Feeding a Goby

So I bought a Valencienna wardii, aka Tiger watchman goby, and the more I read in forums the more concerned I get about the guy. I believe its care should be almost the same as the diamond watchman goby which is mostly what I can find since there does not seem to be a ton of information out there on the tiger.

Only been 2 days and he is still very skittish, everytime I come near the tank he darts to his cave, otherwise he is sifting constantly and I can only assume he is looking for food. I have seen tons of pods on my rockwork but never see many on the sandbed. Is he going to kill my sandbed and my tank or is my filter mostly my rock? Also is he going to starve? I have not seen him grab any fallen pellets but its mostly because he is hiding whenever I feed due to my presence being around the tank.

 

Your live rock is your main filtration. It is normal for them to dart when you get near the tank. He doesn't know you yet. You can take a turkey baster and squirt some food into his hole gently. Or you can try feeding him mysis shrimp.

 

I have seen some pellets fall around the entrance but not sure if he ate them. I am used to being able to see every fish I own eat when fed and it was always how I judged how healthy they were, if they stopped eating I knew something was wrong BEFORE they got too thin. I do run seachem seagel and my nitrates have been 0 or close to it the past month or so now I thought maybe some of that was from the sandbed and not the rock but could be wrong sandbed is only 1-2.5inches deep.

Are they like mandarins where they are strictly a pod eater where they NEED constant supply of food in the sand or will they eat leftover food and whatever else they find as well? I am thinking of starting to feed some frozen mysis a lfs by me has a nice product that is almsot pure whole mysis shrimp with little frozen water and waste should benefit everyone. I do not have a fuge but do have some rubble in a HOB filter and a lto of very porous liverock to hopefully act as an intank fuge.

 

I have the same goby and had the same problem at first. Let em get comfy I paired mine up with a matching tiger pistol shrimp and the two are best buds.
Mine wouldn't touch pellets at first, goes after pods like most gobies but is a regular eater of other stuff too. I started with mysis and cyclopeeze and after a while he just started gobbling up pellets too. Been about 8 months and goby has grown nicely, has a huge belly.

Mysis, brine, cyclopeeze, pellets. Eats all this now. Still gets spooked very easily though lol. But since he has the shrimp he sits outside the cave perched all day. I soak my food in selcon as well.

 

My wife would not be happy with me if I bought a shrimp she doesnt want to see anything that looks like her dinner :bouncylau

When you say eat pods do you mean from the sand or pick them off the rock? See him sift constantly but never pick at a rock yet. The lfs had him 2 weeks and said he ate pellets but I did not witness. How did you feed the mysis a baster?

 

Well pistol shrimp stays hidden. Rarely seen, also looks nothing like shrimp we eat. Closer to a lobster. Lol. No baster just thaw a cube, drain excess liquid and let it get thrown about the tank. He comes out pretty far to get his food. No spot feeding necessary. In terms of pods he eats whatever he sees. I redid my tank design and have tons of rocky areas he cruises and looks for food. Sifts through some sand but barely anything. The pistol turns over and moves so much sand around the go by barely has to work.