Best sand sifting fish....All opinions welcome

[danieljames]

Looking for varied opinions on the best sand sifting fish....gobie, blenny etc....preferably a gobie...but nothing that will disturb the sand too much..I already have a lawnmower blenny but he does nothing but perch in different spots of the rockwork.....all opinions and thoughts welcome....
thanks in advance

 

[miaheatlvr]

Originally Posted by DanielJameS
Looking for varied opinions on the best sand sifting fish....gobie, blenny etc....preferably a gobie...but nothing that will disturb the sand too much..I already have a lawnmower blenny but he does nothing but perch in different spots of the rockwork.....all opinions and thoughts welcome....
thanks in advance

Diamond Goby, hands down,, with a bullet goby a close 2nd.

 

[aquaknight]

You can go back and forth with these two. The bullet probably sifts a higher quantity of sand, though it will make a huge sand storm. The diamond goby probably does a better job at cleaning, though once his find a cave, they usually stay close to home.
So if guess if you have brain/plate corals, def. a diamond goby.

 

[1journeyman]

Sand "sifting" fish are good and bad.
The bad side is they eat all the beneficial micro critters in your live sand and can quickly sterilize a sand bed.

 

[theappe3]

If you just like moderate sand sifting then you can go with a regular shrimp goby. Still sifts but just not as much

 

[danieljames]

Thanks for all the input....I looked into a diamond goby at the store....pretty cool....but I also don't want to purchase an animal that I never see....like my lawnmower....He's very timid and hides in caves and crevices....I never see him on the bottom.....diamond goby at the store seemed to do a great job sifting....but I wonder how he would do at home with a lot of rockwork...he may find a burrow and disapear...

 

[ophiura]

It seems you are hoping to solve a problem maybe? Adding a fish is often not the way to solve that, but simply something else that may contribute to a larger problem.

 

[harris28]

I recently purchased a Diamond Goby from SWF.com. He is awesome!! He spends all day sifting. However, he has burrowed under all my rock work and has cause my rock work to tumble once. He gets under my filter intake and shifts which cause my tank to look cloudy and everyother day I have to go in with a turkey baster and blow the rocks off. But my sand looks nice and clean for once and I would not trade him for anything. They are jumpers so make sure he cant jump out. I used egg crate. So if you can look past all that go for a diamond.

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Sand "sifting" fish are good and bad.
The bad side is they eat all the beneficial micro critters in your live sand and can quickly sterilize a sand bed.
Which sucks b/c there are some gobys that I'd like to have but not at the expense of my sandbed.

 

[ci11337]

my leopard wrasse sure stirs up the sand when she dives.

 

[danieljames]

No....i'm not purchasing a sand sifting fish to "eliminate a problem." I don't really have a problem, However I would like to create a nice little eco system with bottom dwellers, inverts, herbiovores, omnivores etc etc...u get my drift....I guess my question was really....which sand sifting fish is the most enjoyable to have? In terms of watching them do what they do.....sounds like a diamond goby gets the popular vote...

 

[sepulatian]

Diamond gobies are very nice. They are jumpers though so be sure to cover any openings.

 

[waterlogged]

How about an invert that sifts sand like nassarius snails.