Diamond goby question

[atexada]

I put a Diamond Goby and a purple dottyback in a 65g at the same time with two other clowns and a small damsel. There were two additional damsels I wanted to take back to the store, so after letting the goby and dottyback get used to the aquarium for about 8 days (with no problems getting along), I took all the rock out to catch those darting damsels.

It was quite an ordeal and I'm afraid I've stressed the poor goby out. I saw him once three days ago right when the day was breaking and there was just enough light to see him. As soon as I approached, he quickly moved to the rear of the aquarium and out of sight. Haven't sen him since.

I checked ammonia level to see if I had signs of death and the level has been fine for the past few days.

Is there any way to know if he's OK? Before I messed with the tank, he was out and about a lot and sifting the sand quite a bit. I thought about smoothing out the live sand to see if I could detect sign he'd been sifting nocturnally, but I don't want to do anything else to stress him.

Any ideas?

 

[messiah023]

Hi Atexada,

First, I'm sure you know, but you are adding too many fish too quickly.
You need to add 1-2 fish MAXIMUM per 3-4 week period.

The thing with diamond gobies......I had one, and many of the club memebers down here also had them.
They are typically timid and usually hard to feed. What they do eat is the "food" in the sand they are sifting and pods. I could never get mine to eat (I tried everything). He soon withered away and died. :-(
Many others experience the same, but some have good luck (aged tanks with plenty of goodies for the fish to live off of - or they eat right away).

Any sand-sifting fish will.....sift sand.
If you don't notice moved sand, deposited sand on your rocks, etc....the fish is either gone or going. Those fish are workaholics and are always sifting when healthy.

My thoughts are if you don't see any activity in the next few days...assume he is in fishie heaven.

Good luck & let us know.

 

[Bifferwine]

They are major jumpers. Look around and behind the tank for a body. If you have a cat or a dog, they may have eaten it if it jumped out.