Tailspots are awesome fish (I'll always have one in my tanks), but they're hit or miss with the algae grazing. Mine tend to favor whatever I'm feeding other fish (especially the meaty stuff, in spite of the "herbivore" label) rather than picking at algae. I would not buy one as CUC and hope to see it make a difference in your tank. In a tank that size, I'd stuck to snails for algae management. A Lawnmower blenny does a good job, but can be tough to keep if you don't have a ton of algae for it to graze on. My old court jester did OK, but not as great as the snails.
If you don't already have them, you might try adding 1 or 2 Mexican turbos snails (should be plenty for a 20 gallon). They do get big, so if you can find them locally, aim for the smallest you can findthanks guys for your input…
i might see and wait what my snails do first
. I have a few that I move from one tank to another depending on how much algae I have.
My turbos clean my rocks really well. YMMV.
There are different kinds of turbos... Mexican turbos are from warmer waters and usually do well in typical tanks.
court jester goby also does this.
The difference between the two is where they pick at. Koumansetta rainfordi will be more useful for just the sand, Koumansetta hectori will work wonders on both rock and sand.
Yes! I forgot about them. They were great! And good for a small tank.
could both work in 1 tank?
Possibly however, there are more chances of it failing and a second tank being needed than there are if it works. Potentially if you have one in an acclimation box it could work - I have wanted to attempt a pair of the two (One from each species) however, I don’t think it would work out as I would only have 30 minutes of acclimation for them to get used to eachother.
