Who with SPS tanks keep Diamond Sleeper Gobies?

[OneReef]

I have mixed feelings on this fish. I want one to keep my sand turned over and nice and clean, but I do not want the silty particle laiden water column these guys can create. I like clear looking water. What has been your experience with these guys in an SPS tank? Could the stirring of particles and crud in the sand (I have a shallow bed) be beneficial or detrimental to SPS? Does the water column ever clear, or are you doomed with floating particles forever?

 

[aurora]

I just add one to my 9 yo tank with a deep sand bed. He did a lot of work for a week. The first few days, I have a light haze in the water from him turning up the sand but now my sand is almost fluorescent white. The draw back is he is digging under some very old rock works and I'm kinda of concerned that he could collapse a critical rock. He already digged under a large grapefruit size brain. It was simple enough to fill the sand back in and leveled the brain out. However, if he undermines a large supporting rock, that could be trouble. I'm love the clean sand; but like you, I'm a bit apprehensive about him digging too deep. The good news is that when I set up my sandbed, I put a supported platform of eggcrate about 2" under my sand to prevent the rock work from sinking too low.

After a week, the haze has gotten a lot better. I think he turned up a few years worth of detritus in the first week and my skimmer is doing a great job of removing them. I think in the the long run, this will be better for my sand bed. BTW, I have a 6" sandbed that is about 9 years old made of Home Depot sand. This stuff is supper fine. If you have coarser sand, you'll be fine.

 

[Whisperer]

I have one. I also noted that it digs around the rocks for pods. Luckily, my rocks sit directly on the glass and I have no worries about instability. I got mine because my sand started to grow some dark mold-looking stuff that have disappeared since I got the goby. My goby stay close to the sand when sifting and does not cause any particulates to float around. My sand is coarse and I rinsed it wert well when I set my tank up.

 

[sweet ride]

I've been also thinking about adding one of this guys also. seems like a good thing to add one of this guys if you want your sand bed clean.

 

[dworkman]

I just saw one of these in the LFS today, almost came home with it, but decided to do a little research first. I've got a really healthy pod population, and some dirty sand, so it sounds like a good little addition.

 

[thebanker]

I did not like having this fish. The sand was always pristine, but the water always had bits in it. Also, I'm of the belief that the goby slowy starved to death, and that Diamond gobies will slowly starve in almost all systems. Also, sometimes he would dig up so much sand that the skimmer would need to constantly readjust to the amount of particles in the water.

 

[MechEng99]

I have a cross-hatch goby (Amblygobius decussatus), and he only sifts sand right by the sand. He doesn't swim up the column to drop sand around. He does go up the water column, but never with sand. I had another one previously...same thing. Sorry I don't have experience with the diamonds.

The cross-hatch are great since they eat some algae and pods...not just one or the other. Mine is definitely well fed. He also takes prepared food very easily.

 

[rtbm]

This is the fish i have made my lfs promise to never sell me again. I love these things but over the course have had I think at least four jump out on me.

I finally got to the point where I begged the guy to never sell me another. No matter how what i say.