Goby clouding tank

[georgeortiz]

I just purchased a Beautiful Gold headed Goby from Salty over the weekend with the idea that he would help me move my sand around.

Well, he is doing an excellent job! So much so that he has clouded my tank.
Yesterday I went ahead and placed some of that blue and white filter media I had as stock puchased from the LFS. This has seemed to help the situation somewhat and over the next few days I will be able to tell if this has helped if the tank clears back up to its origional state.

Does anyone have suggestions on what else I can try? So I can get this CLEARED UP! lol

[DeletedAccount]

My engineer gobies have made a cloudy mess of my tank, too. It is always slightly hazy looking and they are constantly spitting up sand. I have been thinking about getting one of those diatom filters....

[prof]

My diamond goby managed to transfer from my top tank to my bottom tank. The top tank is argonite and does not cloud up but the bottom tank is southdown and makes a big mess. It took me a couple of days to realize the fish had moved and that is why the water was cloudy.

I spent a couple of days trying to catch the silly fish and move him back upstairs with no luck. I finally gave up and decided to give him some time. It took about a week and a half but the goby went through the top layer of sand and sifted out the light debris. Now he makes small puffs of sand as he sifts but the water does not cloud.

I did not run any extra filter during this time.

[Nano_Steve]

all 3 of my engineers are always spitting out sand digging out their littles tunnels underneath my rock work. they clouded the tank the first couple of days but once i got my red brittle star, tiger tail cucumber, and dragon goby to sift all the unwanted nutrients out of the sand its all good now.

good luck with ur golden head, those things look so beautiful in pictures, id love to see one in person some day!

take kare, steve

[malofish]

If it's valencia strigata I've had a bad run in with those!! I had it move 40lbs. of sand to the back of my tank and fill it half way to the top cause he like a spot in my rock work!! This was in a 42 hex!! So I played hard ball and added another 20lbs. of sand, by morning the samething!!! Had to get rid of him. These are beautiful fish, just love to dig!!

[Xtreme]

They should rename those gobys. like; BULLDOSERS,EARTHMOVERS,ther to mesy for me.

[mathias]

lol this reminds me of my chiclids..... they stay busy moving all the rock to one side....

[prof]

They are not nearly as disruptive to my sand'scape' as my Clarkiis are. Darn clowns fan the sand out of the corners and the back of the tank all the time. Usually all over my clams and corals.

[Moonrs]

Well, I have had a banded sleeper/Dragon goby for the last year. He is a nice fish and does a nice job of mixing the sand up, but I'd have to agree with those folks who don't like them. He is so messy and annoying! I will be getting rid of him when I move to a new house on base in another month.

[georgeortiz]

Thanks for your input yesterday guys.

My tank is clearing up, and as someone mentioned after the initial onslaught on the substrate was through it seems like my goldhead has gone ahead and cleaned up all the dust because whenever he sifts sand now sand passes through his gills and no powder appears.

The placement of the filter media has also gone ahead and caught alot of the fine powder. I will probably leave it in for a few more days and then remove it. Again thanks!

[prof]

Good news. I like the sand sifting gobies. They are very interesting to watch.

Do you have a cleaner shrimp in that tank?

My goby loves my fire shrimp. He swims over to the shrimp and opens his gills for the shrimp to clean. The shrimp will work over one side and then the other.

[georgeortiz]

Prof,
No I don't have one yet. But, I am looking at getting a few shrimp over the next few months. Salty told me that this particular Goby had been paired with a shrimp at one time so I am interested to see what type of partnership it creates.