Need stocking help

Top189h

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
May 20, 2018
Messages
44
Reaction score
27
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I was finally able to expand back to two tanks and cleared my fish out of my 24x24x12 frag/nano tank. My livestock in there currently are 3 peppermint shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 1 pencil urchin and I just added a bicolor blenny and a mandarin goby. I was looking to add a few more fish, but these two are very timid. I had some smaller chromis in the tank and they would hide in the rockwork whenever one would come by. What would you recommend I complete the tank with? I was thinking a lawnmower blenny, 2 neon gobies and maybe a firefish goby. I worry about having 4 gobies if they don't get along though. I definitely want to stay away from any larger really active fish just to keep the tank calm for the two fish already in it.
 
To start mandarins and fire gobies aren’t actually gobies. One is a dragonet and one is a dart fish. So I don’t see a problem there.
 
To start mandarins and fire gobies aren’t actually gobies. One is a dragonet and one is a dart fish. So I don’t see a problem there.
Dartfish are a type of goby. They just have a swim bladder and act very different.
Your big problem is going to be feeding the mandarin in so small a tank, also I don’t think the lawnmower and bicolor will get along, otherwise there aren’t too many red flags.
 
To start mandarins and fire gobies aren’t actually gobies. One is a dragonet and one is a dart fish. So I don’t see a problem there.
As said above, dartfish are very much a goby species. It’s when you get fish from families such as Malacanthidae that this becomes an issue as although believed to be closely related, they are still not the same.
I was finally able to expand back to two tanks and cleared my fish out of my 24x24x12 frag/nano tank. My livestock in there currently are 3 peppermint shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 1 pencil urchin and I just added a bicolor blenny and a mandarin goby. I was looking to add a few more fish, but these two are very timid. I had some smaller chromis in the tank and they would hide in the rockwork whenever one would come by. What would you recommend I complete the tank with? I was thinking a lawnmower blenny, 2 neon gobies and maybe a firefish goby. I worry about having 4 gobies if they don't get along though. I definitely want to stay away from any larger really active fish just to keep the tank calm for the two fish already in it.
One common misconception with gobies is that they won’t get along. I have 6 gobies, all 6 get along quite happily. My tank is smaller than yours and is a RS Max Nano, they will only go after species that are the same as them if there’s more than just a pair (Sometimes this doesn’t always work and you may have a goby that just wants to be solitary). Mandarins as said above are not a goby but are of a family believed to be closely related to them. They will need feeding constantly as they do not have stomachs. The other issue is many other species will outcompete them for food.
If you get 2 Neon Gobies, make sure they’re already together and the same species (If possible).
 
Awesome, thank you for the help everyone. As for the mandarin, it's been 5 years or so in the making. I've waited until I see pods on the glass with the lights on and have a ton of pods in a rock holding set up. My plan is to swap rock out between the sump and the holding tank to bring in more pods if it ever gets to the point I don't see them on the glass with the lights on.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

New Posts

Back
Top