I got a goby dragon

[Joeybsmooth]

But, he is not moving that much. Is that just them or should I be worried.

[joy13]

They are brackish and do better in groups.
Acclimating salt-water fish to brackish or fresh water - US Patent 6016770 Description
Caring for your new dragon goby, Gobioides brousonetti, with pictures

[Joeybsmooth]

So he is lonely? I guess I will get him a tankmate next weekend . I wish the person selling them told me that .

[joy13]

What is your SG in your tank?

Don't depend on the LFS to know everything about every fish. There are so many that is pays to research before getting any fish.

[Joeybsmooth]

You are right.. I am normally a comet person. But this one just jumped out at me. Thinking about it ... I can not believe what I did .

[joy13]

Do you have it in a freshwater tank?? They aren't freshwater they can only live a limited lifespan in a marine or freshwater tank.

[Joeybsmooth]

How long can they live in a freashwater tank .

[mfdrookie516]

anywhere from a day to a couple months... id return it asap or get some salt and slowly start raising the sg up

[joy13]

If you decide to do a brackish water set up don't use regular aquarium salt get the salt they use for saltwater tanks. You will also need a hydrometer or refractometer to measure the SG.

I am very lucky I have a mom and pop type store that I shop at, their prices are a little more but I don't mind. They have saved me from some real flub ups. I wished everyone had a store like theirs to shop at.

[DragonFish71]

Also what size is your tank? Do you have sand or gravel? What are you feeding him?

We keep 2 in an 80g brackish water tank that we set up just for them. They are in my top 5 favorite fish. Once you've met their requirements, they really are very easy to keep.


But yes, they do need brackish not fresh to survive. We keep our specific gravity (for lack of a better explanation) the salt content, at 1.004, they can take a range from 1.003 -1.010. To fully let him thrive you will need a ssand substrate, gravel cuts them too much. They like to burrow and hide. Silk or real plants, plastic will also cut them, a decent sized tank (again, not knowing what size you keep him in), a hydrometer to measure specific gravity, reef or marine salt for salt water aquarium. Regular aquarium salt works but the kind for SW tanks is closer to what they live in. These guys are wild caught from the brackish area in Florida, and the rest of the Southern US. It really burns my butt that stores keep and sell them as FW. I have even gone to my LFS with a care guide I printed for them for these guys and other brackish fish. They hand them out to customers now whenever they sell something that belongs in BW.

[DragonFish71]

Another question. Is your tank cycled? They do not handle ammonia and nitrAtes well.


But again, if all requirements are met, they are easy to care for. They do prefer to hide and be with others of their kind as stated above. One of ours is either out at the front of the tank for food, or digging up the back behind the plants. The other one always hides except for feeding time. For feeding, honestly, the care guides you find say they won't eat flake, but ours do. They also like shrimp pellets, granule foods, the food "crisps", frozen foods and live foods. They live it when our mollies give birth. They have small throats believe it or not so larger critters are safe. We keep ghost shrimp, bumble bee gobys, mollies and glass fish with them and they only eat the baby mollies.