Sand sifting shenanigans

[WhitePanther93]

Attention owners of sand sifting gobies! How do you deal with their….. redecorating?

just the other day I picked up a blue diamond goby. After acclimating and watching a bit to make sure my coral beauty wasn’t gonna harass him too much,I walked away only to come back to a large mound of sand in the middle of my tank. I expected some sand movement, but not this much. I discovered that he decided to dig out underneath my zoa island.

 

[blaxsun]

Avoid them like the plague. Then my striped dottyback decided he was going to carve out a tunnel system so he's been busy ingesting and spitting out sand for the past 2 weeks. Not making a mess, though - he's been carefully placing it in a pile. What a polite fish!

 

[i cant think]

They are amazing fish. And add abit of a natural reef to your tank. When will you ever see a naturally flat piece of land? I love my gobies for that sand sifting personality. Just avoid coral on the sandbed and you’re fine. Or go for coral that don’t care about the sandbed

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Haha! Their redecorating can be aggravating...

 

[Intense37754]

Every once in awhile just level out the sand. The goby will look at you sideways and then go back to work but your sandbed will always be clean

 

[DaddyFish]

My triggers suddenly and no longer allow Diamond Gobies. They are instantly food.
So very sad, because they're one of my favorite fish.
I had Builder Bob for several years.

 

[Karen00]

My pistol shrimp does the same thing. He moves massive amounts of sand. I just smooth it out every once in awhile. I have come to appreciate his engineering abilities. The sand he moves sparkles it's so clean.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

The day after adding a diamond goby, my tank looked like it was going through a dust storm. Debris was kicked up from the sand bad. I was ticked, but calm down soon after as I realized how good this was not only for the sand bed, but for the chemistry of my tank. Not only that, my sand is now white and pristine. My skimmer made quick work of all debris. Now I have a healthy, white sand bed. As a added bonus, the diamond goby is by far the most interesting fish in my tank. Watching him clean out his cave every morning, then filling the entrance of the cave with sand every night.

The battles he has with the pistol shrimp is very entertaining. Since they share the same cave, the pistol shrimp is constantly trying to move sand from one part to another. The goby moves the sand right back. Then a loud snap as the pistol shrimp gets ticked off.

 

[Sean Clark]

My dottieback has also converted into a goby and spends half of the day moving sand to the other side of the tank. My gobies would only take it a few inches.

 

[i cant think]

The day after adding a diamond goby, my tank looked like it was going through a dust storm. Debris was kicked up from the sand bad. I was ticked, but calm down soon after as I realized how good this was not only for the sand bed, but for the chemistry of my tank. Not only that, my sand is now white and pristine. My skimmer made quick work of all debris. Now I have a healthy, white sand bed. As a added bonus, the diamond goby is by far the most interesting fish in my tank. Watching him clean out his cave every morning, then filling the entrance of the cave with sand every night.

The battles he has with the pistol shrimp is very entertaining. Since they share the same cave, the pistol shrimp is constantly trying to move sand from one part to another. The goby moves the sand right back. Then a loud snap as the pistol shrimp gets ticked off.

I’m now on the debate with grabbing a smaller species of sand sifting goby, just hard to figure out which ones stay 2” or less. I’m just trying to further out what the final 2-3 gobies I’d want are and I think one will be a nocturnal species, one a slightly harder species and one different to the other guys.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

I’m now on the debate with grabbing a smaller species of sand sifting goby, just hard to figure out which ones stay 2” or less. I’m just trying to further out what the final 2-3 gobies I’d want are and I think one will be a nocturnal species, one a slightly harder species and one different to the other guys.

I always wanted a yasha goby. Small, and great with pistol shrimps.

 

[WhitePanther93]

I have unfortunate news. This morning I found my blue diamond sitting on top of my mesh lid.

 

[Terry Le]

Sorry to hear that