sand sifting fish. blenny? goby?

[bluedd]

hi everyone. i have a yellow watchman goby in my tank for a over a month now. while it's a great funny fish, it's not moving the sand enough as i expected. it'd have a mouth full of sand once in a while, but it only cleans a small part of the sand bed around the place it hangs out the most. other areas of the tank are now flooded with diatom.

now i'm thinking about adding another fish that would do some sand sifting. i'm thinking about bicolor blenny. what do you think?

[cal3v]

Hi bluedd the bicolor blenny isn't really a sand sifter unfortunately, and most fish that sift sand such as yellow headed sleeper gobies actually eat the good stuff in the sand, all the pods and things in there, and shifting and eating until there isn't really any life left in the sand, which isn't really a good thing. They can also bury corals and such with their moving of sand which isn't too good. Are you looking for something specifically to clean your sand? If so maybe look into some conchs or sea cucumbers, or something like that. The Reefkeeping magazine this month btw has a cool article about some of these sand sifting gobies, its definitely worth checking out. hth

[bluedd]

hey calvin. thanks for your tips. maybe i should get a cucumber than. btw, how's your cucumber? it was pretty lazy always lying on rock not on sad:) but it seemed pretty trouble free.

[cal3v]

You're welcome. The cucumber kinda vanished but I am pretty sure he's somewhere in the tank. For cucumbers I'd recommend the holuthuria species as well as stuff like tiger tail cucumbers, and queen and fighting conchs.

[bluedd]

thanks :)

[Peter Schmiedel]

Hi Bluedd,

but you are aware that all Holuthria CAN release a toxic substance when they die which kills your entire fish stock in seconds? I would not place them in a tank where they can get stuck in filter or pumpe !!!

I agree with Cal3V that most of the gobbies beloning to the genus Valenciennea have negative side effects:

They eat all the pods - not a problem IMO
They take up sand and release it on top of corals - I would not like that
They built quite bick caves to hide where the can easly move sand 6 inch high!!

My personla tip is Signigobius biocellatus! Here (http://users.skynet.be/schmiedel/grundel.htm) is a german report and some pic's pf this nice little sand mpving goby. They have the big advantage, that they release the sand at the same spot where they picked it up.

[joetbs]

Are you kidding? The twin spot has a terrible survival record. They usually starve before they make it to the hobbyist.

Calvin is right, get a fighting conch. You could get a Tiger Tail cuke which aren't poisonous IIRC.

If you really want a fish and your tank is big enough, get an Amblygobius goby. The bullets sift for algae, as opposed to fauna. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/amblygobius.htm

joe

[Peter Schmiedel]

Joe,

I was not kidding and I have more than two of them! Of course I know that they are sensitive and that they need a fast from-catch-to-customer chain.

Mine are even spawning. Here we can get them in a good condition and with some small food and an old tank they recovered fast.

[EdKruzel]

Peter,
Here in the US that species of sifter has a terrible reputation for survival rates.

One of the fastest growing (and most successful) types of filtration has been the DSB (>4''s of sand).
The worms and pods are the key to its success.

Cukes are great; the holuthuria are harmless. Just remember to get a cucumber that has no bright colors.
The drab browns, black, tannish/yellow will clean the sand without worry of a toxic outburst if they become injured and die.

The brightly colored cukes, such as the planktonic feeding Sea Apple have very powerful toxins which give the rest of the cuke family a bad reputation.

Good luck,
Ed

[Starrhm]

My orchid dottyback is certainly not peaceful. It is our favorite fish, but it can be very difficult to add other fish later.

I had a wipeout in my tank about 6 months ago. My dottyback and 2 clownfish were the only ones left. The dottyback rules the tank. I tried to add some more of the original fish, firefish, swissgaurd basslet and jawfish. The dotty terribly harassed them all, I lost all three fish in the same day. (Starrfish caught and ate two and I was able to remove the third.) Now I am not able to have those sort of fish at all, cuz lil miss dotty doesn't like it! :p

[jeffchapman86]

I tried a small black sea cucumber in my 75 gal tank once, but he seemed to just waste away over a few months. Wondering if there is any trick to keeping them healthy and happy? Could it have been the nitrates?

[BiGOrange]

Sleeper Gold Head Gobies are awesome, they go all over the tank sucking in sand and spitting out out.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=213

[Peter Schmiedel]

Another very good sand sifter wehich i keep is Valencienea wardi.
Pis of it are on my website: www.reefsafe.de/wardi.htm

[BiGOrange]

Link for the page above in rough English (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reefsafe.de%2Fwardi.htm&lp=de_en&tt=url)

[Peter Schmiedel]

if I had more time I would translate all my reports ... but the time is killing me ... I will one day - promissed.

[BiGOrange]

Is there another fish like the Sleeper Gold Head goby that goes around the tank all day sucking in sand and filtering it out for food?

I want another one that will get along with it that does the same thing.