Spotted Watchman Goby - Suspect in Killing Cleaning Crew

[Vanphyre]

For the last 6 months, I have been having troubles keeping any snails or crabs alive in the tank. Tank has been up for 2 or 2 1/2 years, and water quality checks out good. I couldn't figure out what was happening until I saw the Goby grab a crab and shoot across the tank and into his cave with it.

Is this normal??? LOL. I think not. I have probably lost 30+ crabs and 20+ snails and mysteriously there are no shells anywhere to be seen except for the supports for the Goby / Pistol Shrimp cave entrances.

Just curious what you guys think. Also, how the heck can I catch this guy without ripping all the rocks out of the tank? I hate to do this because it's a reef tank with corals and other growth all over the rocks.

Wish I could get this sucker on film! P.S. He is probably over 5 inches long.. pretty huge for a 46-gallon tank.... he's been eating well.

 

[pat8you]

hmmm i'm not positive but i don't think a goby has what it takes to get a hermit or snail out of its shell and make a snack of it. Most of the time when your CUC goes missing it is a crab that hitched in on your rock that you don't know about. They can be there for months with out you ever seeing them. Most only come out at night. I would get a flashlight and put some red plastic wrap over it and use that to watch to thank a couple hours after lights out. Or if you have some good moon lights that would work too.

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

and if it is a crab, or even if you dont know, think about setting a trap, set a drinking glass tilted up against the rock and bait it. (im not sure what to use for bait, never learned that)((i used cooked shrimp once and caught 2 mini stars)).

 

[Vanphyre]

Thanks, I'm just not sure what is happening. That is A LOT of crabs and snails to vanish. Will try to watch at night time, this is so wierd.

It sucks, because getting hard to upkeep the tank when the cleaning crew keeps vanishing. I attached a pic of the goby as well...

Will try a trap too, maybe just put regular fish food in it? hmm

 

[melosu58]

[url]http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/sp/index.php[/URL]

Here is a link on getting fish out but I would not suspect the goby. Make sure that was not just a molt he had in his mouth.

 

[fijiwigi]

That makes me think, I have a 46gallon reef. I have snails that mysteriously die. I just bought some turbo's 2weeks ago 4 of them. And I don't really keep that many snails. 2 of the new turbo's shells are being used to block the cave for my goby/shrimp hangout. I have an orange spotted goby and pistol shrimp. They use the shells kind of like a door to their house. These Turbo's were ok for about a week and then just the shell. I have a crabless tank. Not 1 single crab at all. Just 3 damsels and corals. with an urchin I just got like a week ago.

By the way how do you like your 36" T5 Nova Extreme lighting is it the Pro version with 6bulbs Do you keep any SPS corals??

 

[ccCapt]

I've seen my yellow watchman grab hermits and bring them into it's hole. But then they just crawl away. I never saw it try to take a snail.

 

[Tank2379]

Thats Crazy

HA! I just saw my Gobie Grab one of my Hermit and took him to his new home.... No pistol Shrimp.... How odd just after I read this thread.... This is so weird....

Holy Crap....

 

[Vanphyre]

The Nova extreme is just the 4 bulb version. I am not the most knowledgable on how good it is, but everything seems to be doing just fine. I have a lot of the "button polyps" I think they are called, Yellow and Red. Also have a huge Frogspawn coral that my Clown fish thinks is an Anemone. Had Anemone's die on me, so love this thing as it doesn't need such special care and is just doing great. Other than that just random growths that I have no clue what they are.

That's too funny Tank2379, are you kidding? I might be on to a hidden conspiracy here, the Goby looks so innocent, but I'm gonna get to the bottom of it. Would be fun to dig out under the rocks and count how many shells him and the shrimp are stashing away.

 

[Tank2379]

That's too funny Tank2379, are you kidding?

I am not kidding it was like he was reading the thread with me and when I just went to check him out I see him sneaking quickly under the rock and spit him out.... lol... I am still in shock about it... Not that he grab a hermit.... Just about me reading this and him actually doing it,,,,LOL

 

[pat8you]

How large of a clean up crew do you have in there? It is a possibility that its to large and some of them are starving? Do you notice a lot of algae and such for them to eat on the rocks or is it mostly clean? Although crabs will eat just about anything i doubt they are starving. They should be able to grab left over food and things to keep feed.

 

[Vanphyre]

Yea, good suggestion but I have 2 crabs and 4 snails left. Never had too many at once in the tank. Even my Nassarius snails would get killed. They have their tentacles stick up out of the sandbed to be alert for Food.... well I looked one day and half of them had their tentacles severed off. LOL. Then a week later they were all dead and no trace of them or their shells....

Either it's the Goby or I have some kind of stealth killer hiding that I never put in the tank....

Gets expensive to keep putting more clean up guys in to find them all missing a week later. :/

 

[pat8you]

Yeah clean up crew can add up fast if you have to keep replacing them. I would guess its a stealth killer long before the goby. You have all the signs of a mean crab or possibly a mantis shrimp. Keep an eye out for something like that. Like others have suggested you can try to bait them out with some food as well.

 

[Tank2379]

As I stated to you in our PM I really highly doubt it's killing your Clean up Crew. Watchman Gobies required Loose LR rubble or any rubble they use to build there homes. Whats probably happening is he's building his Burrow with your clean up crew thinking he can use them for rubble? Him and his little buddy are jamming them underneath your LR making them stuck and can't move which is causing them to disappear and Die. Like I said you probably want to check underneath one or to of there burrows and see what's underneath.... I might be wrong but it sounds like thats what's happening....

Check out this link about Watchman Goby

 

[Vanphyre]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm gonna do some more scouting here for the next week or two and see what turns up. Gonna try the trap as well and see what I catch.

Thanks for the link Frankie. I wish my Goby hung out outside the burrow. He is always inside hiding which sucks cause we don't get to enjoy him being in the tank. Won't even come out for Food unless I hide after putting the food in.

 

[Tank2379]

Any luck finding out about your missing clean up crew?

 

[Vanphyre]

Hey Tank, nothing yet. Thanks for checking in!

I tried quite a few middle of the night tank checks and never saw anything. Tried a trap two nights, and caught absolutely nothing. :/ Getting frustrated. Think I'm going to pull up the rocks and take a look. Gonna suck messing up my arrangement but something has to get done.

If I don't see anything at all, going to net that Goby while the rocks are out. I never see him anyways, so might as well exchange him for some new cleanup guys. lol

 

[austinsdad]

I agree with Tank. I'm thinking also that your cuc is getting jammed into support columns and etc by the goby and shrimp.

You saw him carry one into a hole. You see shells at the tunnel entrance. One plus one equals two IMO.

 

[Tank2379]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm gonna do some more scouting here for the next week or two and see what turns up. Gonna try the trap as well and see what I catch.

Thanks for the link Frankie. I wish my Goby hung out outside the burrow. He is always inside hiding which sucks cause we don't get to enjoy him being in the tank. Won't even come out for Food unless I hide after putting the food in.

Cool... Well hopefully everything turns out ok... Hey by the way what kind of Pistol Shrimp is that?

 

[pat8you]

If your trying to pull apart your rocks to find a crab it will do you no good. they will pull back into a small hole or something and you could be holding the rock in your hand and looking it over and never see a thing.