Will he stop!

[newtankman]

“O” no, my 9 year old saw this fish at the lps that he had to have, and of course I got it for him. :jumping:
It is an engineer goby.
Well I got up this morning, got my coffee, went to the tank and turned on the light and "omg" :scared: there is this large pile of sand in the corner of my tank. It has engineered under one of my base rocks and has about a 4” high mound of sand in the corner of the tank.

The lady at the lps told me it only made little holes, She did not say anything about it rearranging my tank!

Please tell me that he will only do this once!!!!

 

[renogaw]

nope, your sand will constantly be moved everywhere. make sure all your rock is on your glass, not sitting on your sand.

 

[newtankman]

That’s just Great!

Well, the way the goby is going they will soon be on the glass.
But at least the brittle star is finding all kinds of new places to hide.
I need to stop trusting the lps!

 

[cam78]

I have an engineer, I only see it during feedings. It has created tunnels from one side of the tank all the way to the other, its CRAZY. The only thing that sucks is feeding. I almost have to overfeed my tank in order for it to et anything. I drop food in and all the fishes that swim eat it, I have to put more in so it sinks to the bottom for him. Its creates a mess. Spot feeding won't work because hes scared of his own shadow. Welcome to the life of an engineer goby.

 

[newtankman]

I am in shock,

but my son is fascinated with it.

Here are some pics of the engineer goby; a.k.a (the destroyer goby)'s

work.

 

[coachklm]

maybe he's afraid of pirates? :hilarious

 

[mandarin w]

Get use to it, or get him out if you can

Mine, a diamond goby covers everything up every night, My anemone, my mushrooms, my feather dusters and coco worm. poor things, every morning they are buried so I have to move the sand off of them, or pull them up and sit them back on top.I would have taken him out a long time ago, but the only way to get him out of a 180 is to take the 180 apart. He does keep the sand sparkling clean, So I put up with it, for now.....

 

[rykna]

If you get the wave 2K you'll never have to clean you coral off again!!!! Best wave maker ever!!

:happyfish

 

[mandarin w]

No I mean, he buries them under 4 inches of sand. Each and every night. I think he believes if he buries them, then he has the tank to himself.

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by mandarin w
No I mean, he buries them under 4 inches of sand. Each and every night. I think he believes if he buries them, then he has the tank to himself.
:scared: 4 in..inc....incches of SAND!!!!!!!! HOLY COW!!!! No wonder they call it an engineer!!!!!!!! Man...can i borrow your's? I have some landscaping I been wanting to get to in my back yard!!!!

 

[mandarin w]

I am starting to wonder if he isn't thinking about a bare bottom
tank, he pulls most of the sand a mouthful at a time, and continuously dumps it on rocks and corals.
Down to the bottom, mouthful of sand, swim over to this rock, spit it out, back to the bottom, another mouthful, up to this rock, spit it out. All day long. I constanly have glass showing on the bottom. I started the tank a 180 with 300lbs of sand. 5inch sand bed. So you see he has a lot of sand to play with. and the poor corals can't get out of his way.
I am starting to wonder if he is nerotic. or other mental issues.

 

[rykna]

Well, like Gill said in finding nemo"Fish weren't meant to live in a box kid, it does stuff to ya"! :happyfish

 

[wattsupdoc]

Originally Posted by coachKLM
maybe he's afraid of pirates? :hilarious

:hilarious

 

[newtankman]

This thing is a nightmare.

He has not stopped moving sand, It is like he has been to starbucks one to many times.
I am about to go fishing!!!!

 

[newtankman]

But my son still thinks that it’s so cool.
His words not my.

 

[poppie-seed]

I was going to get a diamond goby for cleaning the sand but I don't know now.had a trigger that spit sand all the time had sand over everything.

 

[payton 350]

can you just move the corals higher?,...yeah i got a goby, but what i did was set up a bunch of rubble rock in a corner and let him go to town on that. he has his own little corner of the tank and when i see he is getting bored or i am i just blow all the sand off of the rocks he covered and let him start over.....he does dig here and there in other spots but for the most part he is contained...what till you see him pick up a snail or hermit crab and fling him halfway across the tank because it got to close to it's home

 

[1journeyman]

I'm concerned about your rock work. Did you place the rocks on the bottom of the tank or on the sand?
If it is on the glass you are fine, but if not the Goby can cause an avalanche. This can crush himself, other critters, corals, and even lead to rock falling against the glass.

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by newtankman
This thing is a nightmare.

He has not stopped moving sand, It is like he has been to starbucks one to many times.
I am about to go fishing!!!!
I have a Diamond goby (similar to engineer) and he does the same thing. I have hills everywhere. I may not like the looks of it sometime but my sand looks clean. he has cleaned out all around the rocks to the glass. Good thing the rock were setup on the glass cause my stars would probably have been squished. My goby swims all day long rearranging my sand, he comes up to the top to eat when the others do. If you don't like the sand getting moved around then you need to remove the goby.

 

[teresaq]

I had one for about a yr and a half. you do know they get big. mine was 8 inches when i lost him in a move. once mine got his holes the way he liked them, he quite digging so much. everyonce and a while i would push sand back in his hole so he had to clean up again. I made squares out of 1/2 pvc pipe and placed them under my rocks. he could not get crushed. he would also spit snails across the tank. my kids loved it.