Pic of my fat engineer gobi

[fatpuffer]

Check out this big boy and his girlfriend. I've had them for about 4 years and watched all 3 grow from 1 inch to these monsters.
This guy is about 13-14 inches.

 

[fatpuffer]

Same one with his friends:

 

[fatpuffer]

His girlfriend:

 

[fatpuffer]

Another pic of him

 

[fatpuffer]

In the other pic, his girlfriend is about 12 -13 inches. The other guy lost his girlfriend a few years back to the dreaded humu trigger. He's a longer and about 10 inches. I'm thinking of geting him a mate, but am not sure how the 3 will take to another addition.

 

[bang guy]

Awesome!

 

[moray345]

in pic 5 is that a nautilus shell if so where did you get it

 

[fatpuffer]

yes it is a nautalis shell. I got it at my LFS about 5 years ago, and actually wanted to find another but can't. They are a pain to get into your tank, b/c you have to drill holes into the side to let out all the air so it'll sink into the bottom.

 

[jimmy234]

how do u keep eels and fish together without having them eaten?:notsure:

 

[fatpuffer]

Hi Jimmy-Thy're actually not real eels. They're engineer gobies or aka eel gobies and are very peaceful. In fact, they can be considered as reef friendly.
The tricky part was getting them into the same tank with 2 triggers and a porcupine puffer, so what I did was start them in a 10 gallon as babies. Then moved them over to a 55 gallon and eventually into the 125. You need lots of rockwork and coral for hiding. I made caves for them knowing that no other fish could get to them and eventually the triggers gave up and everyone got along.

 

[jimmy234]

ohhh ok. i got confused because i thought engineers were white and black instead of yellow and black

 

[jacknjill]

they change color from black and white to black and yellow as they grow up and mature

 

[jimmy234]

ohhh ok

 

[ky reefer]

NICE

 

[ky reefer]

they look like eels:nope:

 

[magooo2]

nice ...but look at the size of the clowns...very nice

 

[manjisann]

Those are sweet. I've heard that they dig up the sand a lot, is that true?

 

[fatpuffer]

yeah, they love to dig up sand. It's the most amusing watching them fill their mouths with sand and spit it out.

 

[nm reef]

I recently removed a pair from a long established 220 ... because they were constantly digging under the LR and have caused all 300 lbs or so to fall and tumble. They are great fish and definitely are considered reef friendly...but consideration needs to be given to the disturbance they cause to a sand bed...and they will make it very difficult to have corals located on the lower levels of the LR and it'll be nearly impossible to keep coral on the sand bed...plus care needs to be taken to secure the LR due to their digging. They will also render a LS bed or a DSB useless because it will be constantly turned over.

 

[manjisann]

That wouldn't always be a bad thing. with a little advanced planning you could put down egg crate or screen mesh at about an inch or two below the surface of the ls. having the top layer constantly stirred up is actually a good thing as it keeps it from getting too debris choked.
I absolutely love thier colouring, reminds me of fresh water kouli loaches.
Over all how big do they get. If I wanted to create a habitat just for them, what would you guys recommend?