The Puffer Forum

I have a dragon goby in my 40g. If I bought a fig8, would it kill/maim him? He has a cave he stays in most of the time, but he does come out sometimes for food and at night he'll come out for exercise.

I have kept them together w/no problems.

It's really up to the individual puffer whether or not it will become territorial with other fish. You can usually tell how territorial a puff is by how it feeds- whether or not it gets aggressive during feeding time.

As I found out when trying to find a new F8 puffer to house with my other F8, their temperaments really range quite widely. I tried to get the most docile but healthy puff in the tank at the LFS, but he still ended up chasing around the other fish in my QT tank. I exchanged him for for a larger but calmer puff, and this one schools with the mollies in there & shows no food aggression. Generally F8s are much more peaceful than other puffs, but the first figure eight I put in that QT tank was as aggressive as my GSPs were.

With a tank that large, you really shouldn't have any problems. The puff will have plenty of territory and won't feel pressured to chase away competing fish. I also kept a DG in with my F8 puff, but my puff is very docile and tolerates anything in his tank.

Be sure to give your DG some nice narrow caves that the puff can't fit into if there is any nipping.
Don't be afraid to post some pics... *hint hint* I'd love to see your setup!:)

Thanks for all the info! I've got my new Fig8 now, and he's very healthy and active so far. I'll be feeding for the first time today, and I guess then I'll know. I'll try to post pics soon! He's really cute.

What size tank is good for a dragon goby? I heard they get pretty long but don't do that much swimming.

Check this out: http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/ ... agons.html

The goby is surprisingly hardy, it has survived both an ich epidemic and water change fiasco that killed all my other fish. It's hard to feed him, though, as he's so shy. I've found feeding him at night is best.

Also, I fed my puffer today with a variety of foods. So far, he loves the frozen blood worms, isn't terribly interested in freeze-dried krill and wouldn't touch the snail I threw in! Kind of odd. Maybe he'll go after it later.

My F8s only eat frozen foods and absolutely relish frozen krill, maybe try that.

Random Quote of the Undefined Period of Time from the Dolphins! (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!). Anyways...

• 1. Yea, do Dragon Gobies partake in any cleanup per-se? Like, I imagine they eat what puffs don't, but do they like help the hygiene of your tank enough to do more good than bad to the bio-load?
  
  2. If they do, would you all think one would be fine in my 45 gallon tank w 3 F8's in it already?
  
  3. Also, I have only one F8 that spends a decent amount of time at the bottom of the tank. Will this guy disturb him?
  
  4. And last, but not least, can Dragon Gobies live off of only sinking fish food and algae pellets and maybe a little F8 food my puffs miss? Cuz my puffies are TOTAL pigs! They eat EVERYTHING and would eat to death if I let them...

I do not think DGs cut down on the bio load by eating extra food-

The reason is they are very hard to feed, and you have to put extra food in the tank to make sure the puffs aren't all eating it before he gets to it. Most likely you'd end up night-feeding him, but that still means extra food going into the tank just for him. My freshwater sole is the only fish I've had in my BW tanks I'd consider a good scavenger, but even with him I have to night feed or put extra food in the tank to make sure he doesn't starve.

However, you do have a sand substrate which I think is required to properly raise these guys. I think if you are over filtering, can provide proper hide-aways (such as pvc 'caves'), and are pretty sure your puffs are on the docile side, I'd try it.

I guess my point is, don't go getting one with the intention of him being a 'clean-up crew' because you're going to most likely feed a lot to make sure he doesn't starve. DGs are almost blind and very slow about eating- your puffs could easily out compete him. I think my mollies are doing a much better job at picking off left overs than a difficult fish like a DG would.

I think I might have to decline... I mean it's be cool, but I'm pushing it on 45 gallons as it is and I really don't wanna have to over-feed, i think my puffies will get it all... I was mainly interested if it would keep a cleaner tank, but if not, not bothering. Altough, one day I would like to.