Dragon Goby Biotope Discussion

[cam191919]

looks good. if i were doing mollies, id do mexican sailfins. or even the kind of mollies you can catch in your area

like those

 

[clsanchez77]

I do want to do something different than the 'black' or 'Dalmatian', just not sure where to look. None of these available in my neighborhood. Only thing I'm going to find in the canals around here are nutria and disposed evidence.

Chris

 

[cam191919]

^ ha

you could try asking a LFS if they could get in natural mexican sailfins

 

[Sploke]

Tank is looking good!

 

[wataugachicken]

Great. I was thinking of burying some 2" ABS plastic (Black plastic) pipe and using rocks/driftwood to reinforce the opening and hide the pipe. Would they use this, or just bury themselves under the pipe.

Also, do either of you do anything to supplement flow? In my reef tank I was running 500gph on the return and three powerheads at 1500gph each. I was thinking of setting up an internal loop to get a gentle 500gph cross-current.

Any thoughts?

I will go with the clear PVC then. No point taken uneccessary risks.

get some safe silicone, smear it all over the pipes, and roll them in a pile of (dry) substrate so they're covered up and look nicer.

 

[clsanchez77]

wataugachicken -
I thought about doing that, but instead I just buried deep in the substrate and concealed the ends with driftwood. There is still some of the pipe visible, but that will be taken care of once I get some plants in there.

Thanks.

 

[clsanchez77]

In fact, if you go back and look at my photo, you wont see the cave.

 

[clsanchez77]

Well, a couple of notes, I am thinking the 3" plastic may be to big based on some other comments about dragon gobies liking 'tight spaces'. I am thinking of snaking a 1/2" diameter tube and filling the pipe with black sand. Then once I pull the hose, it should leave a smaller cave. Then since it is sand, the goby can dig out what ever it wants. Then I can always hook up a Mag7 and 'blow' the sand out if I ever need to.

Also, Firday I will be picking up some plants. My general idea is carpet the tank with grass like plants, keeping some open sand areas in the low spot (centered) and in front of the large piece of driftwood on the right. In detail, I plan to plant tall Vallisneria on the high ground to the left, clustered along the side wall and in the back between the side wall and the overflow. The rights side of the tank would feature several pockets of shorter sagitaria grass. The remaining pockets across the tank would be carpeted with chain sword plant. Again, I would keep some large open areas of just gravel. Also, I may add a 3 or so Banana Plants as a 'Centerpiece' areound the large piece of driftwood to add some cover around one of the planned open areas.

Any thoughts?

Pretty soon, I will start adding some random build pictures of the plumbing and electrical setup.

Chris

 

[xspainx69]

I would personally go with aragonite sand, if your gonna house a Dragon Goby. In regards to specific gravity, if you go passed 1.010 no plant will thrive well in that tank.

 

[clsanchez77]

Thanks, I wanted a more mud substrate so went with the advise of others on the substrate and mixed silica sand (pool filter or play sand) with the planted aquarium sand (I went with Flourite sand). I added a little Flourite gravel for some texture.

I plan to keep the SG at 1.005 and I am limiting my plants to the grass type plants so this should be ok as well.