Fish Disappearance

This makes me quite nervous. I just picked up a pair of Engineer Gobies (each roughly 3-4 inches long) this past weekend and they appear very friendly. I have a cleaner ship and a pair of clowns (the male probably isn't even 2 inches long), but the gobies haven't even shown the slightest interest. The gobies appear very docile though and hardly ever come out of their burrows unless being fed (and even then it's just 1/2 the body). The safest bet would be to take them back, but I've been reading up on this a lot and to me it seems that the Engineer Gobies are more likely to be peaceful than aggressive. I wonder, do they exist in the wild in two locations? That could explain there being an aggressive kind in one location and a peaceful in another. I know I have a Dwarf Flame Angel who's supposed location was of a more peaceful version and so far I can attest to that compared to other flames. Also maybe keeping them in pairs lessens their aggression toward other fish?

Anyone else have experience with Engineer Gobies?

 

Yes and no. I had a tank crash due to an issue caused by my two year old. Lost every fish in the tank. My urchin, and emerald crabs are still alive and kicking, and my CuC which I didn't remove is still there.

 

Engineer gobies IME are very docile creatures. Yours are small at this point so I wouldn't worry about it. I would rethink having two of them though because they do grow to about 10-12 inches pretty quickly. I think that the possible predator issue is just how Mr. Bill explained it. If it will fit in their mouth, they may then consume it. I had several types of fish over the years with my engineers and it was only when they got to be 10-12 inches long and I added in small more docile damsels (yellow tailed, reef chromis) that I noted their disappearance and probable reason for the demise. The more aggressive damsels (black and white, convict, domino) never disappeared.

I loved my engineer gobies! I had two over a 14 year period (not at the same time) and they are extremely hardy and very cool. I re-homed my last one when I converted to a reef set up because I wanted to keep some shrimp and such that I thought could become a potential meal but not due to aggressiveness.

HTH!

 

Thanks for the reply!

I guess I'll need to consider it. I have 2 large shrimps in my tank currently, that would sadden me to see them eaten and def. wouldn't want anything to happen to my clown pair. My YT Damsel is a tough mofo tho, he stands up to my flame angel a lot. My tank is 90gal(4 ft long) so everyone seems to have their own space (only 7 fish total) so hopefully that helps as well.

 

With that much room and everyone staying in their own area, you should be ok. However, I think two engineers may be too much. They also dig a lot of tunnels and such so your rock can get toppled sometimes. If your yellow tail has a strong temperament, then that's a good sign. My tank is only 54 gallons so yours is almost twice as big. Obviously, make sure you keep your fish well fed

 

I thought two may be too much too, but my bio-load is quite low and these two were a pair (in the same burrow and swam together) so I didn't want to break them up. It's funny though, because I released them about 2 minutes apart and they swam to opposite sides of the tank, I think they never saw each other. Both of their rock tunnels are in different locations in the tank so I wonder still if they haven't met up yet haha. By the time they are full grown, I may need to bring them back, who knows. Thanks for the advice, def. quelled some of my concerns.

 

hi guys what is marine velvet.....

my fish had like a off white mucas stuff on the .. unfurtunately they have all died exept my f/face 1..wrass cleaner and 1..small blue/yellow tail damsel


how do u treat it :-[:-[

 

At six months in my world that's still kinda new which makes me think may be you have a large mantis shrimp picking live stock off . I do beleave a decent size spearer who go for something a little large then a damsel .

 

You can try reading information in the forum. There are a few methods. It's a pretty lengthy response.

 

its a 600ltr volume all the tests u can imagine by me with my test kits and the shops now today only got the foxface left salinity is 26 my ph is on 8 i have a large skimmer working fine a 4x2x2ft sump full of goodies done a 50%
water change over last week all corals look fine and healthy