Dragon Goby
- Thread starter Weylin
- Start date
there are a few peole on here who have thier dragon gobies in SW. so i guess the answers yes. im not sure when you should push for SW though... i'll guess 8", but all the pics of DG's in SW on mfk are all 12"+ adults. so i would wait for another opinion to confirm the info i've given, or flame me for getting it drastically wrong 
From what I have read, they can live in full marine. Supposedly found at depths upto 100 ft. They do just fine in brackish. How big is it? Pics?
I need some other help with SW... One of my damsels look beatin up... Its left eye is poping out..and scales come off around the belly and its tails is bitten... What should i do..? I've removed the fish and placed it in bucket..
Actually, I wouldn't say with any bit of certainty that a violet goby could live permanently in SW.
The SW seems to me to be part of some breeding cycle. For breeding it is suggested that you lower and then raise the SG to nearly full marine, and this is supposed to help trigger spawning. If it is the change over from fresh/brackish to salt that is doing it, then that suggests that they migrate to salt to spawn.
I guess the case could also be that they spend the majority of their adult lives in SW and migrate to fresh/brackish to prepare for breeding, but I've never heard of that in any other fish.
The SW seems to me to be part of some breeding cycle. For breeding it is suggested that you lower and then raise the SG to nearly full marine, and this is supposed to help trigger spawning. If it is the change over from fresh/brackish to salt that is doing it, then that suggests that they migrate to salt to spawn.
I guess the case could also be that they spend the majority of their adult lives in SW and migrate to fresh/brackish to prepare for breeding, but I've never heard of that in any other fish.
No, the reason they can do so well in freshwater for so long is because it's a part of their life cycle. However, the cycle also includes brackish and marine. If kept in freshwater for too long, they will suffer. Many have lost their gobies to red tumors that spread and grow all over the fish's body until it dies.
Their main habitat is estuaries. Estuaries are brackish.
Here's a quote from Neale Monks. Neale is a very knowledgable person and "I've learnd a lot from the things he's posted on forums around the web.
Your Violet Goby/Dragon Goby -- Gobioides broussonnetii -- is indeed a brackish water fish. While they do occur in freshwater in the wild, they are rarely far from the sea, and in aquaria seem to last only a year or two in freshwater conditions."
Here's another, in response to somebody saying that the "salt factor" is up for debate.
"Only debated by the ignorant; these are estuarine fish, period."
Their main habitat is estuaries. Estuaries are brackish.
Here's a quote from Neale Monks. Neale is a very knowledgable person and "I've learnd a lot from the things he's posted on forums around the web.
Your Violet Goby/Dragon Goby -- Gobioides broussonnetii -- is indeed a brackish water fish. While they do occur in freshwater in the wild, they are rarely far from the sea, and in aquaria seem to last only a year or two in freshwater conditions."
Here's another, in response to somebody saying that the "salt factor" is up for debate.
"Only debated by the ignorant; these are estuarine fish, period."