Burrower Friendly Substrate?

[thefirethief]

Evening folks. I'm a big fan of Gobies and I'm worried my options will be limited if I get the substrate wrong on my 30Gal. Im leaning towards a mixed grain size substrate as this seems to be a good way of supporting microfauna.

Just wondering if anyone can explain why some substrates are considered to not be 'burrower friendly'. Is this to do with the lack of larger/coarser piecies of sand/crushed coral which make it impossible to hold the structure together? If this is the case, would substrate that is burrower friendly still be considered soft belly safe and would fish that 'mouth' through the substrate in search of food still be ok?

Any input is appreciated!

Mark

 

[SkiFletch]

Sound's like you've got the concepts down Mark. Burrower type fish for the most part do better with coarser substrates, but those coarse substrates then inhibit fish like diamond gobies that eat microfauna out of the sand. Some burrowers will do ok with finer "sand" while some struggle with it. What burrowers were you considering?

 

[thefirethief]

Thanks for the help Skifletch! I was hoping there would be an substrate that would cover all bases but looks like its decision making time. I'm new to the marine side of things so my stocking plans are from trawling through pages and pages of books. I've come a cross a quite a few that have caught my interest but one that sticks out is the Highfin shrimp goby (Stonogobiops nematodes). A pair would be an excellent addition by the looks of it, either with or without the symbiotic shrimp. I've also been considering jawfish. A small colony of yellowhead jawfish would be pretty interesting addition.

The only problem is that I'll probably need a deeper sand bed if I'm going to have jawfish so I'll need to read up a bit more on the pro's and con's of that. I assume a normal sand bed would suffice for a smaller fish like the Highfin shrimp goby?

Mark