All With Engineer Gobies( 2 in. to 2 feet)

psusocr1

Active Member
i have been reading alot of engineer goby questions lately and figured i would post. as some of you know i had to tear my 300 and 125 down recently because i moved to florida . i had gotten my engineer goby when he was about 2 inches and i never knew how big he had gotten until i pulled him out.. i only ever saw his head and the mess he made with the sand, not his body length.. but here he is..and from the top down picture you can see how fat he was! hes in a 5 gallon bucket in the pics and a short video


 

brandan

Member
Wow!!! That is just kind of creepy though, I am horribly terrified of snakes, so I do not like anything long and slimy. Lol, good lookin' fish though!
 

anonome

Active Member
They seem so innocent when you see them at the store...2 inches. What a beautiful fish/eel like.
 

psusocr1

Active Member
yea they are great until they tear the tank apart..i housed him solo in me 55 gallon refugium thannk god.. because i cant imagine what he would have done in my main tank! or especially a reef tank!
 

grubsnaek

Active Member
i have two that i bought when they were around an inch. now they are both are over a foot long, i do have a mixed reef. there a trick to these fish.....
the trick:
put the live rock in first before sand, also put most sand toward front of tank and a small covering in the back near the live rock. most of the sand will now form around the base rock. reasons for doing this is that the first rock you put down are now grounded so when they dig it wont cause a rock slide. and for the sand there only going to move the sand forward so instead of them clouding your tank up. beat them to it. for the shallow sand in the back, there gonna need to do something at first so give them some sand to move. hope that all made sense
 
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sudc

Guest
Mine pretty much just decides every 3-4 months that he wants a new burrow. I wake up and there is a new huge sand dune in the tank(hopefully not covering any corals!).
They are awesome fish but if you have alot of corals on the sandbed, they can be a MAJOR pain in the butt as they will definitely dust them from time to time.
I just got my second one but he's hiding in the back of the tank and haven't been able to get a pic of him yet.
 
well i have 2 engineer goby in my tank.. biggest mistake i made so far. i didnt think they got that big but they were 3inches each when i got them now there like 10 inches long and they only come out to eat.. when they do come out my angle chaces them back in to there tunnels.. ya i have about 50 tunels under my live rock good thing my lr are all sitting on the glass and not on the sand. i was thinking of getting rid of them but how would i catch them with all those tunnels!!!! unless i took out all the lr!!
to much work. ill just see what happens when i get my new tank....
 
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sudc

Guest
10inces? lol, you still got a ways to go!
A lfs around me used to have a pair in their display that were supposedly almost 10 years old and they were BIG! Well over a foot with heads so big , it literally looked like they could swallow golfballs.
I love them but would never put one in my large display. Too many corals in there for them to mess with and dust. In my small tank though, they are pretty cool and actually have a decent personality. He does like to come out and bite me when i spot feed corals though! If you can't get an eel, they are a good alternative.
 

ameno

Active Member
I have one thats close to a foot long now, thought it was a really neat looking fish until I got him in the tank and he is constsntly digging. I don't think there is any sand left under my rock and a lot of mushrooms and a few corals have died from being buried. I'm gona be upgrading to a bigger tank soon and when he comes out he's going back to the fish store.
 

psusocr1

Active Member
ya mine was easily 16-18 inches without a doubt..nad you can see how fat he is! bigger than most SFE's ive ever saw
 

ameno

Active Member
yea he's a monster, mine comes out more then he used too when it's feeding time, and it seems like he goes on forever before I see his tail. there's no way to get a pick of him though he runs out grabs food and heads back under the rocks. My new refugium is gona be 30 gal. so I might try to set him up a home in there, hate to get rid of him but he's just no good in the reef tank.
 

bravanc

Member
oh yeah! i had one of those too. had to keep him in a tank with no substrate. Finally gave him away.
 

larryndana

Active Member
Originally Posted by psusocr1
ya mine was easily 16-18 inches without a doubt..nad you can see how fat he is! bigger than most SFE's ive ever saw

wow, what a monster.
 

psusocr1

Active Member
unfortunatly i had to sell them both.. it was really unfeasible to take a 400 gallon system from p.a to fl ya know? but i wish i could have.. only a matter of time before im up and runnign again thoough
 
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