrow a series of tunnels under the rock. the pistol will need 3-4 inches of depth that it can dig. As long as you still have this abouve the egg crate then you should be fine.

How does the egg crate keep you from having dead spots? It can actually create hundreds of area that is difficult for your sand cleaners to get to to clean. I have tried it before and have gone away from it. With a pistol shrimp you will have no dead areas in your sand. They feel compelled to constantly move the sand. The only advantage I can see to having egg crate would be to displace the weight of rock work over a greater surface area and keep the weight from being concentrated on point areas from the rock.

 

[jscarlata]

i have a stiped pistol shrimp, white/gray and an orange spotted goby in my 46. all my rock is on top of egg crate, hasnt stopped the duo from creating several "residences" all over the tank, its such a cool thing to watch that little shrimp bulldoze piles of sand...

 

[spieszak]

My thinking regarding the egg crate. There is nothing but glass under the egg crate, meaning I don't have dead spots between the egg crate and the glass, since the weight of the rock won't allow the egg crate to move (and it wouldn't have anywhere to move, since I cut it to where I had to kind of force it down in)... I don't think the cuc is going to mind that they hit the eggcrate on occasion, so no dead spots between the "cubes"...as far as the minimal amount of rock touching the eggcrate, its touching in small bands, rather than sitting such that there are spots that can't be tunnled too.. (small indentations in the rock where all edges of the indention touch glass)
I could be way off with my thinking...and have been more than once... but it seems to make sense to me.

Glad to hear they don't care a lot about open sand bed...its great to finally see some opinions! I'd love to see a few more if anyone else cares to weigh in....