Should I get a sandsifting goby?

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

Hello, I am 14 years old and am setting up a 40b mixed reef. I wanted a fish with lots of personality so I immediately turned to the Diamond Watchman Goby. I don’t know much about them if anyone could share there experience it would be greatly appreciated. I plan on having mostly peaceful fish in my tank so I doubt he would get picked on. The only thing I see being a problem is him messing up my sandbed and dumping mouthfuls of sand in my corals. Thanks in advance

- Noxel

fishguy242 · Feb 25, 2020

hi seem to know what you are doing just watch for sand on corals,keep away from his hole,they are jumpers too,happy reefing

Yates273 · Feb 25, 2020

Yes. They have loads of personality. I had one until he recently disappeared in my tank. (40 breeder)He was awesome, but I think I’m better off. He was spitting the sand all over my rocks and I would have to blow off my ACAN every day because he would spit the substrate in the acans mouth.

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

fishguy242 said:
hi seem to know what you are doing just watch for sand on corals,keep away from his hole,they are jumpers too,happy reefing

My tank has a built in lid but I will take further precautions to make sure he can’t possibly go carpet surfing.

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

Jason Yahr said:
Yes. They have loads of personality. I had one until he recently disappeared in my tank. (40 breeder)He was awesome, but I think I’m better off. He was spitting the sand all over my rocks and I would have to blow off my ACAN every day because he would spit the substrate in the acans mouth.

Blowing off the rocks wouldn’t be too big of a deal for me, it’s when the corals are damaged by him when I’ll have a problem. Did he ever take to frozen or pellets?

YumaMan · Feb 25, 2020

The Diamond Watchman Goby has great personality and is very easy to keep. But despite covering my tank, the DWG was able to swim at such a speed as to knock the plastic screen off the tank by 1/2 inch and jump through the gap. They are very quick and powerful jumpers -- so keep a very tight cover on your aquarium. I hope this helps.

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

YumaMan said:
The Diamond Watchman Goby has great personality and is very easy to keep. But despite covering my tank, the DWG was able to swim at such a speed as to knock the plastic screen off the tank by 1/2 inch and jump through the gap. They are very quick and powerful jumpers -- so keep a very tight cover on your aquarium. I hope this helps.

My tank is acrylic and has a built in lid so unless I mistakenly buy the hulk I don’t thing that should be an issue lol

saltwaterpicaso · Feb 25, 2020

Very good fish just make sure to keep it well fed o find they can get thin fast

krash7172 · Feb 25, 2020

I like mine so much that I removed some sand to make him compatible with my tank. He was making 9" tall mounds overnight! As long as he has a safe hole to live in and enough sand for feeding, you are good. 2nd the jumping.

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

krash7172 said:
I like mine so much that I removed some sand to make him compatible with my tank. He was making 9" tall mounds overnight! As long as he has a safe hole to live in and enough sand for feeding, you are good. 2nd the jumping.

Although my rock work isn’t touching the bottom glass, it is very minimal and wants faded when I applied a good amount of pressure on it, so hopefully that won’t be a problem. How deep does your seedbed have to be? Mine is roughly 2”.

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

saltwaterpicaso said:
Very good fish just make sure to keep it well fed o find they can get thin fast

What is a good food for him? I’ve heard people mention nori on a clip but never actually seen it. I plan on feeding frozen mysis and some sort of pellets so would I need something else for this guy?

krash7172 · Feb 25, 2020

Mine is only about 1" now. It was 2"+ before. He piles it where he wants and is 2-3" in places and bare bottom in some.

krash7172 · Feb 25, 2020

He's a meat eater. Mine loves brine shrimp

noxel56 · Feb 25, 2020

krash7172 said:
He's a meat eater. Mine loves brine shrimp

What size tank is he in? Would a 40b be big enough? I’ve heard they can get up to 6” so just double checking.

Jfinn · Feb 25, 2020

+1 brine shrimp

They are sifting sand for microfauna I believe so a well seeded or established tank and perseverance. Took me 4-5 jumpers before I found one that preferred being wet. Lids did nothing - when they want out they will find the smallest of holes the litttle houdinis.

suggest 2” sand bed medium to small grain size.

good luck!

snowhite · Feb 25, 2020

We have a Bella Goby that will intentionally spread sand over corals. He'll even go 12" up a bank of live rock to reach my TOrch's, Hammers, and Duncans. Some tollerate it fine, other corals just rarely come out.

Thankfully, I think wife plans to move the Bella to a Fowler 75gallon she started up a month ago.

YumaMan · Feb 25, 2020

I spoke with Andy at Fish Land here in Houston about how his DWG was on display in his shop in an uncovered tank. Andy replied that he was able to convince the goby that it was better for everyone if he stayed in the tank. If there is a trick to this I surely don't know it. How does Andy do it? He would not tell me.

codycolina707 · Feb 25, 2020

noxel56 said:
Hello, I am 14 years old and am setting up a 40b mixed reef. I wanted a fish with lots of personality so I immediately turned to the Diamond Watchman Goby. I don’t know much about them if anyone could share there experience it would be greatly appreciated. I plan on having mostly peaceful fish in my tank so I doubt he would get picked on. The only thing I see being a problem is him messing up my sandbed and dumping mouthfuls of sand in my corals. Thanks in advance

- Noxel

i would never have to touch the sand other than spread it back out but its always nice and white mine grew really fast even with having a kole tang try to bully him now that he is about 4+ inchs he dont let it happen sometimes ill throw a whole chunk of frozen food in still frozen and the diamond goby will grab the whole thing and sift it/eat alot of it hes a absolute pig.also i have the really fine sand oolit i think it is and it would be cloudy for the first month or so from him getting all the really fine stuff into the water column but now it hardly happens

Jfinn · Feb 25, 2020

Also, try to find one that doesn’t spook easy - important

We did this by putting our hand up to the tank and observing how calm (or not) the fish remained. The jumpy ones are - well - jumpy! They’ll be dried or dog food within a week.

Daddy-o · Feb 25, 2020

@noxel56 My son was 14 when he started reefing (he is 16 now) and he was very bummed at how expensive coral was. We have 7 reefs tanks and try to be generous - especially with younger reefers that maybe dont have the same reefer budget as us "old" people. We are in the San Francisco Bay Area and if you are local to us we would be happy to give you a bunch of coral for your reef.
Cheers! Mark