blue cheek goby

[chavez]

Hi, i recently bought a blue cheek goby and i liked it till this week thursday when i noticed my water getting cloudy. I watched him for sometime and noticed when he picks at the sand he makes a a little cloud of dust in the water, it gets so bad my water looks white and all my rocks are getting covered it sand particals. My question is how do i stop this from happening or do i need to get rid of my goby? Please let me know your thoughts!!

[chrisfont23]

I thought that was normal for those guys.No?

[chavez]

Yes it is but what can i do about my cloudy water? I didn'tknow it would be that bad!

[chavez]

Well i have decided to keep my goby. I am just curious is he not getting enough food is that why he is siffting do much? Or do they never stop siffting?

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

I have no experience, but it may be settling in. Kinda like furnishing a new house? It's a lot of work at first but once you're done, it's home.

[leebca]

This Goby is a sand sifter. It is how it gets its food. It must be trained to eat prepared foods so that it doesn't starve. (There isn't enough food in the substrate for it to live off).

It will always be sifting the sand. That is one of the reasons they are so helpful in an aquarium. They should be in an aquarium though that isn't smaller than 75 gallons, since they do grow fairly long and they need a few square feet of open substrate area to sift.

They will also find a place to bury into at night, or a hole in a rock, or where the rock meets the substrate.

Usually, the worst substrate for them is sand. It is too small for them to make their home and, as you have seen, they will send clouds of fine material into the tank column. On the other hand, particle sizes too large to pass through their mouth and out their gill plates also cause a problem. So substrate particle size has to be right for them. Thus they just can't be put into any aquarium with any substrate.

[chavez]

So you think i just need to give it some time? I hope that's all it is, and that it wont take to long cause my water is so cloudy that everything is getting covered in sand particles!

[leebca]

You posted so soon after my post, I'm unsure you are asking me. However, there will never be non-cloudy water with this fish. They also sometimes pick up a mouthful of substrate and swim around showering the substrate over decorations. They are not the kind of fish to have in a tank with corals or non-mobile invertebrates.

There are other sand sifting Gobies that don't broadcast their substrate. But they would still make the cloudy water if the substrate you have has fine particles in it.

[chavez]

Ok thanks leebca, so my next question is whats the best way to catch one? I would keep the goby but i have fairly fine-medium coarse sand so it wont work for me to keep him

[leebca]

This thread contains some ideas. In this case, a night-time catch may be your best option.

See here: How to Catch Fish -or- Goin' Fisin'

[chavez]

thanks for all your help everyone.

[chavez]

Well i made a minnow trap to try and catch my goby i hope it works. He seems a little intreasted but wont go in he's a smart one.

[chavez]

Well this is embarassing. It turns out it wasn't my goby making all the dust in my tank. the biggest issue was my main pump.It had a crack in the fitting coming off the the pump and was sucking air like crazy. So now i have a smaller pump to get me through till i get a new one. what would you guys suggest? I had a king 1200 with an adjustable flow rate but i want something a little quieter.

[Original Fin]

Eheims are the quietest and most expensive, but if quiet is that important to you, it would be money well spent. Otherwise, Danner Mag drives are well built workhorses.

[chavez]

Thx fin