Why can't I keep Gobies

[gclackum]

Ok I just lost my third Gobie. My take 125 gal has been up for 8 months. Healthy coral growth. I'm keeping sps, lps, and various soft polyps. I've got 3 firefish, 5 wrasses, a hippo tang, one Bartlett and a clown. I put in a yellow headed Jaw fish when the tank was about 1 month old lived about a month. Waited a few weeks and put in a diamond goby. He was there eating sand for about two weeks then never saw him again. Waited about 5 months and put in an orange spotted goby I got from one of the members. He sifted for about a week now he has disappeared. What's up is there something in my sand. I vacuum at least once a month, I avg every three weeks for sure. Do 10 to 15 gallon water changes every two weeks min.

 

[lsu_fishfan]

What wrasses do you have?

Do you have copopods in your tank?

 

[hzheng33]

Maybe he's outcompeted by others for food

 

[gclackum]

I have one each of Melanurus, Exquisite, Lubbock male and (female?) and a Solore. Could be but I tend to over feed, hence a lot of small water changes. I add copapods about once a month.

 

[grouper therapy]

Have you looked in the overflow?

 

[gclackum]

Yes I checked both of them and my sump. Although I do have a red wrasse who decided he would rather live in the sump.

 

[jennm]

Jawfish can be tricky. They don't travel well and they need pretty deep sand. I wouldn't try one unless it had been in the seller's tank for at least a month, and eating well.

Orange spotted and diamond goby is the same fish. Sleeper gobies (of which that is), are prone to internal parasites and are best if they are dewormed. Otherwise they can eat and eat and get thinner and thinner as the worms rob them of their nutrition.

Are you finding the bodies?

Sometimes wrasses can be aggressive toward gobies but if they aren't bothering the firefish, then I wouldn't necessarily suspect them.

Jenn

 

[gclackum]

No bodies since the Jawfish. So should I try again? Or figure another critter for my sand.

 

[typemismatch]

Based on their short tank life I'd say they arrived un-healthy, how long has the diamond goby been missing? Mine for sometimes vanish for a week and then he reappears. I feed him the little algae pellets, he likes seaweed and so eats that too and then usually he'll eat from the fish food too but I always make sure he is getting something.

On my last tank about a decade ago I couldn't keep my diamond gobies alive but they were also dying within 2-3 weeks which makes me think it was a bad supplier.

My current tank has had cyano, dino etc and nothing has killed him yet I think they clean great!

 

[KrisDeitz]

Maybe you are sucking them up when you clean the sand