Confusion about compatibility of ropefish, dragon goby, and pleco (not for same tank)

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Meeka

Feeder Fish
Feb 23, 2012
3
0
0
United States
Let me start by saying I am NOT trying to put the 3 mentioned fish in the same tank.
I'm in the process of getting a new tank and I like to research fish that I would Like to get for said tank so I can make sure i get the right size and such. I had planned on moving my 7.5 inch common plec into this new tank so I was looking at freshwater fish and came across the ropefish, which I really like and would love to raise. My plec met with an untimely death 2 days ago :cry: so that got me started thinking about a bristlenose pleco to take over his tank or the new one. But since I no longer currently have a pleco that needs a larger tank atm, i started looking at other fish for the new aquarium and came across dragon gobys which are brackish. I am still leaning towards the ropefish and BN pleco in the new tank (my first plecos tank mates beat him up and killed him. One night he was fine, next morning he had shredded fin and a missing eye, and died a day later) so I dont want to put another pleco in with them, especially not if its going to be even smaller than the first pleco (BN's I understand get to about 4-6 inches)

But here is where i'm confused, I know plecos dont like brackish/saltwater, and dragon gobys dont like freshwater so I hadnt planned on mixing them, but every website I researched said ropefish were freshwater, but then a bunch said they are good tank mates for the gobies in brackish water.

SO, would it be better to go with pleco and ropefish, or gobies and ropefish?
(Sorry for such a long post for such a short question lol.. just wanted to give background as to my reasoning.)
 
I remember reading in various places years ago that ropefish can live in low-end brackish; however, I imagine they are much better off in pure FW. I would not attempt to keep with gobies in brackish.
 
Thank you guys so much for the quick replies :) Is there anyone that has personally kept/knows someone that kept any combination of these 3 together? And how did it work out? I have no personal experience with anything but plecos so I'd like to hear from someone with first hand experience
 
I really would Not mix all three. it seem there is one fish thats going to suffer. there is a difference between a fish living in a certain condition and thriving. dragob gobies belong in brackish.bristlenose plecos and ropefish do not. there are better tankmates u can have for a brackish or freshwater setup depending which one u choose and what size tanks. if you go with ropefish and plecos a nice planted tank with some larger community fish will be great but not small enough to become a snack for a ropefish. if you want a dragon goby you can keep archer fish mollies and puffers and some others. but again it depends on what sizre tank were talking about. but i would not mix these fish.
 
Thank you for the info :) Yes I did not plan on keeping all 3 together, it was just confusion about if rope would be better with goby or with pleco, I know that pleco and goby together would be bad. I think what I will do is get one brackish tank for gobies and put mollies or guppies with it, and then another tank with the rope and pleco, and maybe something else like the senegal bichir.
 
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