Finally captured my dragon goby.

(There actually is a question at the end of all this. lol)

So, I have had my dragon goby, also known as a Sleeper Banded Goby (Amblygobius phalaena) for over a year now. I purchased him because I wanted a nice white sand bed and diamond gobies kept jumping out of my tank. Well, he did his job alright, sifting sand all over my corals non-stop to the point where they would get irritated and close up, or die. To date he has killed a beautiful green star polyp colony by completely burring it with sand. I would try to blow the sand off and he would bury it the next day. He also Buried my feather duster to the point that it threw its crown until it just died from irritation. I've even tried to move them off the sand bed but he gets a big mouth full of sand and releases it across the entire tank like a crop duster. Same thing happened to a beautiful clove polyp I had. Every day I would have to use a turkey baster to blast the sand off, and between me and the goby, the poor coral couldnt take it. Well, last week I spent $75 on a huge plate coral. Now it might not be for some, but $75 for a coral is alot for me (it was an early V-day present from my wife). And what do you think my dragon goby does? You guessed it, killed my plate coral. GRRRRRRRR. So I had enough with this fish, he has cost me alot of money and suffering, and he had to go. I tried for hours a day for the last 3 days to catch this guy. I would leave the net in the tank for hours untill he practically swam right into it, but by the time I go over to the tank to net him, he would swim away. I was not willing to remove all of my rockwork and add stress to my other fish, so today I took a different approach. I made a fish trap out of a 2 liter bottle. Put some food in there and let it sit at the bottom of my tank. I go to the store to get my wife some cold medicine, come back, and there in my trap were about 5 snails, a hermit crab, 3 chromis,AND MY DRAGON GOBY! I was so excited.

**so, the question is, what should I do with him until I can get to the LFS in the morning to trade him in? I could either leave him in the trap like he is right now (the trap has several holes for water exchange but I did block the main hole just in-case he gets clever and swims back out) or do you think it would be less stressful for him to be in the overflow over night? Unfortunately I dont have a Q-tank to put him in so I really only have those 2 options. I wanted to do whichever one is LEAST stressful for the fish.

THANKS GUYS! ;D

 

He should probably be fine in the bottle as long as there is plenty of water exchange. You could add a little air hose if you are concerned. The overflow might be a bit too much flow for him and then you have to catch him out of that, just adding to his stress.

 

5 gallon bucket i left my yellow goby in one for a few hours to acclimate so it should be ok

 

I thought of putting him in a bucket with a small PH and heater but I dont have enough make up water to put back in my DT and the last batch of salt I ordered takes a few days to completely dissolve. I think the package was broken and it soaked up moisture because when I got it the salt was more like a block. Tried to crush it up into smaller pieces but it still doesnt want to completely dissolve. I have to use a little extra salt and the siphon the salt out of the bottom of the rubber maid before I do a water change.

I really should have been more prepared by mixing water and setting up a 10G Q-tank. To be honest I didint think I was every gonna capture this little devil.

 

OOO OOO OOO. Dont know why I just now thought of this but I COULD put him in my refugium. The cheato would be fine in the DT for a day. The fuge is about 3 gallons. My only concern is that he would jump out of such a small tank. Should I put him in the fuge? (there goes my entire population of pods wiped out overnight. lol)

 

i would

 

this seems to happen alot with sleepers they love putting sand on rocks and also brain corals i had the same problem but i just brushed off the sand from time to time and to answer this i would keep him in the overflow both ways are stressful

 

OK so I cut an acrylic top for my fuge, unplugged the fuge light for the night, took the chaeto out and placed him in the fuge. He's in there gulping pods for sure. lol

Soooo, now i can add another fish
any suggestions?

right now I have these in my 65G
-4 chromis
-2 O. Clowns
-neon goby
-firefish

was thinking a 2 spot hogfish, I have one in my 28G nano cube and they have alot of personality. Also I have always been interested in a wrasse but I dont know anything about wrasse compatibility.

 

I was going to say put him in the fuge, or as I call it, jail. I still have a mean hermit down there serving his time haha

 

I have a Teddy bear crab in mine.

Good choice.