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Caring for Your New Dragon Goby
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Origins: Captured from the wild along our southern Atlantic coast, many Oriental cultures hold any fish that resembles a dragon in very high regard. They consider them beneficent. Occasionally, dragon gobies disappear from the market for long periods. You won’t find much about these unusual fishes in the usual reference books.
Name Origin: The “dragon” in their name refers to their back fin that closely resembles the serrated back on dragons -- at least the dragons that live in our backyards in Iowa. Their faces look like gobies (because they are). However, some wholesalers refer to them as dragon eels (which they are not). The guys above definitely have goby faces.
Water Conditions: You will have continuous problems unless you keep these guys in brackish water. Add two to three teaspoons of salt per gallon. If they start looking slimy, change half their water and double the salt in their water.
Appeal: You can’t help but notice their weird appearance. Their tiny eyes, huge mouth, and dragon top fin set them apart from all other fishes. When kept in good condition dragon gobies develop an attractive iridescent, silvery blue metallic color with a gold blotch pattern.
Size: You usually see dragon gobies on the market at four to six inches. We’ve seen them grow to twelve inches. They probably grow larger in larger tanks.
Lavender Lange, January 12, 2009
Hi, I just wanted to say that I have found your site to be extremely useful many times. I live in colorado & I have a large variety of animals. I have about 20 different species of fish, a frog, 2 dogs, 3 cats & a cockatiel. I love your site I have learned so mutch from it. What I wanted to know is just how long do dragon gobys get in captivity? I have mine for about 3 going on 4 years. He is enourmous! He is easily 2 feet long & about 4 to 5 inches long. Your site said their known to grow 1 foot. I do believe that mine has not stopped growing though. He eats well & he's pretty mutched as spoiled as you can a fish. Any further info that you can maybee turn my way would be greatly appreciated. Thnx a lot PS The bottom picture is 6 monthes old. The top taken today.
A: Well, according to you, I now know they grow to nearly 30 inches long. Thanks for your report. I'll add it to my dragon page. LA
Hiders: Dragon gobies prefer to hide if possible. When kept in groups, they try to slide under each other. Give them a cave to hide in or ledge to hide under. They’re probably nocturnal but quickly adapt to eating during the day. You can trick them by leaning a flat rock against their front glass. They’ll slide into their new cave and stay right out front.
Great Tank Mates: Their huge mouths and the “dragon spines” on their backs make dragon gobies look formidable. They don’t bother small fishes. They just look mean. You can actually keep them with small neon tetras. Just don’t keep them with aggressive fishes that will beat on them.
Foods: When dragon gobies eat, they look like filter feeders forcing water into their huge mouths. Their evidently small throat limits the size of the foods they eat. Start them on live or frozen blackworms. Move to frozen brine shrimp and mix in some flake foods. They seem to locate their food by smell rather than sight. Gravel Choice: Darker gravels will darken your dragon gobies. Light gravels tend to bleach them out. Plastic Plants: Since these guys like cover, add some plastic plants for additional security. Use plastic because most real plants won’t live in brackish water. You could try Java lance fern or watersprite.
Disease/Problems: Dragons just don’t eat as much as you’d expect. You see them gulping like crazy and you tend to feed them too much food. Your most likely problem involves dirty water from overfeeding. If they develop a slimy look, change half the water instantly. Use your gravel vacuum cleaner. Add more salt. They recover overnight.
Filtration:
You cannot overfilter brackish water fishes – dragon gobies
especially. LA.
Michael Butler, MD, July 6, 2010
This copyrighted photo of a recent capture of apparently a Dragon Goby appears to be in the 40-50" range! I found references of 30" to be the longest I have found in my cursory research. Your site link of reference: http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Oddball,%20Dragon%20Goby.htm
Lauren is my niece. Regards, A: Dang. That is one big and impressive dragon goby. I'm adding it to my page unless I hear otherwise on the copyrighted photo. Thanks. LA
Michael Butler, MD, Sergent, TX, July 9, 2010
Hi, My niece and I had been discussing the goby on face book. I thought I'd fill you in so you have permission on the photo for your peace. I know copyrights are infringed upon all over the Internet. After stumping the 2coolfishing.com and texaskayakfisherman.com folks on an "Identify this fish" post I did some quick research and couldn't find it either. Finally somebody recognized it from his aquarium and I did some quick research on the species. Learning that the size seemed exceptional I, recommended that she copyright it in case it were unique proof for science and had any monetary value. I also tried to get as much peripheral info as possible but did not get much. They were fishing and dipped him in the net, took a picture and released it. I tried to get more info on size, location, and so forth. This part of Sergent, TX, I think off the Intracoastal Waterway which is likely brackish from heavy tropical rains, recently 15" over 2 days from Hurricane Alex. Interestingly an early response from the fishermen was it was likely an aquarium fish foolishly released into the wild. Apparently not. I had 2 responses that fishermen caught many in cast nets while catching bait. One said redfish (red drum) love them. This is all I have been able to learn from the forums, the captors, and WWW reading. A: I learned decades ago that you need to take old fishermens' advice with a grain of sodium chloride (or better yet sodium pentothal) -- especially the ones related to me I'm adding your report to my dragon goby page. LA © 1999, © 2003, © 2004, © 2005, © 2007, © 2009, © 2010 LA Productions
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