My Goby is driving me nuts!!

[cwk84]

I got a Goby a couple weeks ago and two days ago he started stirring everything up, digging underneath my rocks exposing the bare bottom of my tank. The water looks super cloudy now. He also has been knocking stuff over since day one. I put a new Stylophora frag in the tank and wedged it into a crevice in my rock work (I'm not sure if I want to leave it there so glue was no option) and the next day it was sticking in the substrate. He did this with other frags as well. He knocks it over, I put it back, he knocks it over again, I put it back etc. It's almost like he does it on purpose!!! It really feels like he's aware of it and he wants to give me a hard time! Every time I look at him he swims up to the glass looking at me like 'I'ma make yo life a hell bruh!' Will this behavior stop or do I have to get rid of him? I can't stand this mess. I can see the bottom of my tank and it looks HORRIBLE. AAARRGH.

 

[Maritimer]

There are gobies and gobies - there are more different species of goby than any other fish, possibly more than any other vertebrate - and they all behave somewhat differently.

Which one is yours?

~Bruce

 

[cwk84]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/211/sleeper-blue-dot-goby?pcatid=211&c=15+31+211

 

[Maritimer]

Ah. A Valencienna sandsifter.

He may slow down with regards to molesting your frags, but he's going to continue to disturb your sandbed. That's what these guys do, it's how they find their lunch. Folks get them in order to keep a sparklingly clean sandbed - and they're very good at it - but they do create something of a sandstorm with the finer substrates, in the process. (They also have a tendency to bury frags placed close to the bottom.) As those finer, drifting grains get pulled out by your filtration, the tank should begin to clear up ... in time.

~Bruce

 

[Friday24]

That’s what sleeper gobies do. Build/dig their den and sift sand looking for food throughout the day. Shrimp gobies do this as well.

 

[cwk84]

Yea that's what he did all day long but two days ago he started quadrupling down on it!

 

[BigHildy53]

Like others have said, based on my experience with my Diamond Goby, it will settle down.

 

[Friday24]

I rehomed a sleeper banded years ago because he would grab a mouth full of sound go halfway up in the water column and sift it out and cover any bottom dwelling corals

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

That's why I dont keep that type of goby, it's what they do.

Good luck, hope he settles in for you

 

[cwk84]

What kind of goby doesn't behave like that? I thought they all sift sand and build little dens!?

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

No they all dont.

Shrimp gobies live in caves but don't dig, that's what the shrimp does but shrimp don't make as much of a mess, usually. I solve it by not keeping a pistol with them.

My circus gobie never touches the bottom and my rainford and hectors gobies sift the sand through their mouths but are very neat and clean about it. They just leave little piles on the bottom and seem to avoid digging in the current areas where it would blow around.

As said above, the group of fish called "gobies" is extremely large and diverse.

 

[Legal Reefer]

My diamond goby has a impressive tunnel system. I see him peeking out from under every rock in the tank from time to time. I just use the turkey baster to blow the sand off of anything he covers that I don't want covered. He's gotten so used to eating from a feeding tube that he now chases the baster around when I'm trying to clean. It's well worth the little bit of maintenance I have to do to clean his sand away everyday, but I can see where it would be a pain for someone with more corals or aquascaping than I have.

 

[cwk84]

Well I guess I have the wrong Goby then lol... He's digging with his tail. He didn't do that before. My wife says maybe he wants to lay eggs but we don't even know how they reproduce. When we got him he just sifted the sand through his gills and knocked stuff over but the water wasn't cloudy. Now he's really going bananas!

 

[jd371]

Rainford's Goby is what you want. I added one to my tank a month ago. It sifts the sand all day long but always stays close to the sb so it doesn't make a mess and I have the very fine sugar type sand too. With all sand sifters you will need to blow sand off coral once and a while, but with my Rainford's it's a light dusting and no mounds at all. With the two Conch's and the Rainford's my sand is looking great.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

I wouldn't say you have the wrong goby , just a messy one!

They are still a great fish and although I don't keep one, many do and enjoy them a lot. Every stock selection comes with a tradeoff and the messiness shouldn't be the end of the world.

Let it settle in, clean up after him as needed and enjoy your tank!

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I had a similar issue with my LM Blenny. He is obsessed with tail flicking at the glass and was always stirring things up and making a mess of the tank. To reduce the cloudiness in the tank I vacuumed the crap out of the sand bed with every other water change. Doing this pulled out most of the fine silt that kept getting kicked up. It took 3-4 good deep cleanings but it did remove the majority of the silt and now my tank stays very clear even when he is on a wild tear and spends the majority of the day dancing at the glass.

 

[Tallison]

I purchased a diamond goby 2 days ago who is a terror. Came home from work after his first day to a tank that looked like i just put sand in it. It eventually calmed down after awhile but i'm hoping he calms down or ill have to rehome him.

 

[BigHildy53]

I purchased a diamond goby 2 days ago who is a terror. Came home from work after his first day to a tank that looked like i just put sand in it. It eventually calmed down after awhile but i'm hoping he calms down or ill have to rehome him.

Mine settled down once he got things to his liking. I tried to reshape the sand initially. That did not work out. Now I leave him be and have moved things around his remodeling

 

[Txag96]

My cloudiness settled down about a day after he jumped out of the tank (that had an eggcrate cover on it.) So I am not sure how long it will take.

 

[Legal Reefer]

I had to remove the sand that my goby had mounded up. If I put it back in his way he would just pile it back up. I find it much easier to blow his sand off of things than to vacuum, and I haven't had to vacuum since he's been in the tank. As long as I don't block his tunnels he has not been as bad with covering anything with sand.