Dragonfish Dragongoby

[Takana_Hana]

Hi, im new to this forum, and i seem to have a bit of a problem, i recieved a dragon goby from a friend, and he said that he fed it bloodworms..ive tried feeding it blood worms and they float to the top.. and b4 they sink, all of my other fish eat them b4 he gets to eat... is there any solution or different feed i can get???
Thanks

 

[nmonks]

Are we talking about Gobioides broussonnetii?

These fish will eat anything small and wormy. It does need to be on the substrate though. They swallow mouthfuls of sand, and sift it, extracting the animals inside. Obviously this won't work if you keep them in a tank with gravel. Please, don't keep these fish in tanks with gravel: they want sand, and evolved to live in sand or mud. Forcing one to live on gravel where they cannot dig is cruel.

Besides sifting sand, they will eat live brine shrimp, filtering the water. They also need some algae in the diet. Catfish algae wafers will do the trick nicely.

Some people will tell you they eat guppies and small fish. They only do so when at the brink of starvation, in the same way humans will eat grass -- not from choice!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[sallymander_1]

I purchased a dragon goby about a month ago and I agree that they are difficult to feed. I didnt see mine eat for the first week but have had success with sinking shrimp pellets. I also find dragon gobies to be more active at night so maybe you can try feeding it just before turning off your aquarium lights.

Sally

 

[JonathanT]

I purchased a dragon goby about a month ago and I agree that they are difficult to feed. I didnt see mine eat for the first week but have had success with sinking shrimp pellets. I also find dragon gobies to be more active at night so maybe you can try feeding it just before turning off your aquarium lights.

Sally

Most people swear by the sinking shrimp pellets. They worked great for mine, back when I had it...but the rest of the tank set up was sadly not very appropriate.

Violet gobies are my favorite fish, for some bizzare reason, and it is sad to see how readily available they are despite the widespread misinformation (or total lack of information) regarding them.

They won't chase other fish (they are practically blind after all), but may nip in defense. They don't like to be bothered by other fish, so boisterous tankmates aren't a good idea.

You'll find plenty of other useful information regarding them around the brackish and oddball forums, if you look around a bit.

-Jonathan

 

[the_patriot2004]

mine wouldnt eat the shrimp pellets, and i could get the bloodworms to the bottom by crumpling them up but it wouldnt eat those easier. I tried dried baby shrimp, crumpling it up and placing it right in front of him. he wouldnt eat it at first but he warmed up to it, and now hungrily scarves them down.i have mine with gravel, but plan to get some substrate later on.