Ace25's 75G Build Thread

Very nice Ace, I lost my engineer goby a couple of months ago. He was a rescue fish, I know he was at least 6 yrs old when I got him. I had him for another year.

Its the closest you can get to having an eel in your reef tank. The only problem I had with mine was having to dig out the acans he kept burying with sand.
 
I was just googling them to find out lifespan and I found "Over 3 years" and "Up to 10 years" as the answer. Not a lot of real information out there on actual lifespans. I know mine is finally starting to show its age, yellow coloring is fading and skin is looking like a wrinkled old man, but he is still very active and eats like crazy. I also have a yellow watchman goby that is about 7 years old, a lot older than I would have thought it to live. Everything I read on them says around 5 years is their lifespan.
 
Not to mention he's way over size... I read where they are only suppose to get to 12" LOL I guess he knew how big he was suppose to get.

My Yellow Tang has decided to be shy, except when it's time to eat.
 
Ya, when he goes there is no doubt I will have to replace him with 3-4 juvi's and hope 2 make it and become a mated pair. Baby engineers would be cool, especially since they don't go through a planktonic phase meaning you don't have to catch the babies and feed them phyto in a seperate tank, but they do still require small food like Rotifiers and Oyster Feast. It appears the parents stick by the young and guard them. I am sure at 400-500 babies at a shot more than a few will become food or filter stuffing, but even if it happened it would still be cool. Never had any spawning fish before.

The Engineer Goby has a lifespan is at least 3 years, with spawning occurring after 1.5, 2 and 3 years. The female is always listed as being larger than the male ranging. Other than size differences, the only noted difference between the sexes was the females fuller abdomen. Diet was varied and included both prepared and live foods. Spawning occurred in "nests" which ranged from the underside of a bivalve shell, small hole in a rock, to a 1 x 6" PVC tube.

The Engineer Goby egg mass is described as whitish, adhesive and approximately 2 mm in diameter.The spawning frequency range from 8 - 28 days. The incubation is reported as 7 - 10 days at water temperatures of 76-81 F. with specific gravity at 1.021 to 1.022., pH value from 8.2 to 8.3.
The hatching occurs at dusk and larvae are 3.0 mm in length with a small yolk sac and no pigmentation except eyes. The Engineer Goby larvae are phototaxic (attracted towards light) and can be easily collected using a Larval Snagger or using a "mini-mag" type flashlight and collecting the larvae in a glass, bowl, or slow siphoned. The larvae should not be collected with a net. The larvae can be fed rotifers and newly hatched artemia can be introduced between the 9th and 14th day. The initial food size for Engineer Goby larvae is in the 56-200 micron range. The Metamorphosis occurs around 26 days after hatching.
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Well, Ace, if you get them to multiply, I'd like to be one of your first customers to get a pair.
 
They are actually pretty common and usually only cost $11.99ea most places. I think I may have even paid less than that. So it isn't that they are rare or expensive, I would just like to see it happen for the sake of the experience. But if I do get to that point and have babies your welcome to grab a dozen or so. lol.
 
Here is a picture on why mushrooms are bad in an SPS dominated reef tank. As you can see in the picture, the ricordea mushroom is rubbing against a small piece of a birdsnest coral and killing it. I don't mind, the birdsnest grow fast anyway and it was a cool learning experience to witness over the last few weeks. I have some green striped mushrooms started to get out of control and sting the base on some of my other SPS corals so this weekend I will be taking an exacto knife to cut out as many as I can. I know it won't kill them but it will definately slow their growth for a while.

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