Would a Golden head sleeper goby do well in my aquarium?

[Jonas Bergkvist]

It's a 150 gallon aquarium which is close to 6 months old now. I read of the internet that on some occations a sleeper goby (Valenciennea Strigata) won't eat frozen food, so do you think a six months old sandbed would keep him from starving? My sandbed is about 8 cm deep.

Also, my "sand" is about 2-4 mm, and i know suger fine sand is optimal but do you think it is to big for this fish?

I'm also planning on getting two Yasha gobies with a pistol shrimp, i suppose there could be issues with them all in the same tank? Or do you think the size of my aquarium is adequate to house them all? I have a lot of rocks, so my guess is that they would be fine.

One more question: i couldn't find information if this fish makes a borrow and stick to it most of the time, or if it's more of an active fish that is sifting sand all over the place. What is your experience?

Thank you!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

It's a 150 gallon aquarium which is close to 6 months old now. I read of the internet that on some occations a sleeper goby (Valenciennea Strigata) won't eat frozen food, so do you think a six months old sandbed would keep him from starving? My sandbed is about 8 cm deep.

Also, my "sand" is about 2-4 mm, and i know suger fine sand is optimal but do you think it is to big for this fish?

I'm also planning on getting two Yasha gobies with a pistol shrimp, i suppose there could be issues with them all in the same tank? Or do you think the size of my aquarium is adequate to house them all? I have a lot of rocks, so my guess is that they would be fine.

One more question: i couldn't find information if this fish makes a borrow and stick to it most of the time, or if it's more of an active fish that is sifting sand all over the place. What is your experience?

Thank you!

are you ready to commit to feeding needs if fish doesn't eat frozen food?

Your "sandbed" itself isn't what feeds the goby. Its having food support for copepods or other "foods" which live in sand, which I'm assuming you're committed to dosing. You don't mention having a refugium as that can help keep your population from bottoming out (though either way, dose, dose, dose those copepods - and feed those copepods phyto etc etc etc).

While below is for mandarins, the feeder is helpful for our small fish that have special needs like your potential future goby. I found blue Pex but if I could find stiff black tube to help it disappear more from view I'll switch up this design. Push the 'holder' with nylon covering flat with sand bed - he should slurp those just hatched brine shrimp thru nylon as if from sand (though of course, goby is not 'sifting' to get brine shrimp):

Thanks PaulB- Mandarin feeder

Just completed my Mandarin feeder after PaulB design. My Mandarin is currently fat and happy but wanna make sure she stays that way..I owe it to her after killing a couple 20 years ago when I first started this hobby and not having a clue for there needs. They have always been one of my favorite...

www.reef2reef.com

Personally, I'm leaning towards buying any/all future fish online thru TSM as the heartbreak of not eating gets eliminated, plus their quarantine process is way better than my own QT & hospital tank processes so the extra cost of online seems worth it:

TSM Aquatics - The Largest Saltwaterfish Store In The Country!

Welcome to the new TSM Aquatics forum on Reef2Reef. We were formerly known as TSM Corals founded by Ray Casper. TSM Aquatics is located at 1 Enterprise Court Sewell, NJ 08080 and is the largest retail store open to the public that sells saltwaterfish and corals in the country! TSM operates...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

are you ready to commit to feeding needs if fish doesn't eat frozen food?

Your "sandbed" itself isn't what feeds the goby. Its having food support for copepods or other "foods" which live in sand, which I'm assuming you're committed to dosing. You don't mention having a refugium as that can help keep your population from bottoming out (though either way, dose, dose, dose those copepods - and feed those copepods phyto etc etc etc).

While below is for mandarins, the feeder is helpful for our small fish that have special needs like your potential future goby. I found blue Pex but if I could find stiff black tube to help it disappear more from view I'll switch up this design. Push the 'holder' with nylon covering flat with sand bed - he should slurp those just hatched brine shrimp thru nylon as if from sand (though of course, goby is not 'sifting' to get brine shrimp):

Thanks PaulB- Mandarin feeder

Just completed my Mandarin feeder after PaulB design. My Mandarin is currently fat and happy but wanna make sure she stays that way..I owe it to her after killing a couple 20 years ago when I first started this hobby and not having a clue for there needs. They have always been one of my favorite...

www.reef2reef.com

Personally, I'm leaning towards buying any/all future fish online thru TSM as the heartbreak of not eating gets eliminated, plus their quarantine process is way better than my own QT & hospital tank processes so the extra cost of online seems worth it:

TSM Aquatics - The Largest Saltwaterfish Store In The Country!

