Hi Everyone: Terri & I have had our 24g nano set up with LR for about a month now. Last Tuesday we purchased a Rainfordi goby from NSA (Thanks again for your help, Marti!). We used the drip acclimation method, and soon after putting her in the tank she found a small cave and went in - And has not yet come out at all after 4 days now. Plus, she has no interest in food - mysis, emerald entre' (which has brine, mysis, krill, plankton, spinach, lettuce, and spirulina algae). We then added 2 small false percs on Thursday, thinking maybe that would help the goby (dinner fish phenomena?) and they don't seem to want any of the mysis either, although they do chase after the "floaters" in the tank as though they are hungry. The also pretty much hang near the bottom of the tank all the time. So we were wondering if a) should we try and return the goby to NSA (We'd rather do that than watch her die of starvation) or b) wait it out another day or two and try different foods? And as for the clowns, we've never had clowns before (in the last 20 years) that have refused to eat. Maybe we should try cyclopese? By the way, the hermits and snails are doing great, we see lots of those teeny tiny micro crustaceans, we have several feathers and a tiny brittle star doing well (hitchhikers - yea baby!) and we're also starting to see tiny snails roaming about the glass not to mention the feathery looking algae that is growing everywhere... Any advice is, of course, greatly appreciated! -- Ken
From http://www.wetwebmedia.com/amblygobius.htm Genus Amblygobius, the HoverGobies: Thirteen species of sand sifting/diggers, too often lost incaptivity from simple starvation. Continuous feeders in the wild on filamentousalgae, various crustacean groups, nematode worms... Keep in reef type settingswith adequate interstitial fauna... And don't buy skinny specimens! There arethirteen species in this genus. - - Fenner
Be sure to read http://www.wetwebmedia.com/amblygobiusfaqs.htm. Apparently, these fish are difficult to keep alive without a large system and a lot of live "micro" food such as 'pods and sand-critters.
Unfortunatly the above is true about the rainfords. Though some have found a few that eat prepaired food. Beautiful fish.