weird fish

[juanveldez]

okay so I was shopping at wal-mart and I think I found the mother of all oddballs cause I have NEVER EVER seen a fish like this. sorry no pics cause it looked like a snake therefore not allowed to buy one just to find out what it was( the wife is deathly afriaid of snakes and anything that looks like them) but here is the best discription I can give.

the head was HUGE when compaired to body size and of that 90% of it was probably mouth the mouth had LOTS of big teeth
the body shape was that similar to an eel silver/ grey in color with the area underneith by the gills and fins being redish in color.
the eyes looked like tiny tiny gold pinheads
definatly juvies would be my guess but were approx 8-10" already

any ideas guys, been bugging me as to what it was I just saw.

 

[CFC]

Dragon goby, Gobioides broussonettii. The teeth are not actually teeth but strainers for seiving planktonic foods from the water in much the same way as some whales do. They are about as fierce as a female ram

 

[juanveldez]

lol that looks about right for what I had seen, though harmless or not the wife will never allow one into the house too snake like. that and she is convinced that yours and my idea of harmless doesn't match her idea of harmless

 

[gadazobe]

How can you not love this. He's my dragon, now about 10-11" long and as peaceful as can be.

 

[SirMinion]

Dragon Gobies ROCK!
Here's one of mine again:

RAWR!

And here's one the day we got them, almost starved to death by the importer.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Aww... I'd love a dragon goby. The lfs has two in, not for sale (yet). But they get too big and are brackish. Darn small rooms and small cash amount....

 

[juanveldez]

lol these ones must have been half starved too becuase they pretty much looked like yours the day you got it minion. you guys want to hear the real shocker about all this, well not really a shocker, they were at wal-mart!!!! so of course they are going to be half starved I highly doubt that they know what to even feed them.

 

[simonas]

Aww... I'd love a dragon goby. The lfs has two in, not for sale (yet). But they get too big and are brackish. Darn small rooms and small cash amount....

are they brackish?

 

[CFC]

The most commonly seen species (Gobioides broussonettii) is a brackish fish and will not live long if kept in freshwater. The lesser seen species Gobioides peruanus can live in either FW (provided it is hard and alkeline) or brackish though for the long term these too seem to do best in brackish water.

 

[troutfly]

I have seen them once at my local WM too, I cringed when I saw them because I knew what they were and I can just imagine some spoiled brat whinning for one, and mom and dad giving in, the out come, 1 dead gobby. It is sad these people (WM) have no idea what to stock in there tanks and how to tell the common people how to care for them. I think every WM should have to provide their customers with a link to our site here so the buyer can be informed about how to care for their new fish.

 

[annka5]

I know am in a minority here, but... BLEERRGHHH!!! CUTE? That? HOW??

 

[Bloo]

Uhm, yeah exactly! Cute most certainly *not* in the string of words I would describe these (erm) "interesting" fish with

 

[pica_nuttalli]

maybe this'll help:

imagine a great big green dinosaur that yells "GRAARRR"... now make it a vegan and shy.

dragon gobies look like big scary monsters, but they're actually just filter-feeders. they're cute because they're all bark and no bite; its easy to be affectionate to a 2-foot long goby with a nasty toothy mouth that'd never hurt anything beyond plankton.

 

[Isis_Nebthet]

Wow I've never seen one that emaciated and still alive. Mine were thin but not like the one Sir posted.

Fins aren't colored red. I'm not sure what the line between injected fins and clear fins with these guys is though. I think it may have to do with salt. In any case I've *never* seen one without injected fins in any fish place.

I've been seeing more of mine lately but for a long time I only saw happy wagging dragon tales when bloodworms were put in the tank. Of course they grew a few inches while hiding out

 

[juanveldez]

just an update on walmart and the dragon gobies.... went there today and they did have them listed in grease pencil on the tank as dragon eels. they only had two left, and they were so starved and picked on that they were both lying on their backs almost dead. I would have probably picked one up under normal circumstances, but with the horrible shape that they were in there was probably no saving these 2 for starters, and the other problem is the most common problem around here lack of TANKS!!!!! the only space avalible would be with my 5.5 inch sedentaria and he is pure evil wraped up in a pikes body. having seen what he does to other fish I can just imagine what he would do to another fish that looks like a pike let alone one that looks like a pike and is half dead.