What is compatible with a south american dragonfish?

South American Dragonfish either refers to a Violet Goby (Gobioides Broussonnetii) http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile126... or a species of Arowana http://www.arowana.com.sg/, usually the former.

Violet Gobies should be kept singularly in a Brackish aquarium, http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.h... no smaller then a 40 breeder, and that is cramped. Violets can easily reach a foot in length.

Violets have pretty bad vision so special care will be needed when feeding, I used to feed mine with a turkey baster. When I would "squeeze" some blood worms the Violet would breath the food in it's mouth, a filter feeder if you will. And if you look closely they have a scary set of teeth, but that is not for eating other fish, its for scraping algae off of rocks, so replication of that would be optimal for there health.

Being as they are in need of Brackish water, there are few tank mates that are suitable with Violets. First you have to consider that they are slow, and are not able to compete for food, so Mollies are out of the question (and yes Mollies can be kept in Brackish conditions).

How about Bumble Bee Gobies http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile59.... I advise caution if they are to be considered, being as they are tiny. Like I mentioned, Violets are not hunters, they will not attack other fish, but they do have a large mouth and if a Bumble Bee is close...

Knight Gobies could work, http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile98.... just make sure they dont out compete the Violet for food.

Violets prefer places to hide, and are active at night, so I recommend buying a piece of white PVC pipe so they can use that as there hide out, be sure to file down sharp edges. They also sell clear tubes made for shy fish i.e. Black Ghost Knifes.

South American Dragon Fish

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RE:

What is compatible with a south american dragonfish?

Is your South American dragonfish also the Gulf Coast North American dragonfish, a.k.a violet goby, scientifically known as Gobioides broussonnetii? That is a shy fish that actually is pretty comfortable is cool/ room temperature water. Despite their fearsome appearance, they are a micro predator feeding upon insect larvae, tiny crustaceans and worms. Aquarists too often cause them great pain by putting them in with large robust companions that do them great harm.

In a heated tank livebearers would get along with it ok if they didn't eat all of its food. Some coastal smaller coastal killifish might sldo go well & they would need no heater. Companion fish need to be harmless & salt tolerant. A heater though is useful.

But cleanliness, frequent partial water changes and very good water quality seems to be essential to their health. One might just enjoy them for themselves in a single species aquarium. Single species tanks usually are designated for rough characters. Sometimes the opposite reason for keeping them by themselves applies.

Ah, and they need space, perhaps 25 gallons per goby. As they grow that could be expanded considerably as they reach 2 feet in length.

The second source below suggests that the tank should be well established before a violet goby is acclimated to that tank. Notice their cost estimates too This may be one of those times when a fish-less cycle, adding a set amount of ammonia to the tank every day for two weeks & testing with your 3 in 1 water test kit daily.

The good news about doing that is that the fish-less cycling of an aquarium is about 40-50% of how long it takes to cycle an aquarium with fish. And that goby doesn't sound like the best fish to use for tank cycling anyway. (Please check out the sources below - space is limited for answers here.)

They also live in brackish water, effected by the tides. You don't need to alter the salt content of the water over the course of the day, but you will want to add 1/2 cup of sea salt per gallon of water or level cup of salt per 2 gallons. (Marine water is 1 cup per gallon.) Never use kitchen salt for fish. You might buy the marine sea salt mixes from pet shops for your initial set-up and then for your 10 to 50% weekly partial water changes. The least expensive salt you might "get away" with could be the sun dried sea salt sold in 50-pound bags carried by agricultural supply stores as feed salt.

You have probably guessed that the name given you for the fish overlooks the fact that they are found off of the US coasts from Georgia around to Texas. Vendors like to make their fish sound far away & exotic. Some of the neatest fish week can keep in aquariums actually don't come from that far away, But that is a whole 'nother discussion.

Hope your dragon goby is just what you want and thrives in your tank.

other dragonfish, mollies. they're all calm fish, as opposed to semi-aggressive, and aggressive.