dragon gobie

lnarobbins

Member
I got a dragon gobie last night and I was looking for information about it
any of you guys had or have one ?
thanks
Alan
 

dfishh

Member
The Violet Goby is a large, peaceful fish which has only recently become readily available in the hobby. unfortunately they are difficult to keep and often die since most people who buy them don't know how to properly care for them. The Violet Goby (Gobioides brousonnetti), also known as the Dragon Goby, is an elongate purple Goby which is found mainly in brackish swamps, inlets, and rivers from the Atlantic coast of Georgia to Texas and to the Gulf of Mexico and the northern coast of Brazil. Its normal habitat is mud-bottomed areas of brackish water from one to one hundred feet of water, where it feeds on diatoms (the brown algae so common in aquariums), various sea algaes, small shrimp, and anything else that can fit in its mouth, EXCEPT fish. they thrive on Wardley Shrimp Pellets. Violet Gobies are highly elongate, most aquarium specimens reaching about 14-15in. They are a light violet color and have some interesting tell-tale features. They have a fused pelvic fin which enables them to attach to aquarium glass, much like the mouth of a pleco. They also have a large, trap-door type mouth, like an Arrowana, which is studded with easily visible teeth. Because of their mouth size many LFS and owners alike assume that they are predators and keep them with predatory fish. in fact they have very small eyes .. which should tell you that they are mainly scavengers who put forth only minor effort in searching for food. their primary method of obtaining food is by scooping up mouthfuls of gravel and sorting the edible things from the substrate, then they spit out the substrate and swallow the food particles. they should thus be maintained over gravel small enough to facilitate this. The Violet Goby will mature and thrive best in brackish water -- but they can be acclimated slowly to fresh water and can also be acclimated to fully marine conditions. They do best at temperatures of 72-78*F, but can stand drops to 50*F and jumps to 85*F for short periods of time. they are not particular about pH, as anywhere from neutral to 9 is acceptable. For brackish conditions the specific gravity should be kept at 1.010 but if they have been kept in fresh water when you purchase them the change must be very gradual. a period of two to three weeks would be about right. dragon goby's are a very hardy species and have a lifespan of about 10 years.
igot it from a website from google, typed in 'dragon goby'
 
T

thomas712

Guest
DfhishH - I'm thinking you looked up the wrong goby here. I think Inarobbins might be taking about the Banded Goby ( Amblygobius phalaena) aka Dragon Goby:
The banded goby is greenish brown above and pale below. It has dark bars on the body that are edged with blue. There is prominent ocellus on the fist dorsal fin and black spot at the upper caudal fin base. This speicies is usually seen swimming just above the bottom in areas of sand, silt or sparse seagrass. It grows to 15cm in length or 6 inches.
The banded goby is a low manintanance fish and may act semi-aggressively toward other fish. It does not get along with others of its own species. Is reef safe and needs a place to burrow. They do well in large aquariums with sand substrate as they spend much of their time sieving the substrate for food.
Thomas
 

lnarobbins

Member
Thomas, I think you just described my fish. I have a 4-6"dsb and 90lbs of live rock in my 90g tank the tank has been up for 3 years now, the banded goby kind of just hangs out of a cave he built and has not been adventuring to far away from his cave yet hopefully he will become more brave. he is about 3in
thanks for the info
also thank you DfishH
Alan
 

lnarobbins

Member
Thomas, I think you just described my fish. I have a 4-6"dsb and 90lbs of live rock in my 90g tank the tank has been up for 3 years now, the banded goby kind of just hangs out of a cave he built and has not been adventuring to far away from his cave yet hopefully he will become more brave. he is about 3in
thanks for the info
also thank you DfishH
Alan
 

dfishh

Member
soryy sorry, i didnt know. i read it and when it sed brackish, i was like omg, what? and i was like i think ur fish will die. didnt mean to scare u, my bad
DAVE
 

dfishh

Member
ALSO dont be worried that its hiding in a cave. most fish will find the neerest hiding spot when first introduced to teh tank, and it will slowly venture out and then swim around eventually. my firefish did this for about a week. the longest this ever hapened to me was in my fw tank, my parrot ciclid hid for almost a year before it swam around! that shouldnt hapen with ur goby tho (i hope, knock on wood):D
DAVE
 
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