I have several peaceful fish in my tank which will “teach” any finicky eaters about what is and isn’t food. It’s how I got my CBB, Tilefish, Hectors, Leopard Wrasse and Radiant Wrasse to eat more ferociously. I also don’t target feed them so they are slightly more aggressive with eating.
I say go for the randall- I assume you mean Amblyeleotris randalli. If you want a sansifter, I’d recommend a Koumansetta species - Most corals and larger Valenciennea never mix well but also Valenciennea have a shorter life in captivity unless given the proper conditions which in some ways are worse than mandarins. This is assuming you don’t mean Amblyeleotris guttata and do mean the Valenciennea puellaris.now I'm between Randall and Diamond LOL
Let's go for Randall (Amblyeleotris randall)
Wait. WHAT?! I have been having issues keeping more than 1 Mandarin in my tank (females) and I have a Diamond Goby... could be eating them? I was told Mandarins had venom on their spines, so the other fish wouldn't eat them, but are gobies somehow immune to that?
Gobies do not eat living fish, they will scavenge for food that is dead already though. They will eat the decaying leftovers of a fish but will not take on a healthy or even dying fish.
What species of diamond goby was it?
I want a pair of these fish so bad but am scared to pull the trigger because I don’t want to kill them! Any advice/Tips?Yes some can be very messy, like the YWG & tiger pistol shrimp; mine got so big they now live in the LFS display tank.
I do have 2 pairs of Yasha Gobies/Randalls pistol pairs but I wouldn't consider them sand sifting even though they burrow. My twin spot signal goby is the perfect sand sifter-moves the sand but doesn't really throw alot. But they can be hard to keep if you don't have a mature sandbed. Mine also eats frozen.
In my experience, when my tank was young, it didn’t work and I lost a few. If your tank is mature, try to buy at your LFS so you can see them. watch to see if they are sand sifting , looking for food, or ask if they will feed it. Make sure it’s not “skinny”. I make sure to use my feed mode and use my turkey baster to get food to him to supplement what he gets from sifting.
My tank is 7 months old how long should I wait before I try?
Hard to say, some tanks mature faster than others. Even if I said wait until a year old, I could be wrong your tank might not be ready or if you added them now they could do great It’s hard to know. of course all your parameters need to be stable. And you have to have sand!
Here’s what I’d recommend for Sandsifters.
What food do you supplement feed yours? Same thing you feed the rest of the fish, just turkey baste near it? Mine still has some work to do in my tank, but it's looking pretty clean and I want to make sure he has enough to eat. I haven't seen him go after frozen food pieces or anything yet, but then again I may just be missing it.
Yes, just whatever food I'm feeding to the rest of the fish, I choose a variety of frozen the usual like mysis & brine shrimp also Nano Reef Frenzy, seaweed, fish eggs and oyster eggs and every once in a while TDO pellets. The pellets were recommended by Jake at Biota when I got my male mandarin-all the fish love them.
Ok great, thank you! I will try target feeding him a little tonight and see if he's interested. I usually alternate feeding Ocean Nutrition formula one frozen and Rod's Food. Have been trying to get my fish interested in TDO pellets, but only the clownfish have tried them - one always spits them out, lol. I bought the really small sized pellets since my clowns are still fairly small (1.5" roughly). They just seem to prefer the meatier foods. I'd really like to get them accustomed to some sort of pellet or flake though just for if I'm on vacay or something and can use an autofeeder. My bicolor blenny won't eat the pellets, but probably because he's large and in charge and prefers bigger chunks of food, lol. I've seen him take a chunk of frozen food the size of my fingernail and swallow it whole, spit it out, then swallow it again - AND I've caught him swimming by really fast and stealing food right out of my fire shrimp's little claws! Such a piggy - he's my absolute fav fish though, so much personality.
I got a sand sifter goby he burries my corals constantly.If you get one make sure you got glue.
I like him he keeps s my sand nice and clean but he will bury your corals and if you can’t find them in a day or two the most there gone
