Dragon Fish (violet Gobby)

[ECCO_]

I was wondering if eanyone had a dragon fish and was wondering:
What type of settings do they like?
How to take care of the?
What types of food do they eat? (flakes, live, pellets)
And whats theyre behaviore in the tank and towards other fish?

 

[JonathanT]

Hi! This is my first post but the subject is rather dear to me. I love violet gobies, and though I've only had one, sadly, back when I didn't know much about them, I plan on getting another soon when I re-enter the aquarium hobby.

What I do know is that most of the information you see online, or are told by people at the shop, is either partially or completely wrong. The most common of course being that it is freshwater (they don't seem to thrive in fresh water in most situations), an active predator, and highly aggressive.

As far as behavior that I was able to observe for almost a year with a fairly big (<10") violet goby:
Never chased any other fish.
Only nipped once at a rubbernose pleco that was bothering it. Never got serious, just happened once.
Bit me once during a water change (totally my fault, left a few minor bite marks but didn't bleed and felt more like a sharp pinch).
Prefers sandy bottoms but usually does well with fine gravel.
Is pretty shy, likes hiding places but they tend to get bolder once they are used to their tank and tankmates.
Eyesight isn't their strongest quality.
Eats just about anything from the bottom by shifting through the substrate with it's massive maw and filtering the water and debris out it's gills.
Everyone says they prefer shrimp pellets and mine indeed liked them, but lets just say pretty much anything that made it to the bottom he took happily.
They get big, but not as big as some people make it out. I heard the largest known specimen kept in an aquarium was 27", not exactly the three feet I often hear.
And last but not least WalMart has no buisness stocking these! They don't even know what they are...

Hope that answered some of your questions!

Oh, and another thing: They tend to swim to the top of the tank or rest in the corner with their head up if there's something out of wack with the aquarium chemistry. At the simplest it can be too little oxygen, but it can be more serious and needs to be looked into quickly.

 

[ECCO_]

Welcome to the forums and enjoy your time here. And thanks, this did help and I look foward to getting one. Also, Hope we can keep in touch.
Last thing, what is a good tank size for them and what are some good tank mates.

 

[JonathanT]

Welcome to the forums and enjoy your time here. And thanks, this did help and I look foward to getting one. Also, Hope we can keep in touch.
Last thing, what is a good tank size for them and what are some good tank mates.

Sure, and let me know how your experience with them turns out! As for tank mates, you might want to look at the thread I started (Help with a possible brackish setup?) since nmonks just gave a really nice long post about that. I'm going for a 55 gallon setup, so some of the suggestions may be a bit too much for me to handle, but I believe a 55 gallon is sufficient for a full grown violet goby based on their behavior/size/activity level. And a few tank mates of course, but I want to avoid overstocking issues I've had in the past...

Good luck!

 

[the_patriot2004]

you know these fish are somewhat mysterious everyone has their own theories, think that everyone else is wrong. people argue that they are only brackish, but in reality can live in a variety of conditions. these fish are not bred in captivity, they are all caught in the wild and live in estuaries and swamps, in environments, like the estuaries, where the salt content and water temperature can varie. I agree, wal-mart should not stock them (or any fish for that matter) but I have noticed they do live longer then the other wal-mart fish. they have some in a cold water tank, and some in a warm water tank, and they are out living the other fish easily in both, however the ones in the warm water tanks are more active. they do prefer brackish, but will live just fine in fresh water. I have a 7 inch dragon in a 29 gallon FW tropical tank with 2 angels, 3 scissortails, and one golden wonder killi, and it is doing marvelous. bit of a picky eater, wouldnt touch the shrimp pellets, bloodworms, or flake food, but finally warmed up to crumpled up dried shrimp. extremely peaceful, gets along with all the other fish. only gets annoyed if another fish bumps him on accident, and then all he does is move to another hiding spot, as I have provided many. I even bumped him once, and he just moved. very docile creature, yet very hardy as well. this is why no ones sure how to take care of these boogers because they can handle a wide variety of environments in most cases.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

patriot, i imagine that the reason your violet goby has done well in freshwater is the fact that (as you mentioned in a post elsewhere) your water is very hard and contains a high mineral content.

brackish water contains many different dissolved mineral salts as opposed to just NaCl (table salt). for this reason, many fish which do best in lightly brackish water also do well in water which is just quite hard--the biggest difference between the two conditions is the absence of NaCl.

soft water, on the other hand, is lacking in dissolved minerals of any sort and thus is not an appropriate substitute condition for keeping lightly brackish fish. the aforementioned problems of chronic infections and decreased vitality will invariably become a problem and result in the premature death of the fish.