New Brackish Tank

[Another Susan]

I have 2 Violet Gobies. They were sold as Dragon Fish and freshwater. I came home and looked them up on the internet before buying. I decided to go ahead and get them and acclimate them and the tank to brackish at the same time. They were skinny and being fed flake food. I am starting with a 30 gallon and will eventually move them up to a 75. I want them in the 30 right now to observe them. They are about 6" long. One has a redder area under the chin and is more active. The other has more pink under the chin and is quieter. I removed the gravel completely from the tank and replaced it with Aragonite. I had some ghost shrimp and Endler's fry and a few snails in the tank already and I left those. Over the course of several days I have raised the specific gravity to 1.005. For the first 3 days only the more active one would even try to eat and food had to be placed right in front of it. Finally the quiet 1 ate a bloodworm and then another and is now eating well. Today they both started sifting the substrate for goodies. The active one even ate an Endler's fry by accident. The fry went for a tidbit just as the goby sucked in and disappeared. I watched and it did not come back out. I have seen them spit out bits that are too big. I am finally feeling more optimistic about their chances for survival. This fish does not seem as if it would compete well against others for food. I have some tubes in the tank and they used them the first few days but have not gone in them today at all. They have been busy out grazing. Would it be a good idea to put some "wild" brackish water in the tank to help along the bacteria? It would be collected Friday morning and stored in a cooler with ice and then put in the tank that evening. Any other suggestions on feeding, specific gravity, additional tankmates, etc. would be much appreciated.

 

[demonmagus]

I don't think 'wild water' would help - what do you mean by wild water, from a river? If so it wouldn't help and *might* have some dangerous stuff in it

 

[ac106]

Don’t ad water from a natural source. Aside from the risk of parasites and such, good bacteria isn’t found in great quantity in the water anyway. It probably won’t help. If you need to accelerate the cycle, either get a filter or substrate from an established tank or get bio-spira.

The big problem with dragon gobies is feeding and substrate. They need a fine sand substrate or they wont be able to feed properly.

While they “filter-feedâ€￾ in the wild, that is not what I am really referred it. It's sort of hard to explain but I found that with dragons, if they do not have a fine substrate they need to sort of turn on their side to suck in food.

I know this sounds weird but mind had lots of trouble feeding until i switched to sand. they could then wiggle them selves down into the sand and suck in food easily.

Mine really really liked API Shrimp pellets & frozen bloodworms but would readily eat algae flake and algae discs. They really need plant matter in their diet from what i have read.

While they look vicious, they were anything but. Bumblebee gobies would practically fly into their mouths and would still be ignored. They didn’t bother anyone and were my favorite fish. I had to downgrade tanks however and give them away.

 

[Another Susan]

Don’t ad water from a natural source.
They need a fine sand substrate or they wont be able to feed properly.

Okay, no wild water. I meant brackish from an estuary. I have divided the floor of the tank. I have a large shallow dish full of sand in one half of the tank. They like it because of the edges making caves. I put the food on the sand. They do love the sand. I am going to have to get a bigger tank sooner rather than later as I was given 2 more VG last night. They may not make it as they were in a tank with other fish and have not been eating. The ghost shrimp have learned to stay right by the mouths of the VG when they are foraging as all kinds of good things get kicked up. They are so much fun to watch