70 gal stocking help!

[littlefoxx]

posted on this discussion as well for it to get seen.

Hello, I wanted to ask if anyone out there has kept a purple firefish, scissortail dartfish and an engineer goby in the same tank? I know they all dont do well with others of their same kind? Or if one would be better with the engineer goby than another? I have a 70 gallon tank with:
2 baby clowns
Coral beauty
2 baby banggai cardinals
Baby half black mimic tang
Midas blenny

with plans to add:
Yellow coris wrasse
Lubbocks wrasse
Maybe clown fairy wrasse
Yellow watchmen goby
Engineer goby

I also have a 32 gallon bio cube with two frostbite clowns that I can put the dartfish or firefish in if there is a conflict in species

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Ooooo, if someone chimes in on the engineer being compatible in this size with the watchmen, i will be so stoked.

I have an engineer with 2 weeks left to the long quarantine protocol, and really want a watchmen.

 

[Zionas]

Unfortunately, Tang will have to go as it’ll outgrow the tank. I think Firefish and Dartfish together will be fine, I don’t know much about Engineer Gobies but true to their name, they “engineer” your rock work to suit their own preferences which may or may not be to your liking.

 

[littlefoxx]

Unfortunately, Tang will have to go as it’ll outgrow the tank. I think Firefish and Dartfish together will be fine, I don’t know much about Engineer Gobies but true to their name, they “engineer” your rock work to suit their own preferences which may or may not be to your liking.

Yeah the guy at the shop told me the tang will get only 4 inches… not the case ive read. How big do these get? Ive seen people say between 7 and 10 inches. I have plans to upgrade the tank before he out grows out of it. He is only an inch now if not slightly smaller.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Yeah the guy at the shop told me the tang will get only 4 inches… not the case ive read. How big do these get? Ive seen people say between 7 and 10 inches. I have plans to upgrade the tank before he out grows out of it. He is only an inch now if not slightly smaller.

Maybe in the wild they get to that size but I don’t think they get that big in captivity. IME I’ve seen them max at 5 maybe 6 inches.

 

[littlefoxx]

Does anyone think it would be too overcrowded?

 

[littlefoxx]

Also would engineer goby be good with hermits? I do love my hermits. Just nor sure if the engineer would bury them on accident

 

[ILikeFish!]

Yeah the guy at the shop told me the tang will get only 4 inches… not the case ive read. How big do these get? Ive seen people say between 7 and 10 inches. I have plans to upgrade the tank before he out grows out of it. He is only an inch now if not slightly smaller.

They say 10 inches but they will just grow to whatever you tank size is

 

[Petcrazyson]

They say 10 inches but they will just grow to whatever you tank size is

I strongly disagree with this. The fish will keep growing regardless and you end up stunting its growth externally but increasing its growth unhealthily internally.

 

[ILikeFish!]

I strongly disagree with this. The fish will keep growing regardless and you end up stunting its growth externally but increasing its growth unhealthily internally.

Like I said they will grow to whatever size tank you put them in. I never said it was healthy, you put a blue tang in a 30 gallon they’re not going to grow to the 9-12 inches they are supposed to.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I strongly disagree with this. The fish will keep growing regardless and you end up stunting its growth externally but increasing its growth unhealthily internally.

I was wondering about this, that maybe its true for freshwater fish, because in nature they cancpossibly be space testricted so it would make sense for them to have some sort of hormone that prevents them from growth in extreme restrictions on space.

But I imagine that would not at all be the case for marine fish for the most part, because the odds of them encountering lack of space for a long period of time has to be next to astronomical, therefore they wouldn't have that programming in their DNA.

This is obviously complete conjecture on my part, and based on the assumption its at all true for fw fish.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I have 2 firefish and 2 scissor tail dartfish in my 40G and no problem at all. I have the fire fish for about 9 month and the dartfish for 6 month. I also have 2 pajama cardinal in that tank, along with macro. The dartfish ignore each other. Each pair share a different hiding place. Surprisingly to me, the two who fight the most are the pajama, the bigger one often attack the smaller one, though they were the same size when I bought them together.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Most of your fish on your list are OK except for the tang. They grow quite fast and need room to swim. I would hate to relocate a fish I got attached to and I do not think it is good for a fish to change the environment he got acclimated to. Though we do not always have any choice, I would avoid it.