I caught my dragon goby lying on the sand, perfectly still. Suddenly, s/he started wiggling the middle of his/her body, creating a well in the sand. I hope this is a good thing. It looked good to me, but I'm still not an expert on this delightful and lovely fish, of whom I become fonder each day. He lives in a 45 gallon hex (he will graduate to something humongous as finances allow) with two small cory cats and some gold and neon tetras. Seems all are thriving.
Is this what they call 'sand sifting?'
- Thread starter WildFrontierian
- Start date
Welcome to MFK!!!
Sand-sifting is the act of prospecting the sand in search of food. Some species sift by taking sand by mouth and 'sifting' the sand across gill rakers to separate edible bits from the sand as sand is passed out of the gills. Other species appear to eat sand and spit it back out. They do this after separating edible bits with their tongue or other buccal device. Goat fish sift sand with semi-rigid chin 'feelers' that kick up edible material from the sand substrate.
What the goby is doing is 'digging in' to the sand in an attempt to camoflage itself from possible predators and/or break up it's shape to conceal itself from possible prey that may swim by.
BTW, dragon gobies are estuarian fish and require brackish water for proper osmoregulation and disease resistance. They are most definitely NOT a species to be kept with soft water species such as neon tetras.
Sand-sifting is the act of prospecting the sand in search of food. Some species sift by taking sand by mouth and 'sifting' the sand across gill rakers to separate edible bits from the sand as sand is passed out of the gills. Other species appear to eat sand and spit it back out. They do this after separating edible bits with their tongue or other buccal device. Goat fish sift sand with semi-rigid chin 'feelers' that kick up edible material from the sand substrate.
What the goby is doing is 'digging in' to the sand in an attempt to camoflage itself from possible predators and/or break up it's shape to conceal itself from possible prey that may swim by.
BTW, dragon gobies are estuarian fish and require brackish water for proper osmoregulation and disease resistance. They are most definitely NOT a species to be kept with soft water species such as neon tetras.
Like oddball said, they are better suited for a brackish tank. They are very fascinating fish though that do well in a brackish community.
I know now about the brackish water preference, although LFS and retailers don't seem to know. The tank *is* being converted slowly with marine salt (slowly seemed like it would be less shocking) and the tetras haven't seemed to mind that either (not exactly monster fish, those tetras) The goby was originally in a tank with mollies, who also like brackish conditions. They didn't pick on him, but I didn't think he was getting to eat. So I moved him in with the tetras and I no longer worry about his starving to death.