violet goby

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parasite paradise

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 5, 2008
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milwaukee
A few weeks ago i saved a violet goby from petsmart where it was being neglected its special needs as a specialized brackish fish. It was living in a neutral ph freshwater environment with some raphaels. as soon as i brought it home I put in a 20 gallon grow out tank with which i put lots coral aggregate and extra calcium tablets to keep up the ph. as of now im slowly rising the sg up to about 1.005 where it is about 1.004 right now. i feed him beef heart twice a week as well as frozen brine shrimp and algae. he's about five inches now. i plan to move him to a 55 gal once he gets a little bigger. what's the growth rate of these guys? especially since im feeding him beef heart. I have a few molly fry that when they get bigger im hoping to move with the dragon goby. ive heard its harder to acclimate them to brackish water than it use to be because theyve been in fw for so long. is that true? also, what else could make good tank mates for these guys? I like puffers, but im assuming they're too aggressive. what about some glass perch or possibly a butis butis? anyone have any ideas? what's your experience with these guys? are they nice fish? anyone's expertise is greatly appreciated.:grinno:
 
I don't know much about their growth rate, except that they will grow larger & faster in BW, since they won't be using most of their energy fighting off diseases their immune system can't handle in FW. You can raise them to BW at any time in their lives but the sooner the better, IMO.

I'd stop using the calcium tablets. The pH & hardness will be fine with the aragonite & marine salt. Stop feeding it beefheart, it's not a natural food for a fish (when do you think a fish would come across a cow to eat, never mind it's heart?). Shrimp pellets, blackworms, soaked (so it sinks) FD plankton & algae wafers are my dragon's favorites.

It should fair well with figure 8 puffers, knight gobies, mollies, chromides, halfbeaks & many other smaller BW species.

Here's an article I wrote on them: DRAGON GOBIES
 
Here's a growth rate for you. With enough space, healthy diet, clean brackish water, they can reach a foot in a year. One person fed hers a special diet that supposedly made her gobies grow to up to 20" in one year. I saw pictures, and the gobies were big.
 
I love my violet goby he's my favorite fish in the tank. I have mine at 1.010 and he is doing great. He absolutely goes crazy over bloodworms he will actually send the rest of he fish running scared when I drop them in haha. He's also a really good indicator of ammonia since the very slightest tiny bit will make them go to the surface and try to breathe air. Hope you enjoy your new guy they are an awesome awesome fish.
 
When I had my "dragon tank" it consisted of 5 VG's and some clay gobies. The combo was excellent, neither are aggressive but they each had their own unique attributes. I also kept the SG @ 1.010. Wardley shrimp pellets make a great staple diet for them as these pellets will break up into tiny pieces once they hit the water.

And I applaud you for actually doing your homework and posting this in the brackish section. That rarely happens anymore :D
 
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