Manic Diamond gobie!

[msmith619]

My wife asked me the other day... why do we not see that pretty, pearly white sand on the bottom of the tank anymore, why is is brown and green. She was refering to the algea layer on the surface of the sand. I told her I would fix that and went Saturday to buy a diamond gobie in San Antonio.
Off I go, from store to store, until I found one at Gabe's. I put him in Saturday night after the main lights go out and only the actinics are on.
Sunday morning I go to check the tank....huh ! My 5 inch lobed brain coral is gone (read buried!) as is my green brain coral. :confused: The sand is all heaped up in 5 and 6 inch mounds and there are tunnels under all the rock ledges.
Go diamond, go! He had cleaned the entire sand bed of my 75 gallon reef.
I had to 're-arrange' the brains to put them on ledges to keep the sand off of them, kind of like child-proofing the house by putting safety plugs in the outlets to keep the kids from sticking things in them. :bigsmile:
He is fun to watch and is busy, busy, busy and has all the sand spotless.
If you need your sand bed cleaned, I would definately get a diamond gobie.
(btw, I then added a Yellow-head jawfish Sunday and he is living in one of the caves the diamond gobie made and happy as a clam!)
Mike

[jrsatx20]

i got a diamond goby and all he does is look bored under a rock like he has nothing to do. he is in there with a pistol shrimp that i also never see. what a waste of money.

[Gseclipse02]

i got a diamond goby and all he does is look bored under a rock like he has nothing to do. he is in there with a pistol shrimp that i also never see. what a waste of money.


lol

[jrsatx20]

not kidding wife thought he was being crushed under the rock cuz we only see his head.

[msmith619]

You must have bought him from the wrong store! I guess yours is just a diamond in the rough.
Mike

[jrsatx20]

i got it from gabes. j/k i have put like 3 diamond gobies in my tank this is the only that has lived. well the only one that i have seen lived the others just diappeared never to be found again.

[msmith619]

I keep having to dig out my live rock from the sand piles. I have a 3 inch sand bed and my diamond gobie is making 8 inch sand hills and moving them all over the tank. I have moved the corals that were getting buried but did notice my skimmer went crazy for a week, I had to empty the cup twice a day, as the gobie stirred up the sand bed. I bet my nitrate/nitrite/amonia spiked for a couple of days as all the sand detritus got churned up!
Mike

[reybeast]

I promise you, if anyone invents a tagging system for gobies, they will strike it rich! 40 bucks down the drain after 2 weeks and you never see them again. Not behind the tank, never!

[Kristy]

We've had ours for over a year and he is a very hard worker, keeps our sand so white! There is a certain "cost" for his labor though, as sometimes he is just determined to put sand where I don't want it and I've finally learned that that is a fight I am not going to win.

The power struggles over the hills of sand seem to come and go. Ours will be content with his burrow and tunnels for a couple of months, and then suddenly be filled with the urgent need to redecorate. Hopefully yours will calm down in a couple of weeks and you can strike a compromise on the sand placement.

[msmith619]

He is a blast to watch. He works harder than any bust bee!. The yellow-head jawfish watches him dig up the tank and takes over his old burrows as soon as he starts a new one.
Mike

[tony]

worst piece of livestock i ever bought was a diamond goby. him in addition to my flow meant constant sandstorm

[msmith619]

What a great description! I had a HUGE cloudy tank/sand storm issue the first week. Seems to be clearing up some now, less debrie in the sand to stir up, it is spot-less white now. I will have to see how it goes. So far I have a daily 'fix the tank....again' maintenance issue, courtesy of the diamond gobiee.
Mike