# Listened to WalMart about Dragon Goby, now I'm in a pickle



## Sarahlydear (Jun 27, 2011)

Hello everyone so I went against all my knowledge and decided to listen to a WalMart employee. She seemed to know what she was talking about with all the other fish and so when my boyfriend showed me the dragonfish I asked her about them. 

I was told that (I've dubbed it a he no real idea though) he could stay in my betta sorority which is about 25gallons and shouldn't out grow that tank. After the bf longingly looking at him and the bad day I'd had I decided to get one. 
When I got home I promptly got on the lovely internet and gave myself a good cursing for not trusting my instincts and past experiences with store employees giving bad info out.

I believe I have a Gobioides broussonnetii and I now know that they can get to be 20" (no way that can happily fit in a 25gal) and need brackish water (not betta tank water). Those are my main two focuses right now. 

I'm at a dilemma as to both. I'm a college student living in the dorms and also have 4 other tanks not to mention my roommates tanks (we like fish) so I can't really get him a bigger, separate tank. 

How fast do these guys grow? And do you think he could be happy for the next 2 1/2 years in the betta tank if I alternately put AquSalt in it? It won't be the best for the girls but they'll survive and he may not without it... 

I'm really attached to this fish and he has been a hoot to watch  so I only want to get ride of him as a last resort, but if he absolutely can't be happy and healthy with me I will...

Also right now I feed him about one section (the little squares they're packed in) of frozen bloodworms or mysis shrimp a night and I'm getting some snail for him to munch on. I tried to feed him some algae wafers, but the girls eat it before he can. Can I feed him something to supplement that?? 

I'm not sure how big he is, he doesn't sit still when he's out an about and I can never see all of him when he is sleeping, but I would guess about 6" long right now. 

Any questions you can answer or other advice you can offer would be great!!! Thank you! 
I'm trying to do more research but everyone seems to be covering the same info so I haven't really been learning more...I'll keep looking but any sites you could recommend would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Hah, those things are creepy looking but cool at the same time. As far as growth goes and so forth, I couldn't exactly tell you. How big is he now? I would think a 25 gal would be sufficient enough for now at least.

Also, be careful about having that thing with your bettas. They may become lunch.


----------



## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

You also need to know that Dragon Gobies are brackish fish rather than pure freshwater.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

See if you can trade him with another local fishkeeper you can find through a club. Get yourself another one in ten years when you own a house.


----------



## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

He will be fine in that tank for a while. They don't grow particularly fast and as long as he is getting enough food, I wouldn't worry about the female bettas being food. 

You see how tiny his eyes are? Yeah, he can't see very well. They are great fish that will learn to recognize your hand, but there is no way they would be able to efficiently hunt fish that are actively swimming. We had one with lots of small community fish and he never hurt anything. He would chew on our fingers when we put our hand down in the tank with his frozen bloodworms. 

Find sinking-style pellets and put enough in the tank to feed your bettas and then some. A decent amount of them will reach the bottom, where he can feed at his leisure. Be careful of gravel, as they are like loaches and like to filter through the substrate to find food. It's not unheard of for them to accidentally swallow rocks. 

We had one for over a year that we bought at about 3-4 inches, and he only grew to about 9 inches before he died due to a disease outbreak, where we also lost some of our loaches. We didn't add anything to the tank except for aquarium salt (which is different than marine salt) and whenever we needed to medicate the tank, we did half doses. 

Hope that helps!


----------



## Sarahlydear (Jun 27, 2011)

Thanks everyone;
He is actually almost scared of the girls and usually just leaves them far away. 

I know he's a brackish water fish....I'm trying to figure out if I can help him out in the tank he's in...

The only "clubs" we have around here are WalMart and Petco, both of which are killing their dragons....

Today I got some veggie things in the "wormy" shape that he usually eats really fast and hopefully the girls won't be interested....Along with some snails!!! Yeah!!


----------

