Neon Goby in my overflow

[Bartman]

I have now removed my Neon Goby from my overflow for the 3rd time. The fish has spent more time in the overflow than in my tank. He/she seems fine and appears to have grown a bit. Any ideas on how I can entice it to stay in display. Tank is a 75G with about 100lbs Tonga with a Foxface, 2 Oscellaris and a Royal Gramma. I've had the goby about 5 weeks.

[christyf5]

I had this happen several times, most of the time I couldn't fish the goby out of my overflow due to space limitations in getting the net in there so I'd have to wait until he made it into the sump to fish him out (I have guards on all the sump pumps). I found there was really nothing I could do to keep him in the tank, sometimes he'd be in the tank for months, other times he'd make it into the overflow once a week. Eventually I just took him out and put him in my nano tank. He also had a sharknose goby chasing him constantly in the big tank so that could have been part of it. You'd think a 90gal would be large enough for two tiny gobies

[ed99]

I had the same trouble with my dottyback. I attached a double layer of eggcrate at the top of the overflow. You could also use some plastic screening over eggcrate if you need an even finer screen.

[christyf5]

Wouldn't the goby just go through the overflow teeth and end up laying on the eggcrate then? That was the problem I was having. I ended up having to put a fairly fine mesh around the teeth of the overflow on the inside of the tank (extremely unsightly as the material only came in bright green ).

[ed99]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Wouldn't the goby just go through the overflow teeth and end up laying on the eggcrate then? That was the problem I was having. I ended up having to put a fairly fine mesh around the teeth of the overflow on the inside of the tank (extremely unsightly as the material only came in bright green ).

I have a corner overflow so I just siliconed the eggcrate on top of the glass. Filling the gaps in the teeth with eggcrate of screening should still work if you can attach it properly. I was going to use the plastic screening used for windows if the eggcrate didn't work- may look better than bright green!

[christyf5]

You'll probably find that you'll need to clean the screening fairly often then. Thats why i used the unsightly green, the gaps in it were about 4-5mm so most particles went through. It was a PITA to clean the window type screen. Mind you, I could just have a dirty tank

[Murminator]

I have a peice of clear plexi over mine with one trouchus snail trapped in there to keep it clean

[Quagmire]

I use the window screen on the overflow of my anemone tank,and clean it once an day or every couple days with a tooth brush.Only takes a minute if you stay on top of it.I learned the hard way to clean it often,I left it too long once and the dirty screen wouldn't alow enough water into the overflow.Ended up overflowing the tank.

[Bartman]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

I use the window screen on the overflow of my anemone tank,and clean it once an day or every couple days with a tooth brush.Only takes a minute if you stay on top of it.I learned the hard way to clean it often,I left it too long once and the dirty screen wouldn't alow enough water into the overflow.Ended up overflowing the tank.

I've thought about that type of screen, which is what I think would be required, but I was concerned about restricting flow, even when clean. What has your experience been?

[Quagmire]

Flow restriction is no problem as long as the screen is kept clean.But Im only running about 600 gph through it.I don't know if higher flow would start to back up or not.
I should also add that my overflow is about 10" long and 4" deep with eggcrate ontop the glass and the screen running along the outside of the eggcrate.