goby question

[scrapman]

I have a great 90 gal plus 2 refugiums.... everything running smooth for ten plus years.... never check anything..... just two four gal WC per month..... some glass cleaning..... some turkey basting blowing on rocks..... excellent mechanical filtration (got rid of cumbersome FLUVALs)..... excellent skimmer, etc.
One yellow tang, one another (?) tang, two pairs of clowns, one coral beauty.... everybody is happy......
Lots of rocks and soft corals..... very deep sand

QUESTION: would love to introduce a diamond goby (tank not covered except for the T5 canopy)...
I have a lot of crushed coral which would be perfect for the goby....
How to make sure that the goby is going to pick that spot with the crush corals?
How does a goby picks his spot?

Thanks

 

[lmforbis]

Diamond gobies do poorly in captivity and absolutely won’t work in a tank with crushed coral. They are sand sifters. sifting sand through their gills is how they get their food. They will very quickly deplete the food in a tank. crushed Coral is not a good substrate for the majority of gobies, sand sifters, shrimp gobies, and watchman gobies need sand.

 

[scrapman]

Diamond gobies do poorly in captivity and absolutely won’t work in a tank with crushed coral. They are sand sifters. sifting sand through their gills is how they get their food. They will very quickly deplete the food in a tank. crushed Coral is not a good substrate for the majority of gobies, sand sifters, shrimp gobies, and watchman gobies need sand.

Thanks.... I probably did not state that my substrate is very deep sand.. I just saved a lot of small pieces of dead coral for the goby's burrow. would that work?
My concern: How's the goby chose his spot to burrow in? How can I direct him to the best spot?

 

[lmforbis]

You still would be best to avoid sand sifters like diamond gobies. They don’t eat detritus in the sand but the critters living in it. They will deplete the sand bed of those organisms quickly then slowly die because the can’t get enough food, even if they eat prepared foods, they need a constant supply. The additional side effect is the health of the sand bed is severely affected because those organisms the goby eats are necessary for the health of the sand bed. Just stay away from sand sifters. There are tons of other goby options.

With a sand bed you can do watchman and shrimp gobies. You can not direct them to burrow where you want. They burrow where they want and their burrows tend to be extensive. the Next question is did you put your sand in first or your rock in first? If you put sand in first, there is real risk that that the burrowing goby will undermine the rock causing them to shift with the worst case being the rock topples and breaks the tank. Rock first you are going to be fine.

I highly recommend a shrimp goby pistol shrimp combo. The symbiotic relationship is amazing to watch. There are many shrimp gobies to choose from.

 

[scrapman]

Thanks, I will follow your advice re-choice of goby! My tank has been established for ten-twelve years. The three tanks on pic are all connected. The water circulates between them. The protein skimmer is in the back of the bottom left. Rocks mostly stand atop two PVC tubing contraption that I built to keep them off the sand (easier to keep sand and rocks clean!).
Thanks again