Which Sand Sifting Goby

[kmbyrnes]

My wife wants a sand sifting goby for our 125 Butterfly dominated FOWLR.
We have a 2"-3" superfine sand bed.
The tank is a total restart and only about a 6 weeks old.
1. Can we get a goby yet or is the tank too young?
2. Will it do well in i BB QT if we give it a sandbox?

Suggestions for species? She like the Diamond Watchman. Are there better choices?

 

[4Hummer]

I've had 3 Diamond Watchman Gobies disappear on my in the past 2 years.

Tank is fully covered, They seem to vanish after cleaning the tank. I think they might jump out while I'm gravel Vacuuming and lugging buckets of new Water up from the Basement.

So I'm following this thread to see if there is a better Sand Sifter out there.

6 weeks may be a little early for you, as they need a fully established sand bed full of critters to eat

 

[scottneeld88]

Sleeper blue dot goby or they call it a ladder goby he has been the most active one i ever seen he is always sifting the sand.

 

[wicz101]

Sleeper blue dot goby or they call it a ladder goby he has been the most active one i ever seen he is always sifting the sand.

+1 I have the the orange varity and he is a worker, substrate is always different when I come home from work. As far as age of tank, I would just make sure the fish is eating prepared food prior to coming home from the lfs. I had to move an a orange dot goby from a tank w/ an established sand to a tank w/ a brand new sand, and he ate food I put in the tank, plus still turned the sand over daily,

 

[Genera]

Wicz101, how deep is your sandbed? I personally don't advise keeping sand sifting gobies and stars, as they deplete the sandbed of beneficial microfauna and then usually starve or jump out (the gobies). Due to this behavior, they can wreak havoc on deep sandbeds.

 

[downbeach]

If you're trying to keep a DSB for its NRR capabilities, any sand sifting animal will decimate the infauna necessary to keep it healthy. Here are a couple articles work a read:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-09/hcs3/index.php
http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html

 

[snorvich]

I agree with both posts above. Additionally the sand storms of certain types (e.g. sleeper gobies) are a pain if you have corals.

 

[Atf22]

Whatever you do, don't get a dragon sleeper goby. Mine decided to pick up sand, swim to the top, drop sand while we swam across the tank, rinse and repeat. Stressed my fish to death. Never again

 

[kmbyrnes]

Thanks for all the responses.
Now to try and convince my wife ........

 

[wicz101]

Wicz101, how deep is your sandbed? I personally don't advise keeping sand sifting gobies and stars, as they deplete the sandbed of beneficial microfauna and then usually starve or jump out (the gobies). Due to this behavior, they can wreak havoc on deep sandbeds.

I have a pretty shallow sandbed, my sand sifter eats prepared food like a champ and is actully pretty chubby.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Below is a copy/paste of a post I made in another thread about the same thing. To answer your questions, a 6 week old tank is not necessarily too young if the fish is eating frozen/prepared foods. Personally, I would wait until the tank gunks up a bit and actually needs a cleaner. I would QT it with a complete sandbed. Normally I suggest these fish, but with a "superfine" sandbed, if you have a decent amount of flow, you might end up with a constant sandstorm with any of these fish. Also, it has not been my experience that they "decimate" the life in a sandbed. In a 90 with a pair of diamonds working the sand constantly, I still had a very healthy population of spaghetti worms.

What you want is a goby from the genus Valenciennea. Diamond gobies are the most common. Gold Head Sleeper Gobies are also readily available but they make a little more mess while cleaning the sand.

Make sure it is eating and is not skinny before you buy it. Also know that they are used to eating constantly and they are very active, so they require lots of food to keep them healthy.

I also should warn you - sometimes they make a bit of a mess and dump sand on corals on the sandbed. If you have very fine sand and a lot of flow, there may be a constant sandstorm in your tank (especially with the gold heads, who tend to take a mouthful of sand halfway up the tank before releasing it). For my last 3 tanks, I use a thin layer of a larger grain sand (Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade) and keep a diamond goby and when I broke the tank down, the sand was clean enough to re-use without rinsing.

