Stocking Optitons (Few Questions.)

[Kuma]

I'm currently housing my fish in a 30gal, I have a good amount of live rock and the tank is 6months old as of this post. Currently it houses

2 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Yellow Striped Blenny
1 Watchman Goby
1 Orchid Dottyback
1 Blue Damsel (Soon to be moved to a 29 gal)

I'm wondering what would be another good solid fish to add. I'm looking for something on the peaceful side, with some color (I've been beggining to do my research on Mandarins but I'm open to anything). I also would like to know if it's possible to add a pistol shrimp even though I have 2 cleaners as well. I'd like to have to Goby/Pisol combo if it's possible. I also have plans to add a clean up crew in a few days (Ceriths/Nassarius/Astrae combo). Along with the clean up crew I wanted to add possible a Mithrax or a Pom-Pom crab or a Decorator. (Any information about mixing crab species is a plus as well, while I had an Emerald I'm leaning towards something that I'm able to see a little more often.)

 

[T_BONE]

Welcome to R2R!! Before we can give you options on livestock we need a little more information about your setup.
You mentioned that you were researching Mandarins and these are really picky eaters, or can be, and thsir tank really should be a mature tank with a good amount of pods for feeding. They can go through them pretty quick in a tank that size unless you are adding live pretty often. A cleanup crew is well worth having to clean up all the leftovers and to keep the sand bed clean.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

A yasha goby pistol combo, a neon goby
An engineer goby on the medium side how bout a white banded possum or sixline wrasse? Maybe a flame scallop or tricanada clam...a plectranthia can be a good alt if u like the way hawkfish look

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Mandarins can be kinda finicky and might not wanna eat the pods once the come in the mail if u get one try to get it from lfs

 

[UnderseaOddities]

But i wouldnt try to put a mandarin in a 30 g they need an established and dedicated tank probably 75g if u were tryna house one long term 40g breeder would even give the fishie a troubled life

 

[Bleigh]

An underrated fish is a chalk basslet. I have 2 and they’re beautiful. Very big eaters but fat and lazy otherwise.

 

[Kuma]

Welcome to R2R!! Before we can give you options on livestock we need a little more information about your setup.
You mentioned that you were researching Mandarins and these are really picky eaters, or can be, and thsir tank really should be a mature tank with a good amount of pods for feeding. They can go through them pretty quick in a tank that size unless you are adding live pretty often. A cleanup crew is well worth having to clean up all the leftovers and to keep the sand bed clean.

Ofc, what other information would be helpful? I was mainly looking at the Mandarin because I've been seeing the pod population grow in my tank and was excited because I knew something that ate them lol. I'm not against restocking the pods as I want it to have the best I can provide for it.

A yasha goby pistol combo, a neon goby
An engineer goby on the medium side how bout a white banded possum or sixline wrasse? Maybe a flame scallop or tricanada clam...a plectranthia can be a good alt if u like the way hawkfish look

Never thought about the clams or scallops yet, I'll look into those. At the moment I'm trying to stay away from anything wrasse related for the moment. I looked into the engineer goby and I'm really digging the looks of that guy, would the engineer or the yasha have any issues with my watchman already there?

An underrated fish is a chalk basslet. I have 2 and they’re beautiful. Very big eaters but fat and lazy otherwise.

I'll look into those, I looked at a few pictures while typing this and I like the coloration on the sides, do they have any compatibility issues amongst themselves?

 

[PatW]

An underrated fish is a chalk basslet. I have 2 and they’re beautiful. Very big eaters but fat and lazy otherwise.

That is a good suggestion. I tend to go with a light load and I would not add anymore fish. But you probably can. Bengai cardinals are nice. And fire fish are also good. Most cardinals would work as would most dart fish.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

@Kuma Personnally ive never had any issues with gobies ive kept engineer and neon and firefish in the same tank when i was a kid with sucsess (if u get a neon itll pair up with cleaner shrimp like ,other gobies do woth pistols,really the only aggressive goby ive seen is stary blenny and a lawnmower have it out and theyre only gobies by a technicallity.if u have 2 male watchman(yellow or diamond) chances are one will get smaller over time and start to get nipped at.personally i had sucess with a mixed goby tank as long as theres plenty of live rock and u keep up on feeding etc...if i were u id move the damsel ,and maybe the dotty back to the 20 with the damsel and just decide on one or two more species to put in your 30 so u dont maxout bioload,unless the damsel and dotty dont get along then it might be a bad idea

 

[Bleigh]

Ofc, what other information would be helpful? I was mainly looking at the Mandarin because I've been seeing the pod population grow in my tank and was excited because I knew something that ate them lol. I'm not against restocking the pods as I want it to have the best I can provide for it.




Never thought about the clams or scallops yet, I'll look into those. At the moment I'm trying to stay away from anything wrasse related for the moment. I looked into the engineer goby and I'm really digging the looks of that guy, would the engineer or the yasha have any issues with my watchman already there?





I'll look into those, I looked at a few pictures while typing this and I like the coloration on the sides, do they have any compatibility issues amongst themselves?

not that I know of. They tend to find a cave or something where they can sit and watch what everyone’s doing. So they’re not hidden but not active swimmers. They seem like scientists observing their surroundings. They’re also the first one out for food though.