Sandsifter starfish and a diamond goby?

[KyleC]

Hi all, need some advice please. I have an aquaone aquareef 300. Current sand dwellers include 5 cerith snails and a sandsifting starfish (which is well over a year old and thriving).

My question is, I really want a diamond goby, but will it compromise the starfish? When aquascaping I tried to expose as much sand surface as possible to maximise feeding ground for the starfish. See video.

My tank is not in the best shape atm, currently battling cyano and green hair algae but can't remove the GHA as my berghia nudibranchs are often nested in it so leaving as is for now until my aiptasia problem is gone. So don't judge please lol

 

[Rtaylor]

I can’t open your video, YouTube links usually work better. It really depends on how heavily you feed and the bio-load of the tank. If it’s heavily populated with multiple daily feedings it will probably be fine. If you only have a few fish and feed once or less daily, maybe not. The diamond goby will usually also eat fish food. So depending on how lazy the one you get is also factors into the equation. A lazy goby would leave more food for the starfish.

 

[fodsod]

I have 2 Diamond Gobies (paired) and also have a sand sifting star fish plus Nassarius snails also with no issues in my 90g. I do feed 3 times a day and have a pretty deep sand bed.

I also have 1 Diamond Goby and a sand sifting starfish in my 55g FOWLR tank with no issues. This tank is also fed 3 times a day.

Diamond Gobies are phenomenal sand cleaners. They will "terraform" your tank bottom though. Mine rearrange the sand daily making mounds and holes all around the rocks. I find it hilarious and impressive.

 

[KyleC]

Currently I've only 2 clowns, an emperor cardinal and royal gramma... then 5 hermits and a few snails plus corals. Plan on adding maybe 5 more fish max.

How long have you had your starfish/gobys together for? Some people have told me it could take up to a year before affects of starved starfish are observed.

Currently feed pellets once/day, frozen brine/mysis 2-3 times/day.

 

[fodsod]

I've had all of them for approximately 3 years. All have grown and seem healthy so my assumption is they're getting what they need.

The 90g has 12 fish total, corals and a bunch of a mix of snails and so on. The 55g is a FOWLR and currently has 5 fish, snails and a large hermit crab on top of the SS starfish.

I feed a mix of mysis pellets and seaweed pellets twice a day and 1 cube of frozen mysis once a day for each tank. The gobies eat everything so they're pretty easy to please IME.

It sounds like you'd be fine to add the goby.

 

[KyleC]

I've had all of them for approximately 3 years. All have grown and seem healthy so my assumption is they're getting what they need.

The 90g has 12 fish total, corals and a bunch of a mix of snails and so on. The 55g is a FOWLR and currently has 5 fish, snails and a large hermit crab on top of the SS starfish.

I feed a mix of mysis pellets and seaweed pellets twice a day and 1 cube of frozen mysis once a day for each tank. The gobies eat everything so they're pretty easy to please IME.

It sounds like you'd be fine to add the goby.

3 years is safe enough to assume it will work out in that case, thank you! I'll be nipping out to get one tomorrow now

 

[q8cyu]

I have a diamond back sand sifter and a starfish together for around 9 months and I have never had any problems. I feed between 2-3 cubes of frozen a day and the goby eats some of the food.

 

[KyleC]

I have a diamond back sand sifter and a starfish together for around 9 months and I have never had any problems. I feed between 2-3 cubes of frozen a day and the goby eats some of the food.

Nice! Do you need to target feed the goby? Or will it go after the floating frozen food bits?

 

[fodsod]

Oh they'll go after anything. Floating mysis or falling pellets or pellets on the sand bed. The 3 I have are all like goats, they eat everything.

Spot feeding isn't needed. They'll move around the sand bed constantly shifting the sand all day long then hide in the sand at night. If you ever wonder where your goby is, it's probably in the sand.

 

[KyleC]

Oh they'll go after anything. Floating mysis or falling pellets or pellets on the sand bed. The 3 I have are all like goats, they eat everything.

Spot feeding isn't needed. They'll move around the sand bed constantly shifting the sand all day long then hide in the sand at night. If you ever wonder where your goby is, it's probably in the sand.

Thanks!

 

[q8cyu]

I

Nice! Do you need to target feed the goby? Or will it go after the floating frozen food bits?

The goby will go after the food on its own, when I first got it I did target feed. The goby will also go eat nori (occasionally) and when I feed my eel he’ll chase the tweezers and try to eat the shrimp (or whatever Im feeding the eel that day)
The goby also is grabbing and sifting sand almost all day. If not he is just “spaces out” or burrows. At night he returns to his burrow.

Here he is from a few days ago

 

[kevgib67]

Nice! Do you need to target feed the goby? Or will it go after the floating frozen food bits?

Mine is the first to the corner that I introduce the food to as soon as I put my wave maker on feed mode. It eats like a pig, anything and everything. I’m positive if I threw a chicken nugget in it would devour it. Very fun fish, anytime an unsuspecting crab or snail gets to close to the opening of its cave it carries it in its mouth across the tank and spits it out. The snails and crabs think they are at Cedar Point.

 

[KyleC]

I

The goby will go after the food on its own, when I first got it I did target feed. The goby will also go eat nori (occasionally) and when I feed my eel he’ll chase the tweezers and try to eat the shrimp (or whatever Im feeding the eel that day)
The goby also is grabbing and sifting sand almost all day. If not he is just “spaces out” or burrows. At night he returns to his burrow.

Here he is from a few days ago

They look well under the blues, can't wait to get mine now!

 

[KyleC]

Mine is the first to the corner that I introduce the food to as soon as I put my wave maker on feed mode. It eats like a pig, anything and everything. I’m positive if I threw a chicken nugget in it would devour it. Very fun fish, anytime an unsuspecting crab or snail gets to close to the opening of its cave it carries it in its mouth across the tank and spits it out. The snails and crabs think they are at Cedar Point.

Hahaa that's good to know! No worries of it starvin then, not picky when it comes to food, just like me had to look up cedar point, that's hilarious though! Shame it can't fit hermits in it's mouth, they need some manners after eating my trochus snail yesterday

 

[kevgib67]

Hahaa that's good to know! No worries of it starvin then, not picky when it comes to food, just like me had to look up cedar point, that's hilarious though! Shame it can't fit hermits in it's mouth, they need some manners after eating my trochus snail yesterday

You do need an established sand bed, I probably wouldn’t add one until at least 4 months but as I said I have never added enough food that it stops eating before the food is gone. It is about 5” long now. The crabs I mentioned were dwarf red and blue legged hermits. It has no problem carrying my larger nassarius snails.