why they die?

[twinspots_goby]

I have 225gal tank with many fish. All fish have been doing fine except those sand sifting gobies including twinspots, diamond and gold head. I saw them constantly sifting the sand and seemed very starving. But they never accept other food. they died after several weeks. I'm pretty sure they died due to starving. But why?

 

[ZoaFan08]

I was lucky enough to get my diamond goby to eat pellets and flake so he is as fat as can be.

 

[roshi719]

Like you said prolly starved. Can you keep them in a breeder net or a QT tank for a while after you get them and train them onto frozen food?

 

[twinspots_goby]

With my 225 gal system, they still won't get enough food by just sifting sand?

 

[ZoaFan08]

With my 225 gal system, they still won't get enough food by just sifting sand?

I don't think so, how long has the system been up and running?

 

[twinspots_goby]

about 4 to 5 months.

 

[seafansar]

+1 on training them to eat prepared foods before adding them to the tank. I don't think 4 to 5 months is long enough for enough microfauna to populate the sand and keep a sand-sifter fat and happy.

I have a twin-spot in a 1 gallon quarantine tank right now, so it's really easy to get food to him and make sure he's eating. Also you can ask to see the fish eating before buying it if you buy from a LFS.

 

[Murfman]

about 4 to 5 months.

I don't think your sandbed is really established at 4-5 months.

 

[Stray32]

^ +1
That is probably a big contributor. My Diamond Goby eats pellets and occasionally will come up for flakes. The rest of the time he sifts.

 

[twinspots_goby]

All my sand were live sands when I started this new tank. Will it still take more than 4 -5 months to establish?

 

[seafansar]

When you buy "live sand" in a bag it has beneficial bacteria in it, not microfauna. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen little worms, pods, and such in bagged live sand. I think it comes more from your live rock. The mircofauna is on the liverock and then crawls into the sand and populates it. You could get some live sand from someone with an established tank to seed yours.

 

[twinspots_goby]

I belice there are plenty of pods and warms in mg sands. My mandarin is very happy. I wonder why i can keep my mandarin, but not a sand sifting goby.

 

[seafansar]

When they were in your tank, was there another fish bullying them? I had a diamond goby that was fat and ate anything you gave him. I added a tang that decided he didn't like the goby and the goby almost starved cause he wouldn't come out of his hole to eat. I had to catch him and find him a new home.

Also, are you getting them from the same supplier? Maybe they have an internal parasite. Try putting them in QT, teach them how to eat prepared foods, and treat them with prazipro.

Other than that, I dunno what you could do.

 

[twinspots_goby]

When they were in your tank, was there another fish bullying them? I had a diamond goby that was fat and ate anything you gave him. I added a tang that decided he didn't like the goby and the goby almost starved cause he wouldn't come out of his hole to eat. I had to catch him and find him a new home.

Also, are you getting them from the same supplier? Maybe they have an internal parasite. Try putting them in QT, teach them how to eat prepared foods, and treat them with prazipro.

Other than that, I dunno what you could do.

I had the same problem. My purple tang is chasing them all the time. He doesn't bother any other fish such as clowns, fire gobies, black cap basslet and cardinals. But he always chase those sand sifting gobies. Now I think those fish might have died because of the stress.

 

[seafansar]

Yep, that's probably it!

 

[Jeremym420]

I sell all sorts of different sand sifting gobies in the store i work at, and i get them eating piscine energetics mysis shrimp within a few days of arrival. Its very high in protien so it keeps the meat on them.