Need help stocking new tank

**blazian88** · 01-08-2008, 10:29 AM

Right now i am absolutely clueless as to what kind of fish I should get for my tank. I wanted to make a brackish water tank to raise a dragon goby, but i also want to add other fish too. So far I have 1 dragon goby and 2 mollies. This will probably seem like a dumb question but would I be able to make this tank semi aggressive as well? (I can remove the mollies if necessary) If instead i decided to just make the tank freshwater how detrimental would it be to the dragon goby already inside?

**blazian88** · 01-08-2008, 10:36 AM

Oh yea my tank is 20 gallons. Forgot to mention that.

**Sploke** · 01-08-2008, 10:40 AM

dragon gobies, aka violet gobies, are brackish fish, so you can't just make them freshwater. They are also scavengers, so they don't do well with overly aggressive fish because it makes it difficult for them to find food. They are fairly slow growing, so a 20gal might be good for a while but eventually you will have to upgrade as these fish average 18-24" full grown. I have mine with mollies, bumblebee gobies and a mudskipper in a 75gal tank.

**blazian88** · 01-08-2008, 1:15 PM

Are those the only other fish(mollies, bumblebee gobies, mudskippers) that do well in brackish water with a violet/dragon goby? Also i just tried feeding my goby about 2 minutes ago and all he did was sit there not even open his mouth. Do u think hes full?(As of now all i have are tropical flakes and since those float what i did was i crushed them into small pieces and put them into a small cup of my aquarium water and then poured it into the tank,so that they would sink. A few of them landed in front of my dragon but he just lay there. Do dragon gobies sleep?

**Sploke** · 01-08-2008, 1:22 PM

The only thing mine eats is thawed bloodworms, brine shrimp, mysis, and krill. There are a few other brackish gobies that would do ok, and it would probably do alright with monos or scats if you had a big enough tank (90gal+).

**blazian88** · 01-08-2008, 2:54 PM

Are loaches ok to put with the dragon goby? Also, what about dwarf cichlids? They dont get to big and i read that they can handle lower end brackish water. And they could bring some personality to my tank.

**Sploke** · 01-08-2008, 3:06 PM

neither loaches nor dwarf cichlids are brackish fish. loaches would actually be highly sensitive to the salt in the water as they have skin, and no scales.

**blazian88** · 01-08-2008, 3:10 PM

Ah I see. So then what are the most active kinds of fish in a brackish water tank?

**Sploke** · 01-08-2008, 3:36 PM

Out of those that I have owned, the mollies would probably be the most active. Monos, scats and archers are also more active, but you're looking at a 90+ gallon tank to house those species. Puffers make interesting inhabitants, but there aren't any species I would keep in a 20gal, esp with a violet goby.