Dragonet and 6line wrasse in 20g

[bugaboo9495]

It’s been about four weeks since I gave away my only fish in my 20g tank and my pod population is insane. It’s like the sand and live rock are moving there’s so many of them.

I want to get a Dragonet and I feel confident that my pod population will be enough for him for at least a few months. I have a refugium in the back of my tank for chaetomorpha that I can start adding pods to when the time comes.

I want to add another fish like a 6 line wrasse or a sunset wrasse to keep my bristle worm population in check. I don’t mind bristle worms if they stay out of my way but there’s too many of them now.

I’m worried that adding a wrasse will deplete the Dragonets food source quicker than I can handle. Has anyone had these two fish together in a 20g before?

 

[fishguy242]

hi ,i would not recommend wrasse ,will develop taste for pods ,not eat worms,poss arrow crab?? or manual trapping and removal,keep mandy happy

 

[bugaboo9495]

hi ,i would not recommend wrasse ,will develop taste for pods ,not eat worms,poss arrow crab?? or manual trapping and removal,keep mandy happy

How would I go about setting a manual trap? I’m honestly ready to go in with chop sticks like Mr. Miyagi.

 

[fishguy242]

tiny piece of raw shrimp in fine netting,tiny piece of rock inside to hold down,zip tie closed,they will get stuck in and on netting ,and remove

 

[ichthyogeek]

Are arrow crabs not an option in this case? I know they munch on bristleworms. In a tank as small as a 20, unless you were supplementally feeding (see: PaulB brine shrimp feeder), I think you'd run out of pods very very fast.

 

[najer]

As above, a wrasse will be a pod competitor.

 

[mort]

Sixlines are also notoriously aggressive to dragonets.

 

[OrionN]

Bristle worms are fine, good scavenger and provide life food for the animal in the tank. I would not worry about them.
Avoid 6-Line wrasse. It will kill your Mandarin. My 6-line wrasse peck the eyes out of my Mandarin and leave her starve to death. I had to euthanized the Mandarin.
This is in a 420 gal tank, 21 times the size of our tank.