Water Column Nano Fish

Pittsford_Pets · Oct 10, 2017

What're your favorite fish in a nano tank? I want some suggestions, as I just changed up my 20g scape and there's more room for fish. Old scape was pretty dull and the new one has tons of hiding spots. Banggai Cardinals, Firefish, etc. <--- What would you suggest?

WarEaglesReef · Oct 10, 2017

Love my little rainford goby. It's about half and half in the water column vs. chillin' out under the rocks time wise. Gorgeous fish. I'd highly recommend captive bred if you pick that one. I've heard a lot of the wild ones slowly waste away because they will only eat filamentous algae. But my captive bred one eats pellets in addition to sifting through the sand and picking the rocks for algae and he is super fat and happy.

I've got a pair of Banggais in QT waiting to go into my 60 gallon, and they're pretty neat fish as well. A little skittish, but for the most part they're out and about all day and get super excited when I show up with food. Definitely more of a water column fish than my rainford. A Banggai might eventually outgrow your 20gal though.

Pittsford_Pets · Oct 10, 2017

WarEagle88 said:
Love my little rainford goby. It's about half and half in the water column vs. chillin' out under the rocks time wise. Gorgeous fish. I'd highly recommend captive bred if you pick that one. I've heard a lot of the wild ones slowly waste away because they will only eat filamentous algae. But my captive bred one eats pellets in addition to sifting through the sand and picking the rocks for algae and he is super fat and happy.

I've got a pair of Banggais in QT waiting to go into my 60 gallon, and they're pretty neat fish as well. A little skittish, but for the most part they're out and about all day and get super excited when I show up with food. Definitely more of a water column fish than my rainford. A Banggai might eventually outgrow your 20gal though.

I agree that a banggai may outgrow, but do you think it's fine if it's still small? Saw one at LFS (captive bred) and it's not even close to the size of others that I've seen. Probably only 2 inches long, so I think it'd do well in the tank. What do you think?

Katrina71 · Oct 10, 2017

Tailspot Blenny is about half & half on rocks and water column too.

Michael Cronmiller · Oct 11, 2017

My ywg sits in his holes, but comes out to lurk around the water column quite often...firefish always in the column

Pittsford_Pets · Oct 11, 2017

Michael Cronmiller said:
My ywg sits in his holes, but comes out to lurk around the water column quite often...firefish always in the column

YWG?

Michael Cronmiller · Oct 11, 2017

Pittsford_Pets said:
YWG?

Yellow watchman goby

WarEaglesReef · Oct 11, 2017

Pittsford_Pets said:
I agree that a banggai may outgrow, but do you think it's fine if it's still small? Saw one at LFS (captive bred) and it's not even close to the size of others that I've seen. Probably only 2 inches long, so I think it'd do well in the tank. What do you think?

Not sure how fast they grow. The pair I picked up are about quarter sized, and they're doing just fine in a 10 gallon QT tank. I'd imagine you'd probably be good for at least a couple of years but I'd be prepared to have an end game strategy of either scaling up to a larger tank or having to give it to someone with the proper amount of space.

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 11, 2017

Many of the smaller fang blennies would look cool swimming around. Striped blenny, green or yellow canary blenny, or white blenny, harptail blenny.

Pittsford_Pets · Oct 11, 2017

nautical_nathaniel said:
Many of the smaller fang blennies would look cool swimming around. Striped blenny, green or yellow canary blenny, or white blenny, harptail blenny.

I'll think about it!

Pittsford_Pets · Oct 11, 2017

WarEagle88 said:
Not sure how fast they grow. The pair I picked up are about quarter sized, and they're doing just fine in a 10 gallon QT tank. I'd imagine you'd probably be good for at least a couple of years but I'd be prepared to have an end game strategy of either scaling up to a larger tank or having to give it to someone with the proper amount of space.

I'm upgrading to a 55 this Christmas (just need rocks and that's what I'm getting haha) so I'll move them up if needed

DracoKat · Oct 11, 2017

I love my Yellow Clown Goby. He's always out in the open and sits on the glass closest to me and stares at me, wanting to be fed. He just stares.. like a cat. lol.

I also have two trimma gobies which are bright and tiny, tiny!

WarEaglesReef · Oct 11, 2017

Pittsford_Pets said:
I'm upgrading to a 55 this Christmas (just need rocks and that's what I'm getting haha) so I'll move them up if needed

Perfect! Plenty of space.

They're neat little fish. I've got my fingers crossed that I sexed my pair correctly when I picked them out. Would love to see some little baby banggais at some point.