Scoly with a diamond watchman goby?

kevgib67 · Apr 23, 2023

I really want a couple of scolys for my sandbed but I read they don’t do well with getting sand on them. My diamond watchman goby enjoys rescaping the sand bed. Anyone successfully kept scolys with sand sifting gobys?

blaxsun · Apr 23, 2023

Sand sifters are notorious for "relocating" sand everywhere you don't want it. So there's no guarantee even if you found a great spot that your goby wouldn't take great pleasure in "dusting" it on occasion. I have a bunch of wrasses and some other fish that burrow/dig, and blowing sand off my corals is just one of those things you have to get used to.

kevgib67 · Apr 23, 2023

blaxsun said:
Sand sifters are notorious for "relocating" sand everywhere you don't want it. So there's no guarantee even if you found a great spot that your goby wouldn't take great pleasure in "dusting" it on occasion. I have a bunch of wrasses and some other fish that burrow/dig, and blowing sand off my corals is just one of those things you have to get used to.

Doable?

blaxsun · Apr 23, 2023

kevgib67 said:
Doable?

Sure, anything is possible. It just might require more intervention (read: sand blasting) on your part.

afrokobe · Apr 24, 2023

definitely not doable unless you enjoy blowing sand off your scolies multiple times a day. You can try elevating the scolies with a piece of pvc or just glue them on the rockwork. Scolies don't realy like being on the sand bed anyway.

even if you have all your scolies lifted off, your diamond goby might just not like one your scolies and throw sand at it. The two weeks I had diamond gobies, one of them held a grudge against my bleeding apple. Never getting sand sifters again, I like corals more than fish.

fodsod · Apr 24, 2023

I have 2 SS Gobies in my big tank and they force me to place all coral on the main rock structure or I take a smaller piece of rubble rock and place coral that would normally go on the sand bed and put them on the small rocks.

Having the corals on the smaller rock pieces allows me to move them easily if needed and pull them out if I need to dip them if needed also.