Dead diamond [emoji853]

[Thornbreaker]

So on day 6, bucket 2 of TTM, I lost this guy.

He was eating fine, but I found him dead in the morning so must have died overnight.

Any thoughts on why?

I did dose prazi at the start of bucket 2.
I didn't add prime to combat possible ammonia, but I also didn't feed during bucket 2 until the night before he passed.

Looking for answers before I go get another. This is my second diamond goby attempt after the 1st one jumped the bucket (despite a lid) on day 4 a few weeks ago.
So if I get a 3rd I may just QT in my 20 gallon for 60 days.


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[Uncle99]

Requires a mature sand bed.
Expert at cleaning sand beds white, but, are hard to keep long term

[ThRoewer]

From the looks of it it's rather unlikely that this fish died of starvation due to the lack of a sandbed.

[Uncle99]

Not suggesting he died of anything, only that I no longer keep this species as even with a DSB, I have never kept one past a year, but, having a good mature sand bed is a basic requirement if you want to try to keep this fish. Maybe just m bad luck.

Just because a fish eats does not mean he is eating well.

Unless you manage a fully mature QT, Its hard for the average aquarists to QT sand sifters (or mandarins) as their foods are specific. I am certain a fish can die in a week from starvation.

The OP suggests on the third try, QT would be 60 days, I think it will end in the sane way

[Thornbreaker]

Thank you for the replies.

I did put some sand in the buckets to help with familiarity. Nothing age, but something he could sift around.

Do they need to eat as constant as mandarins? I thought they were fine if eating frozen/dry.

My display tank has been up 18 months now, and I have one baby mandarin.

Any other suggestions for a good sand sifter?



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[Uncle99]

Mine might have grabbed the occasional flake, but he was constantly filtering out the micro fauna in the bed, my DT is only 60g, so maybe it just needs a bigger environment. It's the only fish I could never keep long term, my guess he runs out of food. I mean thus Fish can move a lot if sand in just 24 hours.

I haven't used sand sifters in years now, I do keep 20 or so Nasarrius snails, they have been able to keep the bed very clean.

Assuming you have rock, and the Mandy is the only POD feeder, in 18 months, he will do well with just eating PODS. He's a hunter and usually only eats live. Mine is 3 years old now and he has never done nothing but pick pods.

I have read captive bred can eat frozen, maybe this works, but they are very, very small.

Was their anyone else in QT, kinda looks a bit Munched on at the tail?

[ThRoewer]

Valenciennea goby filter their food out of the sand. Not entirely sure, but I doubt that they get a large number of pods and worms with each mouth full of sand. So yeah, in a way they are like mandarins.
I would think that it is unlikely that one can ever establish the numbers and variety of prey organisms in a tank that they find in the wild, whether the sand bed is mature or not.
But like mandarins, pipefish, and the like it should be possible to supplement these guys' diet with frozen or dry foods. And you could always also load up a patch of sand with frozen foods they can then dig up.

That said, I tried these in the past and even when eating well and a visibly full stomach they would lose weight, get skinny, and ultimately die. I seriously doubt that was due to insufficient feeding or inadequate food. More likely they had intestinal parasites or liver damage due to being caught with cyanide.
So you should definitely deworm these guys properly.
And I would not buy them if they came from Indonesia. Philippines should be mostly okay these days after the new government cracked down hard on cyanide fishing. Ideally I would only get these from places where no cyanide is used.

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[Uncle99]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

Valenciennea goby filter their food out of the sand. Not entirely sure, but I doubt that they get a large number of pods and worms with each mouth full of sand. So yeah, in a way they are like mandarins.
I would think that it is unlikely that one can ever establish the numbers and variety of prey organisms in a tank that they find in the wild, whether the sand bed is mature or not.
But like mandarins, pipefish, and the like it should be possible to supplement these guys' diet with frozen or dry foods. And you could always also load up a patch of sand with frozen foods they can then dig up.

That said, I tried these in the past and even when eating well and a visibly full stomach they would lose weight, get skinny, and ultimately die. I seriously doubt that was due to insufficient feeding or inadequate food. More likely they had intestinal parasites or liver damage due to being caught with cyanide.
So you should definitely deworm these guys properly.
And I would not buy them if they came from Indonesia. Philippines should be mostly okay these days after the new government cracked down hard on cyanide fishing. Ideally I would only get these from places where no cyanide is used.

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Good points of view, I only suspected foods sources as the fish always did great for say 4-7 months, then rapid decline in a couple of weeks.

I have been lucky to keep mandarins for years, but mine never appear to have any interest in anything floating by.

Cyanide, yup, that might end in that way, but it's the only fish I just can't seem to keep.

[ThRoewer]

My mandarins always went after mysis after a while, even if floating. Some even went after pellets. My current male actually figured out that it is easiest for him to score a meal by stealing the mysis out of my dendrophilia...

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[Thornbreaker]

Originally Posted by Uncle99

Mine might have grabbed the occasional flake, but he was constantly filtering out the micro fauna in the bed, my DT is only 60g, so maybe it just needs a bigger environment. It's the only fish I could never keep long term, my guess he runs out of food. I mean thus Fish can move a lot if sand in just 24 hours.



I haven't used sand sifters in years now, I do keep 20 or so Nasarrius snails, they have been able to keep the bed very clean.



Assuming you have rock, and the Mandy is the only POD feeder, in 18 months, he will do well with just eating PODS. He's a hunter and usually only eats live. Mine is 3 years old now and he has never done nothing but pick pods.



I have read captive bred can eat frozen, maybe this works, but they are very, very small.



Was their anyone else in QT, kinda looks a bit Munched on at the tail?

Yeah I didn't add my Mandy till after a year. Got him captive from LA/biota just so I could take the risk of putting it straight in the display. He's got a whole tank full of pods to himself practically. Supposedly he'll eat frozen, but he's so small right now its hard to tell.

I've got about 3 large nassarius and half a dozen smaller ones. I do love them, but for whatever reason I can't seem to keep larger numbers of them.
Have a conch, a Btu, and ceriths and nerites.

So the sand bed just looks dirty after the gha phase I just got through.

Would a court jester gob or sea cucumber be other options?

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