Welcome to the new TSM Aquatics forum on Reef2Reef. We were formerly known as TSM Corals founded by Ray Casper. TSM Aquatics is located at 1 Enterprise Court Sewell, NJ 08080 and is the largest retail store open to the public that sells saltwaterfish and corals in the country! TSM operates...

www.reef2reef.com

Thank you for an informative answer! Yes, i know they eat pods and other small critters that live in the sand and i sometimes dose both my sump and my aquarium with copepods. I just don't do it very often. And i don't feed the pods. Should i? I didn't know it was needed, so it was good you told me. On top of that i have a Yellow Coris Wrasse who probably is keeping the population down. I remember three months ago i had an "infestation" of small worms and very small critters living in my aquarium. Millions of them. Then i got the Wrasse, both for crittercontrol and also because it's a very interesting fish.

And now i see pods wandering about among the rocks and the sand during the evenings, but not that many. I also vaccum my sandbed pretty hard to keep the nutrients down.

I think at this points it's not worth risking getting a sleeper, because i have some other things to learn like nutrient control (feeding, harvesting chaeto, sump light intensity), Aiptaisa control.... and then i have some Vermitide snails

Oh, and then i have to fix my pH which is stubborn and keep landing at 7.5

I need to learn how to handle this and be comfortable with it before i add another thing to learn

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Thank you for an informative answer! Yes, i know they eat pods and other small critters that live in the sand and i sometimes dose both my sump and my aquarium with copepods. I just don't do it very often. And i don't feed the pods. Should i? I didn't know it was needed, so it was good you told me. On top of that i have a Yellow Coris Wrasse who probably is keeping the population down. I remember three months ago i had an "infestation" of small worms and very small critters living in my aquarium. Millions of them. Then i got the Wrasse, both for crittercontrol and also because it's a very interesting fish.

And now i see pods wandering about among the rocks and the sand during the evenings, but not that many. I also vaccum my sandbed pretty hard to keep the nutrients down.

I think at this points it's not worth risking getting a sleeper, because i have some other things to learn like nutrient control (feeding, harvesting chaeto, sump light intensity), Aiptaisa control.... and then i have some Vermitide snails

Oh, and then i have to fix my pH which is stubborn and keep landing at 7.5

I need to learn how to handle this and be comfortable with it before i add another thing to learn

Smart to take your time. Corals care more about pH than fish

My 6 line wrasse ate peppermint shrimp added to DT, so he was sentenced to dungeon (sump). Shortly after, discovered I had flatworms... then I had LOTS of flatworms... I probably always had flatworms but never saw one until wrasse left DT for sump. Helped wrasse get early parole after 2-3 weeks back to DT (but plan had been until Summer so new replacement peppermints in DT could get larger (on aiptasia) - note: replacement peppermints still alive! They hide from wrasse, but if they only knew....

Pods need feeding; I use LFS Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast is my favorite phyo (concentrated!!) but just found can also be ordered online. I also pickup Pods anytime LFS has in stock else I order as needed from AlgaeBarn. Don't feed phyto a lot, this can contribute to your parameters getting out of control and next thing you might also be fighting algae problem

Wrasse will try to eat all pods... my wrasse is part Hoover vacuum eating machine. I try to dose pods more than wrasse eats...

My sump light is just a $3.50 ($7 for 2) LED 60w equivalent 5000k lightbulb https://www.melevsreef.com/articles/an-inexpensive-refugium-bulb

 

[coralfishreef]

I always wanted a sand sifting goby until I got one. One fish to drop sand all over your corals and rock work. One fish to cloud up the water. One fish to add on one more extra chore a day of clearing sand off corals. One fish to prevent you from adding acans and other corals that do not thrive with sand dumped on them.

I’d pass. In a young tank they may starve or not get the proper nutrition. Cool fish but I won’t get another in the future.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I always wanted a sand sifting goby until I got one. One fish to drop sand all over your corals and rock work. One fish to cloud up the water. One fish to add on one more extra chore a day of clearing sand off corals. One fish to prevent you from adding acans and other corals that do not thrive with sand dumped on them.

I’d pass. Cool fish but I won’t get another in the future.

Six line wrasse does that too... one fish to rule them all !! Mine spits more sand (and HIGHER!) than any jawfish I used to have... sometimes he dives into that sand without disturbing it... like an Olympian. Other times its worse than a hippo doing a bellyflop into pool there is so much sand disturbance... but the spitting... still, love my wrasse (and past jawfish)

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

Six line wrasse does that too... one fish to rule them all !! Mine spits more sand (and HIGHER!) than any jawfish I used to have... sometimes he dives into that sand without disturbing it... like an Olympian. Other times its worse than a hippo doing a bellyflop into pool there is so much sand disturbance... but the spitting... still, love my wrasse (and past jawfish)

I was looking at a six line when i started my tank, just for preparing what i was going to keep. Stunning fish, and at a deacent prize and they are always available. LFS said they MIGHT be aggressive but reading on this forum made me pass. Then i saw this little half-yellow-half-purple fish.....stunning! But i passed on that one too! Dottyback?

And then there was this time when i saw a clown wrasse? A tiny one! Me want! Hard pass!