Best substrate for violet goby

[Noto]

I'm still researching this, but so far this is my list of brackish or euryhaline North American killies (including members of Cyprinodontidae and Fundulidae):

diamond killifish (Adinia xenica)

sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus)

marsh killifish (Fundulus confluentus)
banded killifish (F. diaphanae)
mummichog (F. heteroclitus)
saltmarsh topminnow (F. jenkinsi)
spotfin killifish (F. luciae)
striped killifish/bullminnow (F. majalis)
California killifish (F. parvipinnis)
longnose killifish (F. similis)

rainwater killifish (Lucania parva)

 

[Conner]

False. There are only two species of violet goby, Gobioides broussonnetii and Gobioides peruanus. Both are brackish. It is said that G. peruanus may be able to live in freshwater, but it is (as its name suggests) native to Peru, and very rare in the hobby. Any violet goby from the Gulf Coast would be G. broussonnetii and therefore a brackish fish.
Your goby, Conner, is almost certainly G. broussonnetii. Although, if you'd like to argue that it isn't, and therefore is suitable for a freshwater tank, you could show me pictures, and I might be able to tell you.

BTW Noto, exactly which killies are brackish? I've always heard that there were brackish killies but never knew what they were.

I've heard this argued several times on several sites. I apologize for stating several instead of two. I would bet that there are more species than just those two, but they haven't been described yet, as the physical differences are so slight that they are difficult to determine. I am not that well educated on the violet goby, and since I can't get a straight answer wherever I go, I go by what I know, which is that my goby, at 16 inches, has more than just survived in freshwater, it has thrived and flourished, and I have yet to see another one that has grown comparably in fresh or brackish water. I'd still like someone to show me how, if my goby is a brackish water fish, it is doing so well in freshwater. I'm not here to argue that fact, and I wasn't saying he should raise his in freshwater, I was simply stating that mine was raised in freshwater. If you like, I'll post a pic in a new thread.

Either way, my advice is still good.

 

[Conner]

Thanks, Conner! I definitely want this to be a brackish tank. I'd like to try to recreate a Gulf Coast estuarine habitat. I may just wait until I can build a nice big tank, say 72" X 36", with a land area so I can keep fiddlers and maybe grow some Spartina and Salicornia...this is getting complicated already!

If you want something bigger, go with a 125 (72x18x22) or 180 (72x24xx24). These should be more than large enough to accommodate whatever you'd like to keep. Although the increased depth front to back will definitely be better.

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

The larger the footprint of the tank, the better it will be for the goby. The downside to that is that sufficiently sized tanks are expensive and take up a lot of floor space.

I'm sorry to have made a debate out of this thread. Perhaps it would be a good idea to make a new one for that, and leave this one alone.
There is one (I think) other known species within the genus, but it doesn't resemble the other two very closely. However, there are fish in the genera Taenioides and Odontamblyopus that resemble violet gobies greatly. They are all estuarine fish though.
The last thing I'm going to say about that (in this thread) is that you never see this argument amongst scientists that specialize in gobies. They all seem to agree that it's a brackish species best kept in brackish water.

Noto, were you going to include plants in this tank? I'd be interested to see what might be included.

 

[Noto]

I hope to. I am very early in the research stages for this tank, so I don't know exactly what I will be able to get and grow. I would like to have some emergents such as Spartina and Carex species, as well as marginals such as Salicornia, Ipomoea, and various grasses. I am interested in the possibility of brackish macroalgae as well, but I don't know if they are available (or even exist).

Now that I have realized a larger tank is necessary, I am envisioning a large, shallow setup, perhaps 48" X 36" with the water only 12" or so deep, with a few planted 'islands' scattered about. I believe this will be fairly straightforward to build from plywood and glass, with the land areas built up using hypertufa or insulation foam.

I realize this tank will require a tremendous amount of light. I will have to figure out a way to get the correct amount of sunlight to it without overheating it, as I am too poor to provide that much artificial lighting.

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

Why do you need a lot of light? The only reason I could think of would be the plants.
The violet goby probably wouldn't appreciate the light. They come from the murky bottoms of estuaries. You'd have to provide a lot of cover.

 

[Noto]

Yeah, that's exactly it. Estuarine wetlands are very well-lit, and the species there would probably wither quickly under ordinary aquarium lights. Not to worry, there will be plenty of cover. I mainly keep amphibians, so I'm used to shy and light-sensitive critters.