Goby?

[marinegeek101]

Hi I went to my LFS and I was looking at a goby(can't remember the name) in one of the aquariums. I was interested in buying one but they siad that it would eat all of my sand bed in my 32 gallon aquarium than die. Is this true?:shock:

 

[jezzeaepi]

The fish would be quite large after consuming an entire sand bed!! =p


What he means is that the gobie will sift out all the micro crustaceans that are presently in your sand bed, and then he would starve to death. By only have 32 gallons your sand beds population will probably not be able to maintain a large enough population to make up the fishes diet. Wether this is true or not probably depend on the type of goby it is, and if you can get it to eat prepared foods. Find out which kind it is and we can give you a much better idea.. Also see if it eats prepared foods at the LFS.

 

[marinegeek101]

I know that it doesn't eat prepared food at my LFS. I think its a watchman gobie.

 

[aquarookie]

Hi I went to my LFS and I was looking at a goby(can't remember the name) in one of the aquariums. I was interested in buying one but they siad that it would eat all of my sand bed in my 32 gallon aquarium than die. Is this true?:shock:

Ha ha ha ha ha! Just about anyone would die after eating all of the sand bed in a 32! :lol:

Yeah, those sand sifters have to learn to eat prepared foods or die. My FW fish are happy to eat prepared foods... I don't know about gobies though.

 

[marinegeek101]

FW? Ya my LFS actually said it would sift all my sand until there would be no more sand.

 

[Sk8r]

They were kidding you---I hope. Gobies spit the sand out their gills and make a mound---of cleaned sand. A yellow watchman would be about right for a 30. A diamond [dragon] goby would be too much---they're such fanatic sand movers they shift rock and stripmine a tank under 75g.

 

[marinegeek101]

How high should my sand bed be?

 

[Sk8r]

I use about 4". That's deep enough for the bacteria to layer themselves nicely but not so deep you get dead spots. Your sandbed will be full of living stuff, bacteria mostly, and you should never stir it up all at once: that can crash a tank, bigtime. The best sandbed cleaners: a yellow watchman, nassarius snails, and a fighting conch [a peaceful creature that spends a lot of its time subsurface.] You could use 1 watchman, or 6 nassarius [big ones], or 1 conch with a 30g.

 

[marinegeek101]

I was already thinking of getting a conch snail but does that mean I can only get ether one. Could I be able to have 5 fish in my 32 g - 2 perculas, 1 decorated firefish, ether a madarine goby or a sixline wrasse and possibly I was thinking if I can have more fish a goby.