Small fish for big tank (aka make a goby tank!)

Lowstorm · Apr 27, 2016

So! I have a 125 gallon aquarium. It is and will be a mixed reef.
So far for fish I have 2 A. nigripes (blackfoot clownfish)

I'm not interested in big fish with this tank. Like, at all. No tangs, no foxfaces, nothing.
I'm thinking gobies! And a group of assessors. (I really want to hold out for a group of ORA Assessor randalli) Likely a group of 5.

So, 5 assessors, 2 clownfish. Then gobies!
My plans are:
a pair of shrimp gobies. Species still up in the air. If CB come available I'll get em first-I know yellow watchmans are CB, but I really prefer yashas (Stonogobiops yasha)
a couple of the tiny evotia, or masked, or... (Eviota pellucida is one that I've seen recently)
Trimma gobies (Trimma cana)
a pair of CB neon gobies (Elactinus oceanops)
if I can find them, a CB pair of court jester gobies (Koumansetta rainfordi)
A couple of green clown gobies (Gobiodon atrangulatus) ~I'd like a few, but I don't know how many.

For grazing, I'm looking at blennies. A pair (of course) would be great. Maybe starry blennies. I know finding an actual pair will take a ton of time and patience and money in the pocketbook saved up for just the right time.

So, at what point is a lot of little fish going to be too much? The only out in the water column fish are really the... clowns. And even the ones I have are a shy species. (I bet when I get them an anemone, I'll only see them in the anemone, so they may not even be water column fish!)

With all these little fish, will there be aggression issues? I have roughly 80 lbs of live rock in my big ole tank. Lots of open water! But I also don't have the rocks in a pile. They're going upwards, so there is room on the rocks for the ones that want it. But the species that are similar (trimma and evotia) might have issues? I've never had a tank fully dedicated to my favorite type of fish before, and I'd love to have a few different ones.

And, any suggestions on your favorite gobies? I wanna see other ones.

fragit · Apr 27, 2016

I would rethink the green clown gobie, I had one in my last system (mixed reef) that little bugger nipped at my sps corals all the time. He was banished to the refugium eventually. Had a rainfordi also, he was awesome but very timid. Also had a couple Wheeler's Gobies they were great and had fantastic personalities. Love the idea of lots of small fish though.

Lowstorm · Apr 27, 2016

I kinda figure if I have enough SPS any nibbling will be spread out, and not make as big of an impact though, right? Do all the clown gobies do it? I have only had them with no SPS, and by the end I will have an sps heavy tank.

fragit · Apr 27, 2016

I had a yellow clown also at the time, it did not nip at my sps, but it did like to perch on them which did make them retract their polyps. Certainly was not as irritating as the nipping though. It may have been a food thing too with the green clown, not sure.

Lowstorm · Apr 27, 2016

I ~guess~ I can go for yellows. Or pandas. lol

james983 · Apr 27, 2016

I always like to have some Clown Gobies in my 180. I feel they add to diversity and guests get a kick out of them because they are cute little buggers. They definitely nip at SPS though. There is some debate as to if the nipping is somehow beneficial to SPS or not. I can say if you have enough SPS and not too many Clown Gobies they souldn't be a problem, but they may reduce coral PE. So, you have to be willing to accept those drawbacks as a possibility. Only other problem I find is they disappear in my system. I know they have be sucked into the overflow on several occasions. You can try gutter guards to help but I find the gutter guards build algae and reduce flow so o choose not to use them. Hope this helps, good luck.

Lowstorm · Apr 27, 2016

Oh, I'm assuming they'll be vanishing often in my system. Big tank, little fish. But the overflow does bring up a good point. I would beable to add a guard, thanks for that reminder!

fishboy10 · Apr 27, 2016

maybe a firefish i have one that doesn't use much space in my 20 gallon tank hes either in his cave or swimming near the cave collecting food that floats by

Lowstorm · Apr 27, 2016

I forgot about firefish. They're super neat color. I used to have a purple that I adored. I wonder how a grouping would do....

Naiad · Apr 27, 2016

Fish personalities play a big role in what your doing. I did the same with a 120. I love my gobies too. I really only had issues when 2 of my green banded gobies both developed into males. You would think that a 120 is by far big enough to house two on inch males. Not the one I had. He would leave his territory and search out the other no matter where he was. Moral of the story, some fish are jerks and won't play well with others no matter how much room you give them. If you want some more open water fish look at getting some fang blennies and/or dartfish.

eatbreakfast · Apr 27, 2016

Though social in the wild groups of firefish eventually whittle themselves down in aqu.

Trimma and eviota gobies will peaceful coexist. An LFS near me had a mixed group of about 20 in an Eheim 9g.

Pygmy dartfish, such as ailiops mesostigma and Tryssogobius collini do great in groups in the open water.

If ORA does hulafish again, they are a cool, peaceful small fish.

Barnacle blennies are small and colonial.

Instead of starry blennies, consider ember blennies. They are sexually dimorphic, so getting a pr should be easier.

Naiad · Apr 27, 2016

Here is a list of some of my favorites from my giant nano tank:
Flaming prawn goby
Circus goby
Rusty goby
Signal blenny
Mandarin

Do be sure to qt everything. Nothing is more frustrating then trying to get 1 inch fish out of large aquariums.

Lowstorm · Apr 27, 2016

Oh my, those ember blennies are gorgeous! Way nicer than the starry.

Do gobies change sex, or are they born that way? I've done a few months of light reading on the subject and can't find anything really one way or another. Guess I'll do more searching for it.

eatbreakfast · Apr 27, 2016

Some change sex, some don't, some we don't know. Clown and most watchman gobies change sex, neon gobies don't, I don't think we know yet on trimma and eviota.

michellejy · Apr 27, 2016

Naiad said:
Here is a list of some of my favorites from my giant nano tank:
Flaming prawn goby
Circus goby
Rusty goby
Signal blenny
Mandarin

Do be sure to qt everything. Nothing is more frustrating then trying to get 1 inch fish out of large aquariums.

Just busting in the conversation to tell you I am intensely jealous about your signal blenny.