Stonogobiops nematodes question

[ichthyogeek]

So in my parents' (my mom made it very clear that she was repossessing my aquarium...) 55 gallon aquarium, there's a single S. nematodes goby that has a penchant to disappear for a few weeks here, then appear for a few weeks there, on and on and on. The tank's got a lot of live rock for it to traverse through...but it makes it hard to find on the days you can find it. For gobies like this, is there such a thing as too much space? I'm debating plumbing up a system for my parents when I get back home that puts the goby in its own little 10 gallon tank, but is stabilized by the 55, just so they can see if its alive or not day to day.Thoughts and advice?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You still may never see him often enough. Does he tend to keep consistent burrows in the big tank? I've had a few of these over the years, two in a 360g and two in a much smaller tank (40g I think), and the experience was the same regardless of tank size. Once you realized where their burrows were it was a little easier to keep an eye on them. Still, they'd often spend hours deep in the burrow every day so it was easy to assume they were "missing" for weeks at a time.

 

[ichthyogeek]

My parents have a general idea of where it likes to be (the right hand side, under a massive piece of live rock), which is funny...because I had made a fake burrow for it on the left hand side of the tank. I'm just thinking that a 10 gallon would make it easier to spot given that it's only so big, whereas the 55 is just...too much for the fish.

 

[gogo7]

will it have a deep sandbed and a randalls?
that's my advice.
the tunnels will look good. the shrimp will give it confidence to come out see you.
a few corals and you're good to go.
add.... i'd even go smaller tank, just deeper. if that's possible.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Gogo! I've missed your breeding thread! It used to be part of a pair/trio, but the other two disappeared for good... Probably a DSB, and if I can get some candy canes, I'd love to!

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Just for the record, since I didn't really say this in my earlier post, I think the idea of setting up the smaller tank is really cool. Go ahead and do it, but I wouldn't expect the fish to be inherently more visible just because of the tank size. Regardless, it makes for a good excuse to set up a new tank, and who would turn that down?

I also agree with gogo, get a shrimp in whichever tank it ends up in!