 

[Genera]

Also, it has not been my experience that they "decimate" the life in a sandbed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh_lO137ZQY
This guy's tank crashed due to hydrogen sulfide forming due to a sand-sifting goby's activity.

 

[Genera]

double post

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

A goby's activity won't form the hydrogen sulfide. An unmaintained deep sandbed can form hydrogen sulfide, and the goby releases it. It's a time bomb waiting to be released sooner or later. I only watched the first minute of the video, but the goby was added to a well "established" DSB and released whatever had built up there. Notice how the top later of the sand is CLEAN and the lower levels are gray and nasty? If the goby had been in there the whole time nothing would have built up to later be released.

It seems like to maintain a "proper" deep sandbed there are a lot of rules and do's and don'ts - and I'm sure sand sifting gobies is one of the don'ts. Like the majority of reefers these days, I dont have a deep sandbed. I recommend using sand sifting gobies with a shallow bed of larger grain size.

Obviously, gobies eat something that lives in the sandbed, that's why they sift. But I think the idea that they "decimate" the life in a sandbed is perpetuated by people without first hand experience, because it does make sense. However, I'm reporting that it is absolutely possible to have a healthy population of spaghetti worms at the same time as sand sifting gobies. I'm sure that for a "healthy" DSB more is needed than just spaghetti worms, but it seems like plenty of people struggle to maintain a proper healthy DSB fauna even without sand sifting gobies.

I don't really care if they eat microfauna in the sand - the point of my sandbed is to look pretty on the bottom of my tank. Nobody is hating on wrasses and tangs for decimating the life on the live rock.

 

[Miguelh1302]

Nicely explain lobster, agree with u 100% one question though, does the diamond drop the sand like the sleepy head, or the stay sifting around the sand???? And will they move around or stay within their cave are? Thanks

 

[Genera]

A goby's activity won't form the hydrogen sulfide.

I meant that its turning over of the sand would crush small infauna beneath the sand bed which would decay and form hydrogen sulfide. Not to mention they eat them. Good point though. I only keep a deep sand bed because I enjoy the tiny creatures that live in it, so I follow the "rules". I do like the fauna that live on the rocks too, so I chose mollies because as of yet, they haven't picked on any worms, -pods, stars, etc.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Nicely explain lobster, agree with u 100% one question though, does the diamond drop the sand like the sleepy head, or the stay sifting around the sand???? And will they move around or stay within their cave are? Thanks

Both types will move throughout the tank. Gold heads will grab a mouthful of sand, swim to the upper parts of the tank, and drop it. Diamonds won't do that, they don't come up off the bottom the way that Gold Heads do. They both can bury corals down on the sand, but the diamonds won't get sand all over your rocks or any corals more than a few inches off the bottom.

 

[Miguelh1302]

Can the diamond be pair with a shrimp? And if yes, which one would that be??? I had a gold head, but like u said it was driving me crazy with the sand on top of everything, he died of some sort of malfunction, his buddy was like breaking in half, never seen that before

 

[ilikefish34]

Something that I believe is imperative to keeping these fishes is that the QT process must include something for internal parasites (I use prazipro). The sifters seem to be quite susceptible to them but the proper prophylactic treatment should take that issue off the table... they do need a PERFECTLY covered tank--but I believe all tanks should be as such.

I've kept a few species but prefer the Diamond sp. because of their hardiness, price and they are tireless sifters that don't let it out in the water column--also, I like to keep them in pairs. Like Lobsterofjustice, I just want me sand-bed to look clean and I worry less about the fauna. Play it safe and assume that they are getting nothing to eat from their constant sifting and make sure that tank mates aren't eating it all before it can get to them.

Miguel - these fish won't pair up with shrimp but they can form male/female bonds and it's pretty easy to find two in a LFS (or online) that have already done just that.

 

[Miguelh1302]

Thanks very much buddy, will try and see if I can find a pair, is it a 45 gal to small for a pair????