Gobioides broussonettii

Some while ago I spotted some amazingly ugly fish in a fish shop - they
were about six inches long, shaped like eels, bright purple, with the
ugliest pugnacious faces usually only seen on the lower elements of the
bare-knuckle boxing circle ( or so I'm told! ). They were sharing a tank
with some goldfish, and in spite of being priced at ten pounds a go, I
had to have them. Having purchased two, and then pointed out to the
store owner that this only left one, which was a shame, I eventually
carried home in triumph all three for twenty-five pounds.
  

Having committed the cardinal sin of impulse buying fish I knew
nothing about, I then started frantically trying to find out what they
were and how to feed and keep them. I discovered that they were 
dragon gobies, Gobioides broussonettii, and the more I read the more
depressed I got. ' Only for the specialist ' contributed an old TFH article.
' Voracious predators ' came from a popular general aquarium book.
Baensch on the other hand offered that they are benthic feeders of
invertebrates, and since I trust my Baensch above all my other books
this did offer some hope. Even he was not exactly encouraging with
a view to keeping them in a community! Still, the fish were there, I
didn't know anybody who wanted three giant eating machines, so
the fish and I would have to make the best of it. It turned out that
these fascinating fish were a purchase that I never came to regret.

Since they had to put up with what was available, they were installed
in a four foot tank sharing with some sleeper gobies and a gang of
corydoras ( panda, melini and a few strays ). After reading the books 
I would rush to the tank every morning and count the corys, but the
troop remained the same size, and there were no losses during the
entire duration of the gobies stay. The next problem arose fairly 
quickly. I had been warned in the shop that they would only eat
bloodworm. Since all three were dedicated to the pursuit of eating,
the frozen bloodworm declined rapidly, and not only had I run out but
I calculated that to continue feeding them this at the same rate would
need a win on the lottery. Since there was nothing else availble at that
time, they received flake the same as everything else for the morning
feed. The gobies weren't proud, and got to work on that with the same 
enthusiastic hoover impression with which they had treated the
bloodworm. After this they went on to the same regime as most of the
other fish, with a regular flake diet and frozen food as a treat a couple
of times a week. I watched them carefully for signs of sickening or
malnutrition. On the contrary, they lived, thrived and GREW!  After
about four months two of them were about 10 inches long, and the
third slightly smaller. The girth was about the same as my thumb at the
base.

The books had also warned me that the fish were extremely aggressive
and had to be kept alone, so it was with trepidation that I observed the
skirmishes start as they grew bigger. The two biggest fish would lie
alongside one another, contorting and pushing at each other with their
immense mouths gaping. They also appeared to try to bite. However,
although they adopted the art of one-upmanship as their main hobby,
no damage on either of the two participants was ever observed, and
they seemed to be reasonably paired - both remained confident and
active. The third, meanwhile, was still smaller, and never bothered by 
either of the two big fish. I had read that they could neither be sexed
nor bred in the aquarium, but this behaviour lead me to suspect that
I had two warring males and a female.

While all this was going on, the corys continued their perambulations
around the tank unmolested, and the sleeper gobies simply ignored
them. At no time was any aggression manifested other than between
the two supposed males.

I had also read that they needed to be kept on a sand bottom, so that
they could bury themselves and to avoid skin damage. They may well
have been happier on sand, but none ever sustained any damage 
from the gravel, and they appeared quite happy wrapped round the
filter or lurking under bogwood without burrowing.

The fish were finally sold as they were really too big for me and were
evidently going to outgrow their four foot tank, but the trio went together
and I hope that I shall hear of any further developments. If I ever have
the room for a bigger tank, some of these fish will definitely be taking up
residence again!

While I would not presume to state that all previous literature is wrong
on the basis of having kept three fish for a few months, I consider that
perhaps more investigation into the species is well overdue. While my
fish may simply have been remarkably peaceful for the species. I found
them to be fascinating, attractive, and good community members even
with little fish ( 1 inch corys with ten inch gobies! ), and had no problems
whatsoever in keeping them fed, healthy and active. If anyone else is
keeping these, ( or has room to keep a small group together and fancies
giving them a try! ) I should be very interested to hear of other people's
first hand experience with these fish.