Rainfordi goby in 29 gallon

[thrillreefer]

I have a 29 gallon mixed reef with a 5 gal sump (to be upgraded to a 10). I've read that Amblygobius rainfordi can be kept in small tanks, but I have a few doubts. It seems the fish prefers to eat pods and sift sand for most of its food, with some taste for filamentous algae.

Currently, I don't have a refugium, and I have a yellow watchman (the only inhabitant), which spends a good amount of its time sifting sand. So I wonder whether the two might compete for food.

I've read that the rainfordi will jump, but only if harassed. The tank is mostly covered, but the back of the canopy is open and would allow a determined jumper to find the floor.

Any thoughts?

[Gem Tang Rider]

Depends on how lively your rock is, & how long your tank has been established. Most fish don't jump unless frightened. Do you have a pistol shrimp in with the YWG?

[AquaKnight407]

I have had 3 jumpers out of my 29 (completely open minus the light fixture legs). All have gone out the back of the tank, they were, an orange diamond goby, lawnmower blenny, and a sixline wrasse. Get some gutterguard and trim it to fit behind your canopy. Cheap insurance.

I also question their diets and captivability (just made that word up). I have read about the specialized diets as well.

[thrillreefer]

No pistol shrimp currently, although I have been wanting to get one. Is there a question of the pistol shrimp harassing the rainfordi?

I will probably set up a fuge with chaetomorpha in the near future (realistically, two fuges: a small HOB converted to grow copepods and a larger chaeto compartment in the sump for nutrient export.)

[adtravels]

For me a very difficult species to care for, I have had ones in bb tanks sand bottomed tanks tanks full of algae, not one of them ate prepared food and even with pods and lots of live sand they eventually became emaciated and dissapeared.

Sad as both the rainfords and the hectors are pretty.
the shrimp gobies are better, I have better success with mandarins than these fish.

[Big L.E.E.]

My Rainford's has never touched prepared food, but lives comfortably off picking at the rocks and sand. You'll need a fair amount of live rock and the refugium you mentioned if you want a chance of the Rainford's survival.

I've had other fish jump, but the Rainford's has never shown an inclination to do so. YMMV

[DarthSimon]

I tried a Rainsford a few weeks back before I transfered from my 55 to a 120.. The goby dissapeared, never to see him again.... I only ever saw him pick at some rocks...

[thrillreefer]

Well, it looks like the anecdotes are mixed on this species. Can the rainfordi be captive bred? That might explain the dichotomy of experiences with it.

One reason I want one, besides color and behavior, is their appetite for filamentous algae, which I have been battling for a while. Not taking over the tank, but a nuisance. I think setting up a refugium/chaeto compartment would be to serve the same purpose as the goby: algae control. I'm leaning towards holding off until I can pick one up that is well acclimated to aquarium life.

Keep the responses coming, they are very helpful.

[adtravels]

If you are getting it for algane control you will be dissapointed youd need about 100 of the to see a differance, there is some argument that the algae found in their stomachs is an incidental part of trying to catch the microfauna that lives in the algae.

[kstallbe]

Seems to me that they are herbivores, eating only the algae - I read a study that showed as much which settled the question for me. http://www.int-res.com/articles/mep...56/m256p183.pdf.

I think if you set up your tank with a fuge so that no hair algae is in the display tank the fish will die. I have mine in a 20g for about 6 weeks and was skinny as anything when I got him. He is now looking full and healthy.

I keep my tank a bit fuzzy and don't worry about my phosphates too much for benefit of the algae and the Rainfords. I see him sift sand and pick at any algae. I don't think there are many pods in my 20g as it's fairly new still, but the goby sure looks good and healthy so Im assuming it's an all algae diet as the study stated.

[kstallbe]

Okay, well I said mine never ate no dang meat. Call me wrong!

I recently got (another) CBB and have been feeding him black worms galore. So I decided to see if my lil' firefish wanted one or two. Well, the Rainford's perked right up and went straight after the worms. If it couldn't fit the whole thing in its mouth it bit the piece off and swallowed that!

Two feedings so far and it was very eager for the worms both times--- the older I get the less I know.

[kstallbe]

So, I recently got my overflow/siphon box from LifeReef. I then measured my specs underneath my stand. I got 8.5" W at the narrowest and 32.5" long. However, the stand interior quickly tapers to 10" and is at max about 12" wide.

So, because I would like to place the sump/fuge in through the front cabinet door the max I can go with would be 25" L x 15" H. This is fine by me. Alos, because I want to do an auto-top off like on melevsreef.com. So, having the sump/fuge take up only half the space will allow me room to place a container of ro/di water next to the fuge

So, I have been thinkning about bulding this thing but after time invested and trips to the store and all the hassle...I sent an email to Jeff at LiveReef to see how much he'd kill me for a 14" x 10" x 12" sump/fuge!

(He just wrote back saying hed get back to me end of next week)

Anybody else got PHOTOS of their bow front sump/fuge in the stand??????

[CookieJar]

I have a rainsford in a 180 and he's done great, however he doesn't eat prepared foods, only picking and sifting little bits of sand at a time. If you have enough sand with fauna he might be ok, I don't know if 29 gal is enough though. they will eat live brine shrimp, but who wants to hatch that all the time, plus nutritionally it's very poor.

[rekn]

mine eats cyano

[Conesus_Kid]

Mine sifts sand and picks at the rocks.

I've had him since July.

Here's a recent pic: