How to pair diamond watchman gobies?

[Miami Reef]

I want 2 sand sifting gobies to help help flush out my sand bed from dust particles and to also keep it aerated.

 

[WallyB]

100% a Diamond Watchman Goby will keep your sand sparkling clean.

I thought it was the best thing ever, since he worked continously to get my dirty sandbed to "sparkling white" and Kept it white.
Took a while.... months, for him to fully churn all the sand over. Again I thought it was the best thing ever since I hated manually cleaning sand (ie. Rarely did it).

Then the trouble started. Not sure why. Maybe he wanted to get to the bottom layers. He would fill his mouth with sand and swim to the top of the tank....dumping sand all over my rockscape and corals. Filling cup shaped corals with sand which I had to daily blow off to prevent damage. All my purple coraline rocks were being peppered with the white sand and it looked awful, and I had sand dune all over the place which I would plow to smoothen out.

He never stopped, and it got to be a chore to keep up with him, so I got rid of him.

Not sure if all the Watchmans do this, but mine did.

Just wanted you to know.

 

[Miami Reef]

I’ve had many watchman gobies and I’ve never experienced this.

My main reason for wanting one is because there are tons of fine particles in sand (special grade). I think it’s the dust that I didn’t rinse out well enough.

I want something to get in there and keep it well stirred. Eventually the particles will get out.

I also want a sand stirrer in general because my tank is 250 gallons and it’s really difficult to siphon all the areas.

I’d much rather 2 gobies to get the job done quicker. I feel heavy multiple times a day. Frozen and auto pellets.

What do you think? Any other ways to keep sand stirred so particles will eventually get filtered out?

 

[Miami Reef]

Double post

 

[WallyB]

I’ve had many watchman gobies and I’ve never experienced this.

My main reason for wanting one is because there are tons of fine particles in sand (special grade). I think it’s the dust that I didn’t rinse out well enough.

I want something to get in there and keep it well stirred. Eventually the particles will get out.

I also want a sand stirrer in general because my tank is 250 gallons and it’s really difficult to siphon all the areas.

I’d much rather 2 gobies to get the job done quicker. I feel heavy multiple times a day. Frozen and auto pellets.

What do you think? Any other ways to keep sand stirred so particles will eventually get filtered out?

Well if your past Gobies never did what mine did, then they are the best there is for sand sifting/cleaning.

The only alternative that I know of are sea cucumbers, but you have to be careful since some if not all species can nuke you tank if they get killed. I have a sea cucumber in my refuge. I never see him, but the sand is sparkly white. Small refuge-area so not sure if they (one or two) would be adequate enough for your 250G.

 

[Miami Reef]

Well if you past Gobies never did what mine did, then they are the best there is for sand sifting/cleaning.

The only alternative that I know of are sea cucumbers, but you have to be careful since some if not all species can nuke you tank if they get killed. I have a sea cucumber in my refuge. I never see him, but the sand is sparkly white. Small refuge-area so not sure if they (one or two) would be adequate enough for your 250G.

The gobies it is.

I don’t want a cucumber. Although they look really cool, it’s not worth that risk of killing everything from its poison.

 

[melonheadorion]

i love my diamond gobie. once my 65 gal finishes its cycle, i may even get a second one. keeps everything clean. my only gripe with them is, if you like the way your sand is currently piled or oriented, forget about having it the way you want it ever again. "
all your sand belong to me"

 

[Tamberav]

Mine likes to bury a random coral for a week. Whichever one he decides he doesn’t like. Then he changes to a different coral. Regardless I do like the hard work they put in.

I have also been curious about pairing. Many gobies change sex so if I were to try it, one or both would need to be size small.