Signal/twospot goby (Signigobius biocellatus): to try or not to try?

[Ricimer]

Hi!
I would be interested to know about any experience (succes and failures) with Signal/twospot goby (Signigobius biocellatus). I am trying to decide if it's worth trying and the ideal set-up.

I was thinking of adding a mated pair of these in a 210 gal + 90 gal fuge, 250lbs Fiji LR, 5" sugar fine DSB with some rubble, open-top, peacefull tankmates. Would be a mature system of at least 6 months old, or even a year if necessary. Regarding food competition I think it's worth mentionning that there would also be a pair of mandarin in the same tank.

Thanks for any feedback!

Ricimer

 

[garvin90]

How long have the mandarins been in the system itself is a good question? Being if the system is only established for 6 months and if the mandarins have been in there before the 6 month period, the pods may not have had enough time to establish a large enough colony to support your mandarins let alone the signals.

I say wait awhile longer and if you can, try to reseed your tank with more pods to restock what you have may have lost with the mandarins. If you also dont mind the look, try to establish some gracilaria(provided you have the lighting for it) in the main tank to add to you pod producing areas.

I can garuantee you will enjoy your signals when you get them, they will sandsift aswell as constuct themselves a cave to retire in at night.

 

[Ricimer]

I did wait 6 months before adding the mandarin. It's been 6 months he's in now. He's fat and there is still a lot of pods. However I will not add the signal gobies right now because I 've been told they are extremely difficult to keep alive and at the moment I have 90gal+25gal fuge. I will wait until I upgrade to 210gal+90gal fuge. 6 months after upgrading I would like to try add a second mandarin and a pair of signal gobies. I have corals in the display tank as well as a yellow tang so no gracillaria there, but in the fuge yes.

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

Ricimer,

a 210 g is to big for these fish. Reasons as follows:

* Most likely you keep larger fast swimming fish in there which would freak the gobies and will prevent that of sifting the sand column

* Fast swimming fish will eat all food before the gobies will have a glimps of a chance.

* Current flow rate in bigger tanks are way t much for these small gobies

I keept them sucessfully in smaller tanks with peacefull tank mates. Sucess key is to get healty fish, have fine sand, moderate current and high quality really small pelltets.

 

[Ricimer]

Mr. Schmiedel,
-Flow rate would be 15X per hour (keeping Montiporas and Euphillids).
-Tank mates would be a pair of ocellaris, a school of chromis viridis, a group of clown goby (gobiodon histrio), a tail spot blenny, a pair of mandarin, a pair of bangai cardinals, and a yellow tang.
Would you still advice against it?

 

[rich415]

I have had one signal goby (yes only one) in my 37 Gallon since July 2005. He eats all prepared foods except flakes. I got him to eat tubifex first then weened him onto mysis and them everything else.

I agree with Peter Schmiedel these fish are very timid and will not compete with any other fish (okay maybe the clown gobies). Mine gets freaked out when my cleaner shrimp comes out onto the sand bed.

As far as pods go...well I've seen my goby catch one and spit it out because it was too big. These fish regulary sift the sand for microscopic crustaceans and worms not pods. The trick is getting them to eat prepared foods then makingsure they get their fare share.

 

[brifirst]

I have tried many times to keep them. Never had any luck.

 

[Ricimer]

Thanks for the feedback! One more thing: I've been reading somewhere that they could eat small ornamental shrimps. I have a herd of sexy shrimps and a periclimenes. I am surprised and skeptical. The book said the same damned thing about the yellow watchman goby. What do you think about it!? Can a signal goby really be a threat to sexy shrimps and such other crustaceans!?

 

[JeepTJ]

Don't suggest it. I just added one to my 75g yesterday to try and have something sift some sand and clean it. Today, he's near death after having almost all his fins removed by a female clownfish and a bangaii cardinal (they've never been aggressive to anything else in my tank).

They chase it all over the tank, I'm trying to keep him seperated right now, but there's no chance of him lasting with these other two 'peaceful' fish in the tank.

Though the short time he wasn't being attacked, he did do an excellent job cleaning up some of the sand (sugar sized).

 

[rich415]

Like I said in the post above, my signal goby will spit out pods that are too big and sometimes chunks of frozen food that are not well chopped. These things are meant to eat tiny inverts, so unless these sexy shrimp are really small, I don't foresee a problem.

 

[Ricimer]

Understood. Thanks!

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

Sorry for late replay, but my job keeps me to busy ...

The wont harm any shrimps don't worry.

As the others said already, normally your tank mates are peachfull BUT anemon fish can be nasty and Chromis is my "enemy" (just removed 10 from my 320).

You have to see the flow rate in relation to tank set up etc. I can't give any advise on that only based on flow rate only. As slower the current as better it is for this fish.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

i have one(two spot goby), but i can't get him to eat anyting He does keep my sand extremly clean though.

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

amber.

give me some more information about tha tank set up and the pump used. Or got a pic form the tank?

What is the soze of the fish?

As long as tey still swimm around and sift sand there is a chance to get them in better condition. If they stop swimming etc they are mostly not to rescue.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

well mine is slowly starving to death. I wouldn't recomend one at all. I have gotten a mandarin to eat frozen food, but i can not get this fish to eat anything at all. I have had him aprox 20 days now. Guess you have seen the pics of my fish on this thread

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=831157

I don't have too much flow, maybe 20x or so. the fish is about 2" long. I know someone who has a 200gal tank and i'm going to see if he wants the fish, it's going to be hard to catch him though.