rainfords goby
 

i just picked one up yesterday and have never kept one before. it is in a 20L nano tank with a blenny (escenius sp.). no corals (yet). it was eating live brine shrimp yesterday (it actually pigged out... its gut was bulging. any particulars for their care?

they like to have some rock work, not too much though. Also, mine likes to burrow, so I have about 5" of substrate. Don't keep with Gramma Melacara (Black Cap Basslet). I had to get rid of my black cap because it kept harrasing my goby. I nopw have a Royal gramma and it and the goby are doing fine.

really? i was reading in a few texts that they dont burrow...

is you tank very high flow?

No, not really. He swims around all day. Then just before I turn out the lights he darts into his burrow.

In nature they eat some algae,so I would feed him something that has some in it. I don't know if you get San Fransisco Bay brand foods down under but they have a brine shrimp enriched with Spirulina. They are sifters like the other [I]Amblygobius sp.[/I] but IME [I]A. rainfordi[/I] and [I]A. hectori[/I] don't sift the sand nearly as much as their cousins. All the [I]Amblygobius sp.[/I] gobies I've had like to pick at hair algae.

I've read that they subsist mainly on filamentous micro algaes. I have two in my 65 tall, they've been there for close to three months. They are the only fish in the tank at this point and they don't get along. They are both super healthy (in appearance), quite beautiful really, and interesting to watch. I have never seen them eat anything I have added to the tank. They sift through sand and pick off of the live rock. They don't spread sand and don't burrow in it, although they have excavated separate burrows underneathe the rock which they spend time keeping up. But they are not what I'd describe as messy or high maintenance.