Dragon Goby

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Hi, saw some of these in a lfs today couldn't resist so I bought one.

Ugly little beast but it's kind of cute as well.

Anyway, he/she keeps digging sand sort of like a dog does when it is burying bones and creating sand dunes behind it.

Is this normal behaviour?

Also how do you sex them?

Lastly, do you have to put the food right in front of them to make sure that they eat?

Cheers

 

[CFC]

I have one of these and i believe gadazobe has two. The digging is normal behaviour, if the tank has live plants then be prepared to do a lot of replanting.
As far as i know there is no way to externally tell the sex of them, nothing is known about breeding behaviour in them either.
Since they are filter feeders they can be difficult to feed, they need small live foods like daphnia and brineshrimp which need to be directed straight at the fish, they have very poor eyesight and struggle to get any food when kept in a community if not fed in this way.

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Its also helping me redecorate my tank , since going to sand I've decided to do an Egyptian stlye decor, with a sphinx and pyramids and stuff so I'm also getting free sand dunes thrown in.

 

[aaronc2000]

Dragon Gobies AKA Violet Gobies are bottom feeders. When you buy them they tell you to feed them live food. This is in fact wrong. They sift through the substrate(gravel/sand) with their mouths for food. They rely heavily on their nose to find food which is very efficient. Violet Gobies like Brackish water with specific gravity being about .10-.18 (Marine being .20-.25). They are Highly Territorial with the same species meaning if you want to keep them together get 5 or more do not keep just 2 together. The stronger one will kill or maime the weaker one. Violet Gobies are also nocternal so you most activity will be at night. Ph should be at about 7.5 but can tolorate it up to 8.3. The tempuratre should be about 75 degrees ferenheight. But the range for these fish is about 75-82 degrees F. Lastely if you have these fish its VERY easy for them to starve to death with other fish in the tank. So its best to keep the species by them selves. If you have other fish, try hand feeding them bloodworms. All the Dragons ive had eat out of my hand so give it a shot. My email is [email protected] if you need more help.

 

[aaronc2000]

OOPS i mean Specific Grabity 1.01 hehe sorry

 

[gadazobe]

Violet Gobies like Brackish water

There are 2 different types of gobis - freshwater and brackish. Make sure you bought the freshwater type.

They are Highly Territorial with the same species meaning if you want to keep them together get 5 or more do not keep just 2 together. The stronger one will kill or maime the weaker one

Somebody obviously forgot to explain this to my 2 - they're still as friendly with each other as on the day I bought them (over a year ago)

Violet Gobies are also nocternal so you most activity will be at night.

Mine don't seem to realise this also - as soon as lights out they're back in their hidey holes and I don't see them till lights on the next day.

They will definitely redesign your tank for you - no matter how you do it, they'll change it. Everyday the landscape in their tank is different. In a lot of places they've dug down to the base of the tank and they lay on the glass (maybe they like the smoothness of it ) Everyday I have to cover all the plant roots that have been exposed by their digging and burrowing.

I feed mine frozen foods,(bloodworm, daphnia, mosquito larva - all that sort of thing) and use a turkey baster to literally put the food in front of their noses, otherwise by the time they've smelt it and found it - it's already been eaten by the other tank mates. They are very nearly blind and mine spend a lot of time bumping into things when they try to get around the tank. Contrary to what is often told, they are not predators at all. In fact they haven't got the ability to eat anything larger than bloodworm for the simple reason that they're "sift" eaters.

I've had mine since they were mere babes at 3 and 4" respectively and now they're about 7 and 8" (maybe more) and find them to be realy lovely peaceful creatures that are so ugly, they're cute. I them and the tank wouldn't be the same without them - they're a real conversation piece when anyone sees them.
If you have any more questions, let me know and I'll do my best to help.

 

[zantetsuken]

Right now I have gravel with my Violet Goby. Would you definitely recommend me going to sand and if so I just bought this tank and it cycled 3 days ago and then I got the fish. Petco offered no information about him and actually told me it was a type of Bichir. They call them "Dinosaur Eels" too by the way. Anyway. How do I go about changing the substrate out. Other than doing a full water change, etc?

 

[CFC]

Changing substrate is a major undertaking so if your gravel is fine enough for your dragon goby to be able to dig in then id leave it be for the time being. If you do need to change the substrate then you will need to strip the tank down to bare to get all the old gravel out and get the new sand in, whilst saving at least half the water and keeping the bacteria in the filter alive and the fish obviously. I recently had to change the substrate in 3 tanks and the last one still took over two hours start to finish to complete the process.
Changing substrate also wipes out a fair ammount of the benefitial bacteria in the tank so there will be a lot of strain on the bacteria in the filter and a small nitrite spike is not uncommon, after changing substrate donot feed the fish for 2 to 3 days.

 

[zantetsuken]

I'm not sure if the gravel is. If you can see in the Bichir Topic the pic of my Dragon, pehaps you could let me know what you think is best or if I could at least wait awhile before doing it. You are alot of help CFC, thanks.

 

[CFC]

Hmmm, the gravel does look a little bit on the large size. If you dont mind the work then i would suggest changing to sand which the goby will love you for.

 

[gadazobe]

There is a way of changing gravel slowly - doing 1/4 of the tank at a time, waiting a week, then doing another 1/4 and so on until you've done the whole tank. I don't have sand in my tank, just a very fine gravel. Before I rearranged this tank, the eels were kept in a tank that had gravel similar size to yours. They lived with that for about 7-8 months and it's only in the last few months that they have fine gravel. But, I must say they do seem happier now. How big is your tank - to start with you could make a pit of fine gravel or sand and see how your eel gets on with that. Move the gravel aside to make a small pit and fill it with sand (cleaned and washed or course) and take it from there.

 

[aaronc2000]

Although some people keep Dragon Gobies with gravel i believe strongly in keeping them in their native environment. A big part of their natural behavior is to burrow. They cannot do that very well with gravel. I highly recommend sand. It made a HUGE diffrence in the activity of my dragon goby. Just dont forget to rince the sand VERY WELL before puting it in the tank. It took me 1 and a half ours to rinse my sand.

 

[aaronc2000]

Can anyone tell me why my personal photo might not be showing up?

 

[aaronc2000]

Spawning is possible in a large aquarium. Success in captive spawning is documented by Harper in Tropical Fish Hobbyist (#473), on pages 130-132. He suggests using a spawning group of one male and three or more females. The tank should be furnished with hiding places for the females and as a nest for the male. The fish should not be fed for a week and then conditioned on live foods. The salinity should be lowered 5 ppt and then raised 5-10 ppt to 30 ppt salinity. The male will spawn with several females over the course of a day. Following spawning, the females should be removed and the male will guard the eggs. After 36-48 hours, the fry hatch and the male should be removed. After the egg sacs are consumed, he fry can be fed roftiers and ãgreen waterä containing algae. After a month, Artemia nauplii can be fed.
BP: 10. No spawnings in captivity have been reported.