Sand sifting Gobies..?

[a7xsynx42]

A few questions.. What do they eat? Why do they sift the sand for? Will they be ok with a TINY amount of CC (about a pound or two)? Do they need a lot of LR to thrive (I only have half my tank filled with LR so far)? Can someone recommend a hardy species and not one that's going to destroy the look of my tank? My aunt has one, not sure of the name but it has a yellow head and white body, and it piles up the sand on one side of the tank and leaves the other side bare. I don't really want that. BTW, my tank is 45 gallons. Thanks!

 

[flower]

Welcome!
Gobys arrange the sand the way they like it. Hey it is their world after all. You also want your rocks very stable, or you may have a rack slide.
The golden headed sleeper goby will keep your tank sand beautiful and clear of brown spots and help prevent gases that build up in the sand.
They eat the micro critters out of the sand. They will also eat anything you feed the other fish and they are very hardy and lots of fun to watch.
The bad things:

• They do pile sand up where they want it.
  They get sand in their mouths and swim with it flowing out and land up getting sand on coral and rocks.

I love mine, but others hate them so it is a personal choice. There are lots of critters that can stir the sand...I personally think the goby does the best job.
P.S.
That little mandarine in your avatar can't live in the same tank with a goby. My goby killed mine.

 

[benlaymance]

i have a 125 gallon tank its the 6 foot long tank instead of being tall... i have 6 fish and a blenny and a goby, ive had my goby for about 3 weeks i want to say now and its been doin a good job of keeping the sand looking really good. but in the past few days i have rearranged my rock to make it more coral friendly cause i didnt have much spaces or room to place them. well since ive rearranged my rock in my tank my gob has gone back to business and doin what he does best but now he only tends to the sand on one side of the tank, the right side looks really good and has a few coral in the sand, but he will not go to the left side of the tank and i dont understand why and that side of my tank is starting to get build up of brown spots from left over food and other things left behind that the goby usually takes care of. what can i do or is there anything i can do? or do i just let everything be and hope that he eventually goes over to the other side of the tank?
does anyone know why the goby does this or what may be causing the reason for him to stay on one side? any information would be great... thank you for your time and responses...

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by benlaymance http:///t/359799/sand-sifting-gobies#post_3467207
i have a 125 gallon tank its the 6 foot long tank instead of being tall... i have 6 fish and a blenny and a goby, ive had my goby for about 3 weeks i want to say now and its been doin a good job of keeping the sand looking really good. but in the past few days i have rearranged my rock to make it more coral friendly cause i didnt have much spaces or room to place them. well since ive rearranged my rock in my tank my gob has gone back to business and doin what he does best but now he only tends to the sand on one side of the tank, the right side looks really good and has a few coral in the sand, but he will not go to the left side of the tank and i dont understand why and that side of my tank is starting to get build up of brown spots from left over food and other things left behind that the goby usually takes care of. what can i do or is there anything i can do? or do i just let everything be and hope that he eventually goes over to the other side of the tank?
does anyone know why the goby does this or what may be causing the reason for him to stay on one side? any information would be great... thank you for your time and responses...
The goby is feeding on the tiny critters in the sand. When you moved the rock, I bet the power heads pushed it mostly to that side...he has enough food supply so he is staying in that area. He will eventually deplete the tank of all fauna...hopefully by then he is eating frozen or he will die of starvation.

 

[benlaymance]

Ya it's eating frozen already. But for some reason just since I rearranged my rock it only stays on one side and sifts the sand lol. Was thinkin about getting two. But idk if I can or not. I think my tank is big enough and has enough hiding for them to be ok. But what's your opinion?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by benlaymance http:///t/359799/sand-sifting-gobies#post_3467325
Ya it's eating frozen already. But for some reason just since I rearranged my rock it only stays on one side and sifts the sand lol. Was thinkin about getting two. But idk if I can or not. I think my tank is big enough and has enough hiding for them to be ok. But what's your opinion?
No, they will fight, and it's hardly enough for one to clear all the fauna from the system.

 

[benlaymance]

Well it don't make since cause the goby has never had a problem keeping it all lookin good. It only started after I moved the rock around. Before that it always looked good

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by benlaymance http:///t/359799/sand-sifting-gobies#post_3467497
Well it don't make since cause the goby has never had a problem keeping it all lookin good. It only started after I moved the rock around. Before that it always looked good
There may be bristle worms over there...he should go back to it after a while. I had a tube anemone that shed his tube...my sandsfiter wouldn't feed anywhere near the tube...I used gloves and dug the old tube out...the sandsifter went back to his old ways and cleaned the whole tank. So maybe there is something in the sand he doesn't like th taste of.

 

[benlaymance]

well ive sifted through the sand myself to see if that had been the case but nothing is there other then sand and he still wont go over there... just yesterday i took my claw grabber that i use to pic things up from the bottom rather then putting my whole arm in the tank to kinda scoot him over to the other side and it worked, he went over there and started cleaning up the sand then i thought that since he was already over there that maybe he just forgot that side was still there lol so i left him to his business and left him be, i left the room and came back 5 minutes later to see from a distance if he was still taking care of the sand and he had gone back to the same damn side he was on and was doing nothing. so idk i give up lol, starting to frustrate me. hes always kept the whole bottom of my tank looking really good and now hes only keeping half the tank. so im either going to get a different one and flush that guy out or somethin but somethin has to be done cause my tank is starting to look like shit and i cant stand having a half brown and half white sand bed it looks really nasty and i dont even want to turn the lights on when people come over it looks so bad lol... anyways thank you for your info and insight on this subject maybe soon he will go back to his old ways idk well see.. thanks again

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by benlaymance http:///t/359799/sand-sifting-gobies#post_3467738
well ive sifted through the sand myself to see if that had been the case but nothing is there other then sand and he still wont go over there... just yesterday i took my claw grabber that i use to pic things up from the bottom rather then putting my whole arm in the tank to kinda scoot him over to the other side and it worked, he went over there and started cleaning up the sand then i thought that since he was already over there that maybe he just forgot that side was still there lol so i left him to his business and left him be, i left the room and came back 5 minutes later to see from a distance if he was still taking care of the sand and he had gone back to the same damn side he was on and was doing nothing. so idk i give up lol, starting to frustrate me. hes always kept the whole bottom of my tank looking really good and now hes only keeping half the tank. so im either going to get a different one and flush that guy out or somethin but somethin has to be done cause my tank is starting to look like shit and i cant stand having a half brown and half white sand bed it looks really nasty and i dont even want to turn the lights on when people come over it looks so bad lol... anyways thank you for your info and insight on this subject maybe soon he will go back to his old ways idk well see.. thanks again
You moved the rock...maybe another fish has staked it as his territory. To be honest the area he is not feeding in has a chance to heal from all the over removing of fauna by the sifter. WE like a nice clean tank, it is the fish's world, and they don't like it so sterile. Also as your tank ages and if you have healthy fauna, you won't need a sandsifting goby, it will stay beautiful clean all by itself. To be honest, you are being a little anal about it. Leave the fish alone, and let them live in their world, and enjoy the show.
I had a sandsifter because I really liked that fish, it was a bummer he eats all the fauna. You are the opposite...you want a sterile tank. That will cause problems later down the road.