enginer golbys good now bad later?

[teena]

i just bought 2 enginer golbys, there no bigger than a minnow, but i seen two grown ones @ the LFS, they look like snakes, now when they get that big are they going to turn my tank upside down?

[ECEKatko]

What are you afraid of them doing? They root and dig a lot, yes. Probably helpful if you set the rocks in before sand if you have any sand, so they're more stable. I guess I don't understand exactly what you're afraid of. They're not aggressive at all and very active most of the time, they just dig a lot.

[saltycreefer]

They are really cool when they get big, they're like a reef safe eel.

[SWFreak]

They are very intresting fish. I had one about 8in and he dug out a home under about every peice of rock in my tank. putting egg crate under the rock work is a good idea with these guys.

[teena]

those were the last things put in the tank, so every things in place i guess i heard once the sand has been there a while uprooting it will mess up your water readings, that & the LR tipping over, mabey ive been mislead, they just realy caught my eye @ the LFS when i saw the big ones, my LR is only one layer anyway they couldnt fall to far, how long will it take for them to get big? is my 75g big enough

[ECEKatko]

They get around 8 inches or so, maybe up to about 10. The uprooting the sand is really a problem if it sits and isn't stirred by anything, then abruptly starts getting stirred. The big problem with them is the digging to uproot rock and such. How deep is your sand bed? If it's real shallow, having them there to help stir it up will help keep detritus from being trapped.

[teena]

its not deep enough, i have my power heads @ the top blowing toward eachother i guess its blowing on the glass & down every moring i look & theres a clean strip about a foot logn along the glass i can see the bottom, i slid it over & same thing, @ first i thought the sand siffter was doing it, or the blenny getting alge way down the glass where the mag doesnt go, so my sand has already been uprooted, whats the best way to add more sand in that spot?

[No Worries1979]

You may want to keep only one in the future. Mine is 8 inches and works all the time digging tunnels under my rock. It does alot of work in my 90gal, I couldn't imagine two of them.

[Siggy]

Love my engineers ... one is about 8 inches (stunted due to being ripped to shreds by a puffer -- don't know how he survived), 2 of them that will go about 14 inches, and one that is upwards of 16 inches.

A couple comments ...

you definately want to make sure your rock is VERY stable and resting on the bottom of the tank.. not sitting on top of the sand.

I feel that the way these guys move sand around, you would be doing them a dis-service by putting them in a tank with a shallow or no sandbed. I'd think minimum 4 inches.

It took less than a year for them to grow from 3 inch minow sized to their current sizes.

Dan

p.s. Puffer went back to the LFS the day after he went all hanibal lecter on me.