[Cougra]

After I had some food in me I was feeling a little more energetic and decided to start digging once again. This time I wanted to try to dig an emergency exit from the cave and started digging under the rocks on one side of the cave. My companions saw what I was doing and quickly came to help. Two of us were digging under the rock and the other was removing the rubble and sand out of the cave. We worked long and hard digging tunnels and soon one tunnel became two. As the days slipped by we constantly expanded our network of tunnels and found new caves to rest in. We happily moved piles of sand and rubble across the tank and used some of it to make new tunnels. Of course none of the tunnels or new caves were as good as the first one I had found.

Occasionally as we were working we came across small populations of amphipods, live mysid shrimp and copepods that we would eagerly consume as a supplement to our regular feedings.
On the whole we didn’t pay much attention to the other fish around us and they didn’t seem to take any notice of us unless we dug a tunnel into their home. At which point there would be a little scuffle but as soon as we withdrew they were more then happy to leave us alone.

One day while I was taking a rest I was surprised to notice that my companions had grown quite a bit and already had their adult colouration. They must have been between 9 to 10 inches in length, nearly full grown. I sat there and watched them working on our newest tunnel and remembered how I used to watch my parents working together on one of their newest tunnels between telling my siblings and I stories about their youth and adventures in “the wild” before they were captured by some humans.

I was startled out of my reminiscing by sudden earthquake where I ducked back into my cave to wait out the avalanche. Once everything settled, and I didn’t hear any more noises I went searching for my companions to make sure they were all right. Much to my horror, the worst had happened. One of my companions was caught under a rock during the avalanche. Upon closer investigation I noticed that he must have dug too much of the rubble out from under one of the rock piles that wasn’t very stable and it gave way without any sort of warning. There wasn’t anything he could have done to escape this tragic event; if only the rocks were on a more solid foundation this would never have happened.

After the accident my soul remaining companion and I slowed down our efforts to create more tunnels and started paying more attention to each other. We were both young adults in our prime and it was time to start thinking about creating a family of our own. We started spending more time in the cave together and kept it as clean as we possibly could. We made sure that it was secure from invasion and that there was plenty of space to care for our brood. A space was cleared for the eggs and the surface of the cave was nice and smooth so the young fry could attach themselves to the roof until they were strong enough to swim around and not be swept away by the currents. I was tired after laying between 400 to 500 eggs I was exhausted but determined to make sure that nothing came anywhere near them. A short time later I eagerly watched as the eggs begin to hatch and the well-developed young fry making their first tentative attempts at swimming. Of course they were still a bit to small to swim out of the cave on their own, so we kept an eye on them and made sure that nothing in the tank came anywhere near our little ones. When they weren’t feeding they attached themselves to any solid surface. Once they were a little larger and able to swim much better, they would all gather into a tight bunch while I entertained them will the tales that my father used to tell us about his life in “the wild” and the story of my own capture and adventure before coming to my cave.


Have you had any experience with the Engineer Goby?
What size tank would you recommend for one?
Do you have any photo's of your Engineer Goby's that you would like to share?
Would you like to have one or do you find them boring?
Have you found them peaceful or aggressive towards other tank mates?
Are they good for a fish only tank or a reef tank?