Swimming sandsifter....

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pitmam01

Blondie911
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Messages
259
Location
California
My new sandsifter hovers about 2 inches above the sandbed. While he is fabulous as far as cleaning the sand goes, he filters the sand on top of the corals that sit on the bottom of the tank. Is that bad for the corals?? Can they still send their tentacles out for feeding or does it "clog" them up, lol?? I have two fungia's and various mushrooms that are getting "dumped" on.
:confused:
 
It'll definitely irritate them, but its not too much work to blow them off with a turkey baster. Look for a way to get them off the sand, maybe with a baseball size LR or something
 
It's some kind of blenny. Has the body type of a Striped blenny. He's about 2 inches long. Mostly grey, pink tail, blue markings on his face, big mouth.
 
I think that blennies almost always eat (yes eat) a small amount of sand to aid in digestion. I believe this is mostly seen in algae eating blennies (Lawnmower, Starry, etc.) but I could be wrong. You might want to post up a picture of him to help ID what kind he is and we can fill you in more as to what their general behavior tends to be.
 
Ok, so now that I'm off the crack pipe (lol), I found out that what I have is a Dragon Goby. I have never had cleaner sand, it looks brand new!! He is obviously an over achiever!!! He is extremely passive and just goes about doing his own thing. He likes to hover above my dragonette and dump sand on him. Maybe he's trying to bury him!!
 
ah ha, yes, dragon gobies are natorius sand carriers. Common behavior my friend. Beautiful fish, but they disperse sand everwhere due to their hovering instincts.
 
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