Write-Up Wednesday: Orange Diamond Goby (Valenciennea puellaris)
The Orange Diamond Goby (Valenciennea puellaris) is a bottom dwelling fish with a white body and orange spots. The Orange Diamond Goby creates burrows in the sandbed for protection and is usually long lived in captivity.
Orange Diamond Goby
It is also what I call a “dead giveaway fish”. I can walk up to a tank and tell with very good certainly if the tank has an Orange Diamond Goby because:
- Sand is piled up in one section of the tank
- Sand is blowing around the tank
- A grumbling owner who wishes they had never put the fish in their tank.
All of these giveaways are due to the sand sifting nature of the Orange Diamond Goby. These fish grab mouthfuls of sand and sift it through their gills. They are hyper sifters and probably have an oral fixation because they always have sand in their
Sand dunes created by an Orange Diamond Goby
mouths. The positive result of the sifting is that your sanded is constantly oxygenated and you get to observe a fish doing more than just swimming around your tank. The negative results are that corals get buried under the dunes of sand created by the goby and your tank will look like winter in Northern Michigan due to sand grains being suspended in the water column.
If you’re looking for a sand sifting fish, I recommend the Pink Spot Goby over the Orange Diamond Goby.
Browse the Store! Questions?
I have one in my 180 reef and my 120 predator. LOL I NEVER have to gravel vac when I do a water change. I keep very few corals on the bottom though, Those that are, are mounted to rocks, and I keep a close eye for when he does decide to rearrange.
Is the yellow watch man goby good to have in a reef tank ?
First time for everything. I’ll have to disagree about keeping one. I’ll admit it took some getting used to the dunes and sand storms. But I have found that over time the sand storms aren’t as bad. And the sand in that tank has never been vacuumed. I think they are hilarious and beneficial.
I’d echo the same about the Arrow/Engineer/Convict Goby. All 6 of my ultra acan colonies got buried overnight by one of these fish and caused fairly significant damage. It’s never happy with it’s burrow so after it digs one it moves on and digs another, and another, and will then eventually re-dig the first one again and the process goes on ad infinitum.
I LOVE this fish. Mine keeps the sand spotless. The detritus is moved into the water column where it can be blown to the overflow. My rocks get a little dusty but I can live with that. Over time, the sand dust settles out. A top for your tank is a MUST with this fish. A notorious jumper!
Although I disagree with you Mark, keep up the good work. As always, I look forward to your posts.
My wife’s favorite!
I too have one, agree with David. Overall still a good fish to have.
I had one and sorry I did… Yes they clean the sand however mine would get ticked off at me as I moved the sand back to cover there holes dug under the rocks or coral. He would then get back at me by taking mouthfuls of sand up to the top of the tank and drop it all over my corals… I’m sorry, but it was time to find another home…
Why is the pink spot goby better?? You did not explain. Thank you!
I have to agree with a lot of the other guys on here in that I love this fish. When first introduced I was a little taken back when I came down in the morning to what looked like a sand sculptures masterpiece of a reef made of sand but after 2/3 weeks he settled down loads and stayed in one burrow.. Yes he continued to displace some of the other sand bed but with me sand sifting starfish and the rest of my clean up crew it always seemed to end up relatively flat. Comes down to individual fish I think. Great looking fish and a joy to watch especially if you have younger family members who get really excited when he spits sand everywhere. Thumbs up from me.
Yellow head sleeper goby in my opinion is equally notorious. Though excellent to keep in your reef and look amazing with those yellow and blue distinct markings glow under the light. However these guys litreally make ” a mountain out of a mole hill”
Mine had a specific liking for one of my symphillia brain coral which is the centere piece of my tank. Each time i would blow off the sand with the turkey baster, he would come back and pour more than previous. He just loved doing it.
I had to move my acans off the sand because I think the goby purposely tries to cover them. They seem pretty protective of the sand…lol
I still really like how clean it keeps the sand though.
I hear the yellow head sifter Goby’s are worse, they take the sand in and swim as they spit it out over everything, at least the orange spot goby stays low…
Had to chuckle at this one Mark. I had a Diamond Goby that was a real asset to my 125 gal mixed reef tank. He would always stay on the bottom when sifting sand so rarely did I see sand on my corals. His borrow was in the center back of the tank. He kept the sand turned over and nice and white. All was wonderful for about 3 years… then one day he went sand CRAZY! Guess he decided one home was not enough and started digging and making huge mounds and holes everywhere! After a month trying to fight the destruction I had to take him to my LFS and trade him in, hated to do it but I had had enough!
one of the worst fish I have ever kept. Killed several trachyphyllias, and a scolymia. I couldn’t keep up with the daily burials. The constant floating grit ruined two vortek wetside pumps. I finally got him out by baiting a #20 hook with shrimp and actually catching him. He now resides happily and harmlessly in a friends FOWLR tank
I have a yellow spotted one and it used to make sand dunes in my tank but it quit after about a month. After that I flattened out the hills and now it just occupies all the tunnels.
I’ve had one for 2 years in a deep 55 gal and a 4 inch sand bed. I really like the lil guy. Tank wouldn’t be complete without him. Fun to watch too, he’ll pick up small hermit crabs and move them around etc etc. I can handle the sand dunes, takes 2 minutes to level it out when I’m cleaning the glass. Really not a bother at all. But everyone is different and so is every fish. Mine suits me fine.
I agree with the others above the Orange Diamond Goby is a great fish. The first few days in the tank it did make mountains of sands digging under things trying to make itself a burrow. My sand is light enough that it kept caving in on the goby. I finally made him burrow by placing three pvc pipe pieces that go from the bottom of the tank to the top of the sand bed, then put a nice flat rock on top of the pvc pipes. I left a small cave under the rock/pvc table and he settled right in. Every night is closes up its burrow and cleans it out the next morning, but it does not collapse and he’s happy
That stopped the mountain building and now the goby just shifts the sand and keeps it nice and clean. I even put a few coral frags on top of the gobies house and it works and looks great. One other note, my leopard wrasses circle the goby as it cleans, it must be stirring up some food they like to eat.
Hey Mark- I know this article isn’t about this, but I know you had a Hydor Slim Skim Nano on the Sexy Tank. I just installed the 48-65 one on my tank but it is letting microbubbles escape into my tank. What do you recommend that I do?
I have had these fish in the past and was very happy with them, the only problem I had was that they can become jumpers and I was loosing one after another after another. My local fish dealer loved me because I was keeping him in business by buying so many of these to replace the last one I had. I finally got smart and engineered a cover for the top of my tank. Now I have two engineer goby that dig, but miss the diamond goby.
Great write up! Great fish for your tank! Very beneficial to you substrate! This is not the fish for the ascetic OCD reefer that enjoys displaying corals on the sand bed. They will blow some sand into the column too, so stay away from oolite. Don’t think you can win this fight either, short of getting rid of it. If this isn’t what you want don’t buy it!
I love hearing owners using PVC tunnels. Pretty smart. It’s best to let this little guy design the sand bed as he wants. They love large cupped rocks buried in the sand with the cup facing down. Keep in mind as they grow they will need to find a new cave if they get too big for the old one. It’s best to keep them happy, as an unhappy diamond goby is a destructive one.