Hi,
I have a 55 gal freshwater tank with an Angelfish and a few mollies. My boyfriend saw a dragon goby at Wal-Mart and bought it for me as a gift 4 days ago. After reading up on how to care for it, I find almost everyone recommends brackish water. I don't have the money to invest in another tank and the brackish water will kill my other fish. I'm not sure what to do... any suggestions?
Thanks.

Heres a linkto info about dragon goby

Dragon Goby

Mostlikly your best bet is to try and rehome it or give it to a LFS ASAP. Your tank conditions are not that favorable for it to prosper.

I found a friend who would be able to provide me with a 30 gal. tank next week (he's only about 6 inches right now), do you think he will be able to hold out till then? He was in freshwater at Wal-Mart too :/

if he was alive at walmart in freshwater and still is alive now then it is possible that he will be fine. they are naturally brackish but from reading online they can adapt to fresh or saltwater.

I would continue reading about them though. They appear to be very sensitive to Ammonia build up. They also may be sensitive to water changes so the more frequent the better.

If there is a LFS near you i would suggest going and talking to them about the Goby. (and by LFS i dont mean petsmart or petco they wont be as knowledgeable) they will give you the best advice for care and conditions.

My neighbor has one.Against everything I said,he is in full fresh.They claim hes active,yet everytime I am over there the poor thing is just...there.he doesnt move and looks sad.

I would get the 30 gallon and slowly acclimate him to brackish.You will need a hydrometer and read how much salinity he needs.As a side note,the mollies would fare well with him in brackish.

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Yeah, I need to do a lot of research this weekend. I have never had anything other than freshwater tanks. Hopefully all this work will not turn out in vain

Most brackish water fish live where where fresh water meets salt water, for example where a river meets the sea. Because of this they can often cope well with changes in salinity and may naturally spend short periods of time in full fresh or full marine water. The problem is that people think that this means they can keep BW fish in FW permanently. Living for a while in FW is quite different from thriving and growing normally long term. In your case but I don't think you need to panic. If your goby is in fresh water and is looking healthy you have time to set up a tank for him and then as majerah says slowly acclimate him to brackish water. I'm not recommending you keep him in fresh water long term but I don't think you have to worry about getting him into brackish today.

I agree with the above advice, but might I also suggest a gentle lecture to the bf about purchasing living things (especially for other people) without research first? I'm sure he meant well, but...

(FWIW, I don't really understand the whole buying an animal as a gift thing in the first place, unless it was specifically requested. My step-grandmother once bought my suburban subdivision-living kid sister a duckling. WTF?)