Is having a Maiden Goby going to hurt my sandbed?

[fishboy19]

Just wondering, I know I needs many more snails, but I have a Maiden Goby, and I was just wondering if it is going to eat all the bacteria that I need in the DSB?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Anonymous]

Valenciennea puellaris will do nothing to your bacteria but will deplete your sandbed of beneficial critters such as copepods, amphipods, bristle worms, etc.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

UNless you have a large tank and/or a refugium it wll starve over time. As David said they eat the micro fauna and will depleate it quickly. Generally they do not eat prepaired foods.

 

[Anonymous]

Valenciennea puellaris will do nothing to your bacteria but will deplete your sandbed of beneficial critters such as copepods, amphipods, bristle worms, etc.

Regards,
David Mohr

I believe hes referring to Synchiropus splendidus.

Ive kept Mandarins for about a year now, and theyve never made any impact on my bristle worm population.
Their primary food source in the wild are copepods and amphipods, but which do not reside exclusively in the sand bed; cope's and amph's also take to the rockwork.
The Mandarins will not affect your bacterial sandbed almost at all, since they wont be spending much time on the sand bed at all. They are "rock-hoppers", spending most of their time in and around the rockwork.

My mated pair of Mandarin Dragonets have lived off of a diet mainly of frozen foods supplemented with Garlic Xtreme. The Garlic Xtreme is the only reason I believe they accept the prepared meals, as its extremely palatable to all fish, apparently, and it has kept my fish parasite free for as long as Ive had every one of them. There are also 'pods that manage to find safe haven in the nooks and cranies of rocks and in my crushed coral sand bed in part of my tank. Crushed coral is a haven for 'pods, and Ive seen great results where one builds a sandbed of pure large-grain crushed coral sand only underneath the rocks in their tanks, using fine-grain live sand everywhere else.

Good luck, and keep an eye on those Mandarins.

 

[Anonymous]

Oops; I misread the name "maiden" for "mandarin"...
Ive heard of some strange nicknames for Mandarin Dragonets, but I was wondering why that one didnt quite synch... Sorry.

 

[Unarce]

Also, the one thing I found annoying about this genus is its tendency to sprinkle sand all over corals, clams, and live rock.

 

[chunchma]

Would a pair of sleeper gobies depleate the sandbed of all it's richly goodness?