Unique fish for 20 gallon long?

[Echo2656]

I'm making stocking plans for 20 gallon long.
So far I have:
1 pair of storm clownfish
1 tailspot blenny
1 royal gramma
I'm looking for 1 more fish I can add that add diversity and color. It needs to be beginner-intermediate. It can be a top, middle, or bottom swimmer but not aggressive. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Dave1993]

Candy basslet

 

[Echo2656]

Candy basslet

ill def look into it, thanks

 

[Echo2656]

Candy basslet

wait they are like $700-$900 sorry not looking to spend that much

 

[Echo2656]

Please only fish that are $10-$100

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’d leave it there tbh.
Clowns can get mean and won’t take kindly too lots of fish.
If anything, look into the various shrimpgobies and get a pistol shrimp to go with it.

 

[MIke Wood]

you might be able to get away with it. but an engineer goby is very neat and is always the first fish that guest notice at my house. they always think its an eel. i would ditch the tailspot and get a starry blenny or lawnmower. my lawnmower is one of my favorite fish. it actually likes to people watch.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Canary blenny or harp tail blenny both do well with others and have a kind temperament

 

[Echo2656]

you might be able to get away with it. but an engineer goby is very neat and is always the first fish that guest notice at my house. they always think its an eel. i would ditch the tailspot and get a starry blenny or lawnmower. my lawnmower is one of my favorite fish. it actually likes to people watch.

don't watchman gobies and lawnmower blennys need 30 gallons? I was thinking about the lawnmower but my tank is too small.

 

[jkcoral]

Pink streaked wrasse! They are awesome, have interesting personalities, and add some nice pinkish-blue color.

A yellow banded possum wrasse would also be cool. Mine is much more shy then my pink streaked. But both fish are peaceful as can be, and most of the other fish completely ignore them.

 

[MIke Wood]

i dont think your tank is too small for either. lawnmowers tend to perch and not really swim. and engineers will stay in the sand a lot of the time. they arent like tangs that need room to swim around. the only issue is if you have too many fish then all fish can become territorial. my son has a 20 long and i am planning to add an engineer goby or 2, a single clown, and another type of blenny haven't decided yet.

 

[New&no clue]

Yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp pair

 

[jkcoral]

I personally would take the gramma off the list. They are generally nice, but can become very mean once they claim territory.

I love my tail spot, and they are neat but I’d stick to the tail spot or a goby/pistol shrimp vs a lawnmower. My lawnmower quickly outgrew the 20g tank he started in.

Oh, and don’t forget to consider some Pom Pom crabs

I’d leave it there tbh.
Clowns can get mean and won’t take kindly too lots of fish.
If anything, look into the various shrimpgobies and get a pistol shrimp to go with it.

+1 for a goby/pistol shrimp pair. Lots of personality, interesting to watch, and so on.

 

[Pkunk35]

A single fire fish. Not sure on the tail spot with it tho.

also agree on a plethora of gobies u can choose

 

[Sharkbait19]

i dont think your tank is too small for either. lawnmowers tend to perch and not really swim. and engineers will stay in the sand a lot of the time. they arent like tangs that need room to swim around. the only issue is if you have too many fish then all fish can become territorial. my son has a 20 long and i am planning to add an engineer goby or 2, a single clown, and another type of blenny haven't decided yet.

Still an 8-10 inch fish in a small tank. Engineer gobies get big and when they do move, need lots of space.
Lawnmower is also a big guy and could use space for grazing.

 

[i cant think]

Look deep into the gobiidae genera. If you just skim through them then sometimes they can be rather bland as they’re pretty common however, if you look deep into them there are some hidden treasures.
I have 6 gobies in my RS Max Nano, they are;
Discordipinna griessingeri (Now this is my prized possession, almost never heard of however extremely unusual)
Trimma tevegae pair (Trimma is a newer genus in the hobby, not overly known but also not too rarely heard of)
Gobiodon acicularis (A well known genus but a but so well known species - There are around 30 species in this genus, only about 10% are commonly known)
Koumansetta hectori (A not so well known species - often out shone by its cousin K. rainfordi)
Stonogobiops yasha (A rather more common starting species and genus)

Other examples involve;
Eviota brahmi (Eviota is a relatively nice genus to start and can be kept in groups of 3-5 much like Trimma can be)
Amblyeleotris diagonalis (Amblyeleotris is another genus that isn’t as well known but the species within it are rather well known)

 

[i cant think]

Here’s 5 of my gobies for anyone interested in their health/colours.
Escenius lineatus (Left) Gobiodon acicularis (Right)

Koumansetta hectori

Stonogobiops yasha

Trimma tevegae

Discordipinna griessingeri

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Maybe tilefish as there are many kind and are in the gobidae family

Maybe a cleaner wrasse as they can survive in smaller tanks

But I've had tailspots before and coral polyps are definitely in their diet as I thought a wellso got stung but it was too far away from anything else it wasnt until I noticed chunks missing from a trachy then I caught him red handed munching it again I took him to a friend that had a macro tank


Stay away from coral gobies and tail spot blennyies if u like coral to be prime as chunks will appear dead and ull be stuck wondering why(mostly lps sps softies will remain unscathed)

Instead go for a dwg or ywg and try to replace him

Or like stated above a starry blenny or lawnmower


I personally think engineers are cool but they get big mines 13 inches and and the smaller 2 males in the groups are 8in I'm constantly fixing the rockwork and sunbeds from where they dig they also will throw sand on to rocks and suffocate coral with sand or give them severe sandburn if ur not home to fixit which happens alot if u work and hold down a job

As beautiful as the engineers are they've caused me more heartache when it came to keeping certain corals due to how much they dig in the substrate

If u have a tank under 100g and sandbed I would avoid this fish unless
Cleaning up the mess they make is something u wanna cleanup a cool times a day or coral will die mostly ones close to the sandbed like zoas trachy wellso scoly euphillidae are susceptible to the wrath of the sandstorm

 

[Soren]

Still an 8-10 inch fish in a small tank. Engineer gobies get big and when they do move, need lots of space.
Lawnmower is also a big guy and could use space for grazing.

+1 on both not being good considerations for a 20L.
Engineer gobies would be great if they are moved to a larger tank once they reach 3+ inches in length. I currently have 2 engineer gobies ~2" long in my 30g breeder tank on my desk at work, but the only reason I considered them (beyond them being a favorite of mine) is that this tank is partially sort of like a QT tank for my main tanks and build at home and I intend to have a few engineer gobies in my 125 build.
The lawnmower blenny will certainly get too large for the tank and will be hard to sustain even at a small size in such a small tank with not enough space for algae growth.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Rainoford or a hector's goby would also be a good option with cleaner shrimp