Sand sifting goby creating a mess!

[Zeal]

Hi all so I’ve had a sand sifting goby for about 4 months now and I love him and all the work he does but dang he sure does create a mess sometimes.

Question I’m having is I have quite the few corals and 3
RFA on the sandbed and I’m wondering if getting sand on the corals an issue in the long run? I blow the sand off twice a day...

 

[James M]

thats what they do .The sand won't cause issues but blowing the sand off the corals will IMO

 

[SPR1968]

That’s basically what they do, sift sand and then throw it all over the place ! Lol

I had one and he was a great character but used to drive me mad. On the day I was going to take him back during a tank upgrade, he sadly went tank surfing to his doom...

If you can put up with him their great.

 

[jd371]

What kind of Goby? My Rainford sifts the sand all day long without making a mess. The worst it gets is a slight sprinkling of sand on some corals that gets blown off with the the current eventually, I never really need to dig any corals out.

 

[Zeal]

Diamond Watchman Goby, which is weird he only makes a mess early morning and late in the afternoon. During the day hes busy reinforcing the entrance to his 2 holes he makes under rocks

Oh and grabbing hermit crabs and flinging them across the tank lol

I wont be getting rid of him I like how he keeps the sandbed all nice and clean, but most importantly is there an issue with the corals getting sand on them? I have 3 RFAs and a WWC interstellar Mushroom that are constantly getting sand on them. I a very light blow and the sand usually comes off.

 

[Pwelter]

I have a question . Have a sand sifting goby also making a mess in my tank with fine sand. Is there any issue vacuuming out the fine sand and replacing it with a little larger grade? Tank is over a year old and SSG has been in the tank a month.

 

[James M]

I have a question . Have a sand sifting goby also making a mess in my tank with fine sand. Is there any issue vacuuming out the fine sand and replacing it with a little larger grade? Tank is over a year old and SSG has been in the tank a month.

Welcome to reef2reef !
Is it a deep sand bed or shallow ?

 

[Pwelter]

Thank you. The sand bed was about an inch total. I stirred regularly. I had to rearrange my landscape to get a trouble making fish and coral banded shrimp out about 2 weeks ago. When I did that I pulled all the sand to the front of the tank so the rock would be directly on the bottom not stting on the sand. So technically its about 2 inches in the front of the tank and the SSG has tossed all sand again.

 

[Super Fly]

Thank you. The sand bed was about an inch total. I stirred regularly. I had to rearrange my landscape to get a trouble making fish and coral banded shrimp out about 2 weeks ago. When I did that I pulled all the sand to the front of the tank so the rock would be directly on the bottom not stting on the sand. So technically its about 2 inches in the front of the tank and the SSG has tossed all sand again.

no problem replacing shallow sand with larger grain sand.

 

[Pwelter]

Thank you.