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Unread 09/11/2000, 09:07 PM   #14
Kirbster
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Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Lansing, MI
Posts: 271
BRW's description of the sifting is very good and very accurate. These guys sift often (I've got them averaging well over a hundred mouthfuls per hour during daylight) but not much total volume. This results in less sandbed destruction than from sifters like sleeper gobies that can sift a tablespoon at a time.

While they do ingest copious amounts of filiamentous algae when it is available, I do not believe it is in any way necessary for their survival. I have brought nearly starved rainfordis back to health in tanks totally devoid of filiamentous algae but rich in sand fauna. The recovery rates were actually surprisingly quick (couple weeks) compared to getting a starved tang back to life. I asked Scott Michael about the algae thing and he disagreed with me, maintaining that they needed algae. I countered with the suspiscion that the gobies were ingesting the algae as an efficient means of obtaining the attached microfauna. This is similar to the habits of rift lake cichlids. I asked Scott about gut analysis and he said no one had ever done it. Of course no one ever will because the expense and time can't be justified.

Anyway, I had to put the rainfords on hold as I have reopened my retail store again, so I don't have much more to add. I plan to start working with them again and I hope to breed them.

KA



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