Dragon Goby

[NinjaSmurf]

I read some past posts on dragon gobies and was wondering if it would be okay for me to get the freshwater one for my thirty gallon? (below) Its a tall tank (1ft W, 2ft T, 2ft L) though and I wasn't sure if that's a problem, though if it is I was thinking maybe I could make a bunch of tunnels out of piping under the substrate so it would have more places to go. Also, I want to get a blue ram or two for in there and possibly some shell dwellers, but I have to find out more about them. I just wanted to ask people who know about dragons before I think of getting one.

 

[Bomag]

only my humble opion but a lot of the dragons over hear are the brackish water ones hence why they do lnot last very long.
have never heard or seen any freshwater ones over here so cannot coment on this

but like i say the main reason i think why the brackish ones are not lasting is because they are being kept in freshwater.

cfc/ryan will tell you more

 

[CFC]

Only buy a dragon goby if you are certain you can cope with its specialist feeding needs, dragon gobies are filter feeders and will require small live foods or frozen foods like bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp, cyclops, etc every day to remain healthy, they will not eat pellets or flakes apart from very rare instances. Also make sure you know which species you have, there are several species but only two appear in the hobby and the most common one is Gobioides broussonetii which will need brackish water.

 

[gadazobe]

IMO your tank size is not suitable for a dragon - they get long and fat. I've had mine for over a year and he's now about 12" long and thicker than my thumb. The only way that I can make sure that mine gets enough to eat is literally drop the food in front of him with a turkey baster - he eats frozen foods mainly, although he has been known to latch onto an algae wafer once it's gone soggy and not been eaten by the others and his favourite is daphnea. Contrary to what is often written about them, they are very peaceful and not at all aggresive - the other bottom feeders "walk" all over him and he barely bats an eyelid (if he had one) They tend to be nocturnal and mine hides in the plants during the day, only venturing out at feeding time.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I don't mind feeding them by hand. I've also heard of people keeping them in ten gallons, which was why I wasn't sure if my tank was big enough. I was mainly worried about the tank size and how it would be with my other fish.

 

[gadazobe]

I've also heard of people keeping 20 fish in a 10 gallon but that isn't the point here. Gobi dragons can easily grow to 15" long and as thick as 2 fingers if well kept - IMO a 24" tank doesn't give him enough room to manouvre - they don't swim in the way that other fish swim, they tend to slither across the bottom, more like a snake. Also, tall tanks can't hold as many fish as long tanks due to the surface area being small and a full grown dragon is about the same as 20 1" fish so one full grown dragon would practically be the whole amount of fish that you could have.