How quick do engineering gobys grow?

I have been reading about the juvenile engineering goby I have and I found that they can grow up to 10-16" long!
Does anyone know how quickly they grow. He is in a 20 gallon tall and I would hate to dismantle the tank to get him out in the near future if he gets to big...
Thanks

 

They grow pretty fast. Mine is easily 12" long and it must have taken 8-10 months. Whats really funny is I dont know how, b/c the little food that he eats and that I can see, isnt much. Luna

 

Yea I can believe it. I bought mine like 2 weeks ago or so and hes already grown an extra 3/4 of an inch I think. Does yuur goby attack any other fish? I have noticed that mine is territorial in one corner of the tank where most of his tunnel entrances are. Other than that, when he comes out of hiding and swims occasionally, he is not aggresive at all.
I am new to reef keeping and am wondering:
1. Does your goby attack the others?
2. Will the other future fish learn to stay away from his corner?
3. When he does grow to 12", will i be at risk of him attacking other inhabitants such as cleaner shrimp, hermits, or others?

Thanks, sorry for all the questions...

 

1. Never seen him attack anything.
2. Again, never seen any negative attitude, but he does steal food away from the other fish. Mine never swims out, only hides in his tunnels and sticks his head out.
3. I have never seen him, but Im sure that has has eaten my peppers before. If you read up on him, it states that he will eat shrimps, crabs and slow moving creatures. Also make sure that your rock work is secure, b/c he will tunnel under them and if the LR isnt secure, you might have an avallache(sp). His horizontal stripes will turn into vertical ones. Luna

 

Thank you for the help.

I did make sure to secure the rock deep into the sand against the bottom of the glass. He has stopped digging for the time being, but i know he will continue making his burrows bigger as he grows. If you could, how long did it take for him to change the color/ pattern on his sides?
I was planning on getting cleaner shrimp. Is this now not a good idea??? They are like 30$ at my lfs and dont want to waste my money if hes going to eat them. Another option was a coral banded shrimp. He may be on an even aggressiveness for the eng. goby...

 

If your going to buy one, this is the time to buy one. He's too small to eat a mid-large size cleaner. I bought 6 pepppermints the other day and I only saw 1 the other night with a flash light. Luna

 

Mine stays in his section of the tank. Self imposed isolation, I guess. He does attack anything that moves, it it gets close enough, but he won't go out of his way to attack. I love my e.g. he's quite a character!

 

I had 3 at one time in my tank...they GROW FAST. Mine is probably 12 inches or so also and has been about 7 months.
When I changed tanks I traded 2 in because I actually had 1 eat a fish...might have been dead already..dont know. I noticed that 2 of gobies were in the same "den" area and those 2 were really, really aggresive towards anything that came near them. I found out that they do breed in tanks and do well..so they might have been getting ready to breed. Luckily it was around the same time I was changing tanks, so those 2 were brought back to store and I kept 1 of them and have not had any problems since
I have a feeling it ate my peppermint shrimp also...never saw him after I bought him but he has left my cleaner alone.

They are cool fish to me..like eels. My parents hated theirs and that is how I had 3!