Originally Posted by
sepulatian
http:///forum/post/3073448
Have you seen the body? I find it hard to believe that the sand sifter died after a day without care. Sand sifting gobies like to hide and they certainly do eat prepared food. I would keep an eye out.
I just read back up. What kind of goby did you have that you think it cannot live without natural food in the sand? Was it a Mandarin or Scooter blenny??
Okay here is the story...
My sandsifter sleeper goby (golden head, blue stripe on the side) always had a big belly, well fed. He always kept my sand perfect. I moved to another house, May 28th, my sister said she would feed my fish, so I showed her how to rinse it and how much to feed (frozen shrimp). I went over there every other day or so to check on the auto top off and check on my critters and coral. Up until the last week when moving became hectic.
She ran out of frozen shrimp...I had other frozen foods in the freezer, spirulina (spelling???) I told her to go ahead and feed them that.
I went to the house the day before the move...my sand looked awful and the goby wasn't sifting, that is all he ever does, if 5 minutes go by you will see him sifting sand.
His belly was all drawn up, his little tummy wasn't big anymore. I made the move, he survived and I released him into the now setup tank. I used as much original water as I could haul. At least a little over 1/2.
He slipped into the rocks and I thought since he didn't come out to eat or sift any sand, I couldn't find him peeking out from under a rock anywhere, by the next day he must have become CUC food. He was very weak and easy to catch to place him into the tank after acclimating him. I really thought he died.
I just fed my fish and he came out
, just for a second, grabbed a bite of shrimp and darted back under a rock...He is alive! I have tears in my eyes I can't believe it!
Everyone in the house came running because I got so excited to see him!
The hippo tang isn't at all stressed to have its whole world change, when it usually gets ich if I even do too big a water change...the goby that fears nothing and is always out and about is all freaked out. %%
When I posted that my goby wasn't sifting sand...somehow the conversation went that the sand had no more food for him, and once his belly got small he was starving and couldn't recover. That most likely my sand will never host enough food for a goby ever again, not even if I purchased a refugium and reseed copepods. I had no more frozen shrimp, and if the food was gone from the sand...that he must be a gonner.
None of that matters now!!! He is eating his shrimp and he dug quit the hole under the rock he was hiding under. I have had him for nearly 3 years. I am so happy right now!
