Diamond Goby

[mario]

Yesterday I went to the usual LFS to buy my weekly 5 gals of water and, as a good novice, got home with a new fish, a beautiful, entertaining Diamond Goby.
The guy told me it’s a very easy fish and my 37 gal would be perfect for him.
As soon as I got home I made some research and learned that a minimum tank size of 50 gal is recommended and that feeding is apparently not that easy.
I also noticed some incompatibility with my Sally Lightfoot Crab but that’s another story.
Lessons of the day (that I should have already learned):
1) Do not trust your LFS
2) Make your research and THEN purchase
Should I bring the Goby back?

 

[darknes]

Personally, I think a diamond goby would do just fine in a 37 gallon tank. They are also pretty easy fish to care for. They mostly will eat from the sand, filtering the detritus from it. Occasionally, mine will eat flake food that falls down.
They are a very entertaining fish, and keep the sand very white and sifted.
There are a few precautions, though. This fish will try to jump out of the tank, and you need to be sure that there is no way for it to get out. They will also spit sand all over the bottom, so you shouldn't have any corals or clams right in the sand.

 

[mopar9012]

sorry for hi jacking but i have a 29 gallon and my sand isnt looking that great. would it be okay to put that goby in my tank?

 

[mario]

Originally Posted by Darknes
They will also spit sand all over the bottom, so you shouldn't have any corals or clams right in the sand.
That's the first think I noticed, in about 20 minutes after he was introduced the water got very cloudy ;-)
Things got better after he "built" his cave under a rock and took a break.
So does this mean no Brain Corals and Goby in the same tank?

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by mario
Yesterday I went to the usual LFS to buy my weekly 5 gals of water and, as a good novice, got home with a new fish, a beautiful, entertaining Diamond Goby.
The guy told me it’s a very easy fish and my 37 gal would be perfect for him.
As soon as I got home I made some research and learned that a minimum tank size of 50 gal is recommended and that feeding is apparently not that easy.
I also noticed some incompatibility with my Sally Lightfoot Crab but that’s another story.
Lessons of the day (that I should have already learned):
1) Do not trust your LFS
2) Make your research and THEN purchase
Should I bring the Goby back?
i think this is a very easy fish to care for. we have one in our 125 reef and he does a good job cleaning the sand and he also eats frozen food like a pig!

 

[darknes]

Originally Posted by mario
That's the first think I noticed, in about 20 minutes after he was introduced the water got very cloudy ;-)
Things got better after he "built" his cave under a rock and took a break.
So does this mean no Brain Corals and Goby in the same tank?

I would wait a while until he's adjusted to the tank. Then, place a small rock in the sand, and see if he bothers it. Mine seems to enjoy burying this one fist-sized rock I have. I constantly have to keep digging it up since it has mushrooms on it.

 

[nereef]

Originally Posted by seannmelly
i think this is a very easy fish to care for. we have one in our 125 reef and he does a good job cleaning the sand and he also eats frozen food like a pig!
a 125 is a completely different situation than a 37 for this fish.
mario, how long has the tank been up? do you have a fuge? i ask because these fish don't thrive fom eating the junk that builds up on your sand, and most don't eat frozen. a 125 that has been up for a while will have enough pods for the goby to eat, but in a 37 without a fuge that has only been going for a couple months, there might not be enough food.
how does the fish look? a lot of diamond gobies starve in systems slowy over a few months. you will be able to tell if it is starving if its head is much larger than its body. the body will seem pinched in behind the head.

 

[mario]

Originally Posted by NEreef
a 125 is a completely different situation than a 37 for this fish.
mario, how long has the tank been up? do you have a fuge? i ask because these fish don't thrive fom eating the junk that builds up on your sand, and most don't eat frozen. a 125 that has been up for a while will have enough pods for the goby to eat, but in a 37 without a fuge that has only been going for a couple months, there might not be enough food.
how does the fish look? a lot of diamond gobies starve in systems slowy over a few months. you will be able to tell if it is starving if its head is much larger than its body. the body will seem pinched in behind the head.
No, I don't have a fuge and my tank has been up for about 3 months.
Thanks for the advise, I'll keep an eye on the shape of this fish

 

[nereef]

hopefully it will turn out alright for you. some do eat frozen occasionally. you can also buy pods on the net. i've never done it, but that might work out. also, you could ask the lfs for a rock out of a tank that's been up for a year or so. that would have pods. i've also heard that macro algae in sumps or display are crawling with pods. good luck

 

[nereef]

hey, darknes. where in nebraska are you? are there any goods stores i should look at?

 

[darknes]

Hey NEreef!
I live in Lincoln. The main place I go to is The Fish Store in Lincoln..they have a nice selection, and the fish look pretty heathly. There's also a few stores in Omaha as well.

 

[fishmamma]

How many other fish are in this tank and what are they??
A hang on fuge would be a great idea if you can do it, the macro suggestion wold help too I think, I have tons of critters in my chaeto(sp?) algae floating in the tank. This fish will either do well because it will take to frozen food or it will slowly perish without a refugium IMO. I have read you can very conservatively squirt some frozen mysis into the sand bed (with a turkey baster or something similar) around the burrow and the goby will hopefully sift it out during its natural feeding response. Just be sure the mysis is being eaten or else you could mess your water parameters up. You could also try some frozen cycop-eeze squirted into the sand bed. Any of the garlic additives out htere will often get the fish looking for food so it may be helpul to add some of this to the water and food mixture before squirting. Good luck with your new fish if you decide to hang on to it.

 

[mario]

The goby is sharing the tank with a Coral Beauty, planning on adding a Maroon and something else on the small side, probably a Yellow Tail Damsel.
I'm glad to say the Goby is eating frozen food, I'm also considering a hang-on fuge with pods.

 

[sea horse]

Would a 25 gallon tank be large enough to keep a Dimond Gobie in? (My sand is looking pretty dirty too)

 

[fishmamma]

Mario: Great news on the frozen foods!!
Seahorse: I would check out some other options for keeping your sand bed turned over since this particular species of goby can be tricky to keep long term. Super Tonga snails do a great job of keeping the sand bed movin' and there are quite a few other sand sifting gobies out there that are not as picky (I have a pink spotted shrimp goby paired with a pistol shrimp who are always excavating). You could also try adjusting/increasing your flow a bit to increase the movement across your sand bed.

 

[nereef]

Originally Posted by Darknes
Hey NEreef!
I live in Lincoln. The main place I go to is The Fish Store in Lincoln..they have a nice selection, and the fish look pretty heathly. There's also a few stores in Omaha as well.
thanks darknes, been away for awhile. i'm in school at unk. where's The Fish Store in Lincoln?

 

[mark_d]

um... couldnt you just put some frozen food into the sand close to where the gobie is? eventually he'll sift thru it and eat the food... Ive heard its not too hard to do this... only concern wouuld be ammonia levels but with frequent water changes . . . . it could work right?

 

[cashemin44]

I have a diamond goby and he eats like it's his job. He'a great! I have mine in a 55g, but depending on what other kind of fish you have I think 37g whould be alright.

 

[cashemin44]

my goby loved to eat brine, blood worms, mysis. He also like the formula two pellets that i have for my tangs. Usually soak my frozen shrimp in garlic too. He seems to like the prime reef flake as well but those seems to fly right out the side of him when he eats them.

 

[omgsaltwat]

I had one in my 125 but didn't think about the rock being on top of the sand so he was digging under some rock and it fell on him

So If you get one make sure you push all your rock to the bottom of the sand. I am going to get another one, I fixed all the rock hard lesson learned.