Goby (s) and or sand shifters

crispin

crispin

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Lilliehammer, Norway
hey guys,
i would like to get some smaller bottom dwelling sand shifters. Goby type fellas but do you have info on common species found in SA and or compatibility with two big fat blennies?

any suggestions as to what I could look at introducing would be greatly appreciated
 
Hi Crispin - the commonly found one's are the blue-cheek goby, the blue-spotted shrimp goby, the orange spotted goby.....

ONLY problem is - trying to keep them in a nano just MIGHT not cut it - they need a LOT of food (like a mandarin needs a lot of live food) in the substrate to keep them alive and happy!
 
crispin's tank is big if im not mistaken?
 
just be VERY careful of the sand sifters - they are really bad as they drop the sand onto your corals.... they also stir up a fine silt in the tank if you didnt wash the sand 1000000% clean
 
don't keep both, they will compete for food, if you have allot of worms and critters in sand, then maybe, but i won't do both.
I'll rather go for the star
 
Don't get a blue cheek - they mess your tank right up then starve to death, also be careful getting sand shifting starfish, many of them end up in small or immature tanks and also perish.
 
Hey guys. So you want to tell me I just did a big NO NO:nono:!!! I got a Blue Cheek Goby of aprox 10cm big today (in a 3 foot tank)

No corals as yet (luckily...)

Must I rather take it back? What can I get to move my gravel around (a little bit)

Urchin maybe? But wont it do serious damage to corals and nemmies (puncture...)

Please advice urgently - before I loose 200 bucks!!!:(
 
The only way that blue cheek will survive long term is back in the shop, my last tank was 5ft x 3ft at the base, i had 3 bags of live sand (45kg) which the goby ploughed through in no time.
 
Jaco Schoeman said:
Hey guys. So you want to tell me I just did a big NO NO:nono:!!! I got a Blue Cheek Goby of aprox 10cm big today (in a 3 foot tank)

No corals as yet (luckily...)

Must I rather take it back? What can I get to move my gravel around (a little bit)

Urchin maybe? But wont it do serious damage to corals and nemmies (puncture...)

Please advice urgently - before I loose 200 bucks!!!:(
Click to expand...

i would say take it back. when your tank is old enough and there is enough food available a small star would be ok. but why not just try hermits?
 
Got 3 hermits already. I actually thought that the goby was a herbivore. Guess again huh??? :razz:

What just ...:nono:... me off is that the guys at the pet shop know my tank, so they should know that I am WAY understocked to have this fish, and yet... they sell it to me...
 
Mike said:
The only way that blue cheek will survive long term is back in the shop, my last tank was 5ft x 3ft at the base, i had 3 bags of live sand (45kg) which the goby ploughed through in no time.
Click to expand...

I have a blue cheek in my tank and he sifts the sand alot for food but the good thing is that he eats mysis shrimp and pallets food (ocean nutrition), it is a beautiful fish IMO the only problem is when sifting througth the substrate all the time it allows fine particles to be released into the water.
 
Marine4Life said:
I have a blue cheek in my tank and he sifts the sand alot for food but the good thing is that he eats mysis shrimp and pallets food (ocean nutrition), it is a beautiful fish IMO the only problem is when sifting througth the substrate all the time it allows fine particles to be released into the water.
Click to expand...

you mean it is a snow plough:lol: mine covered everything in sand before i moved him on:(
 
Mine moved on by itself :(, and I also think it was because of mal nutrition and inexperience regarding the specific species- a problem a lot of us reefers unfortunately have
 
I have one and it also eats flakes, pellets and frozen shrimps to.
It does move the sand, but only the surface. I watched it build a nest the other day, was fascinating.
 
About a year now, and up until about 2 weeks ago he lived in a nano
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8034978a185866c4.jpg
 
Sadly a lot of new reefers think a blue cheek goby sieves the substrate for detritus where in fact they actually sieve for critters. People are not doing their homework and buy these fish even when they have very course substrate and because they're cute. Some think they're part of a cuc!
... and the LFS's are not helping at all!
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Yes. The petshop told me it was part of the cuc. I got mine yesterday, and 2 minutes after my last reply on the thread, I got in my car, caught the fish, took it back to the pet shop and swopped it for a Green Star Coral (apparently less destructive :lol:)

Had the Goby in my 3 foot for about three hours, and the amount of damage it did was unbelievable. Dug up all my LR and hid in the caves like a taliban warrior.

Thank you though for the heads up. Would have broke my finger off in my ... nose had I not make the move when I did.
 
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