What is a Dragon Goby

[kyarnkid]

My LFS told me today that I need a Dragon Goby to get rid of some of the algae on my sand bed. He said that my 15 hermit crabs weren't enough. He told me this Dragon goby picks up sand with his mouth and discards it after he cleans the algae off of it. He said that he is very easy to take care of and he will do a great job cleaning my tank. I have a 55 gallon that is 9 weeks old with 15 hermits(5 scarlet and 10 blue legs).
Have you all ever heard of this goby and what do you all know about him? Is my LFS just trying to get a sell out of me?
Thanks

 

[amphiprion]

I really hate common names - there is absolutely no way to tell which fish he is talking about.
But it sounds like he is talking about sand sifting gobies of the family Vallencieana
The common name here is Yellow Headed Sleeper Goby or another is the Orange Spot Sleeper Goby.
These pick up bits of sand,sifting it through there gills.

 

[jonthefb]

Another cool sandsifting goby, that should only be introduced into a stable tank is the twinspot goby. These guys are soo cool to watch, and they have the best personalities, but should only be kept in pairs as they have a poor survival rate when they are by themselves. I love these little guys. I have a pair in my 135 and call them Bing and Bong.

 

[kyarnkid]

How long before you introduced the twin spot gobies Jon?

 

[fshhub]

the dragon goby is a rather large fish,and does not eat only algae, but also your critters in the sand bed, they are also actually a brackish fish rather than a marine,
<a href="http://www.wallybillingham.com/snail/info/dragon_fish.htm" target="_blank">info on dragon goby</a>
one thing, your lfs is trying to sell you another fish, already???,
you still don't have everytihing else straightened out yet, or if you do, it is barely, you need to wait a bit, to make sure your tank is stable enough before you proceed with any more fish, but if you want something else, that is reef safe and will not eat your sand critters, look at conchs, they are great for cleaning up problems on the sand, but they will not work on the galss or rocks, whereas the turbo and trochus snails often don't touch the sand, another thing you could look at is some nassarius snails, they too eat the garbage in the sand, but hey are small and you need quite a few, but as i said, i would wait on any fish at all for at least a couple of weeks, you are here alot,a nd if you haven't yourself learned about going too fast, i KNOW that you have read about enough other people who did so and regret it, the lfs is pushign you too fast(in their own way), anyhow, enjoy the literatiure on the dragon goby

 

[kyarnkid]

Thanks hub that was the answer I was looking for. I knew those gusy were pushing me. I looked over my tank tonight and I noticed that my snails and hermits were eating ok and some of the snails were out. I think I am just going through an algae bloom.