sleeper Goby

[brndfrb]

I baught a sleeper goby and it is digging all over the place. Is there a way to keep him from throwing the substrate onto my corals that are on the botom of the tank? If he keeps it up i think i am going to have to put him up for adoption.

 

[reefrunner69]

Is there a way to keep him from throwing the substrate onto my corals that are on the botom of the tank?

Only way I know is to move them higher

 

[ReefRaff]

does he look like this?

 

[brndfrb]

no he has orange diamonds on his back and yellow eyes and blue spots on his head. HE may not be a sleeper goby. I might be mistaken.

 

[ReefRaff]

well in either case it sounds like a sand sifter and thats what they do, sift sand for food. Mine ended up mounding all the sand into the middle of the tank. Goodluck

 

[TriggerHappy]

can I keep one with a CC substrate, will he sift that or do I need to have sand?

 

[reefrunner69]

CC is to large for a sand sifter to sift.

 

[Thelionfishman]

Hi,

What you have is a Orangespotted Sleeper Goby (Valenciennea puellaris). This fish is a working fish in reef tanks. They enjoy digging for food and they go very deep into the sand then any other gobies. Did you know many of them starve to death! I had at one time four of them in a large reef tank. I had six inches of live sand which they enjoy very much. These guys will dig deep into the sand and come out firing the sand all-over.
Beautiful fish with blue spots around the gills and orange diamond shapes along it's body!


Good luck!

 

[brndfrb]

I have cc in my tank and he sifts it fine.

 

[TriggerHappy]

I think I'm gonna get one of these, are they a fairly hardy species and should they be bought in pairs?

 

[brndfrb]

make sure you have a very LIVE substrate. They sift for food. Get one if your tank has well established. Alot of the reasons they die id b/c they starve to death

 

[steve-s]

are they a fairly hardy species and should they be bought in pairs?

These types of gobies primarily get their food from the sandbed through sifting and even if accepting prepared foods will often starve. Even in a large system with a proper refugium they will not really fair well for long. If you are partial to benthic gobies, I would look more towards watchman/shrimp goby species which do not rely on the fauna as their primary food source.

Cheers
Steve