Stocking the 20 gallon high with fish

[rrubberbandman]

Hey all!

I think I have conquered all the ugly stages.....dinos....green haze like dinos....red cyano. All I have now is minimal amounts of hair algae. The tank is growing feather calupera and also some nice red macroalgaes.

A few questions- 

When housing firefish do they do better in groups/schools?

We are thinking for our fish list-

3-4 firefish

1 Rainfords goby

1 Mandarin goby.

Thoughts on this list ?

Could I add a small 6 line wrasse? ( later after the above get settled in?)

The tank has a excellent pod population. Looks like someone sprinkled salt on interior of glass. They are everywhere for which I am thankful!

 

Bryan

[DaJMasta]

A mandarin would only survive in the long term if trained to eat prepared foods, though this is certainly possible to do.  The smallest well established tank to keep a single mandarin going I'd recommend would be something like 55-75G, and even that may be a little low if you have other things picking at pods - they will deplete a small tank's pod population in a matter of a week or so (one took less than two weeks to go to no visible pods on the glass in about 45G of water).  Training a mandarin to eat frozen isn't especially hard, though, if you're set up to do it, and provided you're willing to feed them every day with the powerheads off, one can thrive in a tank that size.  This would also apply to other dragonets.

Otherwise, the firefish may be tricky.  They seem to be sold as schooling fish but they don't exactly do that, in my experience.  It may be the case that larger groups can get along as aggression is spread out, but smaller groups generally don't, and they will fight each other pretty aggressively.  I have two in my tank which I thought were a pair and then which started fighting.  I couldn't catch one to remove it, so I sort of watched and waited, and thankfully, they don't fight each other much now that a wrasse and one of my cardinals keep them on their toes (the common enemy seems to help!), but they would take chunks out of each others' fins when fighting.  My recommendation would be one, with the option of a second if you can catch it and rehome it if they fight, but you will have to observe them carefully after introduction so that there isn't attack damage between them.
 

A wrasse in a 20g may be a bit on the small side, but if added later then maybe wouldn't be an issue.  While a different fish, you could consider a possum wrasse or similar which seem to stay smaller, act shyer, and do better in small tanks, but I think basically any wrasse will want to be swimming around a lot.  The limitation in my mind with a six line isn't total stocking quantity, but just tank size.

Also worth mentioning: for the mandarin, the firefish, and basically any wrasse, make sure you have a top.  All of them are known jumpers.

Some options from things I've had that could be neat:
Sharknose goby (or neon goby) - little cleaners that perch on the rocks and swim over to you for a cleaning when you look at the tank

Hector's goby (rainford's goby with a different paint job)
Masked goby (they hover sort of like cardinals, but don't get big and can be kept in groups even in small tanks)
Some kind of burrowing goby like a watchman goby (substrate helps, then a commensal pistol shrimp is an option too)

A twospot or tail spot blenny

Your favorite variety of cardinalfish (people accuse them of just hanging out in the water and not doing anything, but mine seem active enough and they really take over the tank after dark)

And other things!  Smaller fish are often not super well represented in-stock, but there are a bunch of neat ones if you dig around a bit.  Especially ones with small interesting features or behaviors are great choices because in a smaller tank you'll see them more and be able to appreciate them.

[rrubberbandman]

HEY Thanks for the info, especially on the Mandarin. Scratching it off the list....

How about this....as we've been looking at BRK stock list.

1 - Firefish

1- Rainfords goby

1- tail spot blenny

1- small 6 line wrasse (always been a fan of them)

Thoughts?