Sleeper Goby: Love or hate?

[J Rog]

I recently got a sleeper goby. He is a very beautiful fish and does a great job sifting my sand. But im slowly beginning to hate him.. My tank always looks cloudy with sand in the water column.. He also is dropping sand on all my corals on the sand bed (which is something I should of thought of before I got him).. My acan, plate coral, rock nem, welso are all not to happy about it right now.. Who else finds these guys to be a pain? Love or hate?

 

[ncfisher]

i think there really interesting fish with great personalities and I'm kinda 50/50 really hate that my tank was always cloudy but the sand looked great lol

 

[mikey_p]

i like mine he does amazing at keeping the sand clean but does put sand everywere n he also started moving my snails into his caves cant figure out why lol.

 

[J Rog]

Lol Ya, I most concerned about him dropping sand all over my corals. But it's true, my sand has never looked better. I feel like even if I wanted to get him out of the tank it would be close to impossible.. He is very shy and every time I walk up to the tank he bolts under the rocks..

 

[Tx Medic]

Apparently mine does not like my scoly because he always tries to bury it.

 

[Marshall O]

IMO, they do not make great reef fish for this reason. Best left for a FOWLR.

 

[J Rog]

IMO, they do not make great reef fish for this reason. Best left for a FOWLR.

Im agreeing with you at this point.. Today is the first day my tank is not cloud of sand.. I did a water change today and I think he took a break.. lol

 

[Eric B]

Had a dragon goby and he had sand everywhere including half way up the rock in the Monti cap. Finally caught and sold him because he was killing all my corals on the sand. I have a tiger tail cucumber as well as other sand stirring critters and sand has pretty much stayed clean since his removal and sand bed corals are starting to come back!

 

[Ms. Mermaid]

Had a dragon goby and he had sand everywhere including half way up the rock in the Monti cap. Finally caught and sold him because he was killing all my corals on the sand. I have a tiger tail cucumber as well as other sand stirring critters and sand has pretty much stayed clean since his removal and sand bed corals are starting to come back!

Out of curiousity what other critters do you have to keep your sand bed clean?

 

[J Rog]

I think it's just best to syphon the sand bed during a water change every so often.

 

[Eric B]

Out of curiousity what other critters do you have to keep your sand bed clean?

I have a tiger tail cucumber or maybe 2 by now because they will split over time and I only see it on occasion! I also have a bunch of nassarius snails and a couple fighting conchs, along with a large red serpent star and 2 small green serpent stars and a pink spotted watchmen goby who is about 5" long (He is a rescue from a friends tank)! The goby only seems to move sand around from his borrows he digs under the rocks and never carries it up into the water column like the dragon/sleeper bandit & diamond watchmen does. I have also heard that rainford's goby doesn't move sand around and good at keeping it cleaned according to my research. I also have a couple of wrasse's that like to hunt and peck through the sand bed so with all these things they keep it stirred up and clean with out me have to do anything.