Sand sifting gobies and keeping them alive

[pickupman66]

I have had BAD luck with Diamond gobies. I can never keep them alive for more than a few weeks. the last one I had even ate some prepared foods the last week we had it. This dates back to my old 75 gallon tank as well. I cannot seem to figure them out. I can keep much more finicky fish alive and yet this one eludes me.

any advice on how to keep them alive in a 2 year old system?

 

[BenjaminS]

More pods???
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[Trex]

I gave up on those about 10 years ago. Would be able to keep them for about a year, and then they would slowly starve to death -- even though they were eating prepared foods. THink that was about the amount of time for them to stripe my sandbed clean of any food/life. Now I just stick with shrimp/goby combos.

 

[Steelerfan747]

I have the same issue with diamon gobies. Sorry to hear of your troubles but glad to know it's not just me. I thought I may be doing something wrong.

 

[STL]

I almost lost an orangemarked sand-sifting goby - a few weeks after arrival he was so weak he was getting stuck on a pump intake. But frozen spirulina brine shrimp turned his corner. Now he's fat, eats like a pig (all kinds of food) and steals nori from the veggie clip when the tangs aren't looking.

What you guys are saying combined with the nori stealing and quick turn-around on the spirulina brine shrimp makes me suspect they need a tang-like high veggie diet.

 

[gmoney243]

I've had a diamond goby about a year now. I got him from a reefer sellin out. He's big and fat and keeps my sand clean. I'm not sure what the trick is as he really doesn't seem to eat to much when I feed tank. Hell grab food if it ccomes by but mostly doesn't seem to care about the foods. Must be something in my sand. SSB crushed coral. I do feed cyclopeeze regularly its fish crack.

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[SeahorseKeeper]

I can't keep these guys alive. It's a bummer. I just think some fish don't belong in our tanks.

 

[Pappy]

I'm surprised to see these responses as I had one forever (my first tank where alk was at 26, lonnngggg story) then another for the last year.


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pickupman66]

I don't think pods are an issue. You should see how fat my 6line and melanarus wrasses and my yellow tail pygmy angel are. They are absolute porkers.

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[GrouperStupor]

I've had a diamond goby about a year now. I got him from a reefer sellin out. He's big and fat and keeps my sand clean. I'm not sure what the trick is as he really doesn't seem to eat to much when I feed tank. Hell grab food if it ccomes by but mostly doesn't seem to care about the foods. Must be something in my sand. SSB crushed coral. I do feed cyclopeeze regularly its fish crack.

Mine is fat and happy too. He's a couple of years old. I feed cyclopeeze, coral frenzy, and frozen like marine cuisine. Maybe that cp is helping...or he just likes my dirty tank.

 

[Degener8]

The need some veggies in their diet the key I found when I had one was allowing for enough algae to grow on/in the sand and feeding something like emerald entree which gas greens in it for yge herbivores. They would purposely seek out the greens.

 

[lpslover]

The one I've personally seen do well long term (5 years+) was in a 150 gallon FOWLR tank I was taking care of for a coworker, and it was an old and dirty tank. (Mulm like you wouldn't believe.) From what I've heard since then, they like low maintenance / higher nutrient tanks (not in the uber clean carbon dosed sps systems) with mellow tank mates who will leave them in peace and at least 100 gallons with no other sand sifting critters. Most of them I've heard of will eat some prepared food as well, but they seem to do better with plenty of sufficiently dirty sand to snack on.

I also think this is one of those species that suffers badly in the collection to LFS transition. Because of their picky eating I think they tend to go a couple weeks with suboptimal nutrition in what is already a stressful situation. Most of them I've seen in my LFSs are kinda thin and apathetic looking. Not sick perhaps, but I think by the time they get to our tanks they don't have too many reserves to keep them running while they acclimate to captive diets.

 

[gmoney243]

I'm pretty sure they are detritovores and need lots of detritus in the sand

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[pickupman66]

WOW. thats very very interesting. Whats funny is that I DO NOT do water changes on my tank. no vacuum of the sand. I do run Ecobak and struve for a UNLS, but I still have some Cyano growth in a few areas. Yes there is some detritus on the rocks, but not sure about the sand. I did have some sort of very bright green growth on the sand that was like a lime green cyano. once settled in, he did go to town on that spot and it looks impeccable still. just wish he would have lasted.

 

[coralfish keeper]

Hi , I have a pink lined sand shiffter goby for about 7 months now and he is fat fat fat !!! I feed frozen brine ,mysis, rotifers and nori he hides untill food is on its way !!! As soon as he sees it commong hes out and siffting the sand he also eats the flake . so dont give up on them try a diffrent type of sand siffter goby