20g Fish List Help

[kylev]

I have a 20g reef tank that I am setting up for my girl friend. It has been running for about 1.5 months now. We were thinking about doing one fish or possibly two. Money isn't a concern I just don't have much experience on stocking this small of a reef tank. All suggestion are welcome and if there's cool fish that wouldnt require covering the tank that would be awesome but either way works. I'd really like to do a single blue spotted jawfish but feel the tank could be a bit small
Thanks

 

[snakeblitz33]

Jawfish require really deep sand beds of a minimum of 6". 8 to 9" is preferable. With a 20g tank, you would almost have more sand than water, so I don't recommend a jawfish.
There are a lot of options out there!
Clownfish are neat, and your girlfriend can watch Nemo and Marlin all day. lol!
Firefish Gobies are entertaining to watch, and they are pretty colorful.
Purple firefish gobies are interesting too - same thing, only more rare because they are purple!
Yellow watchmen Gobies are neat to watch.
Neon blue stripe or gold stripe gobies are fun to watch and will clean your other fish and stay small.
A small pygmy angel would do well in a 20g tank if the rest of the tank is a low bioload.
A shrimp and goby pair would work pretty well. The shrimp and goby come out of a hole and the shrimp is blind so the fish protects it and lets it know when a predator is around. Very neat little symbiotic relationship there.
Yellow and green clown gobies are neat, and they perch everywhere like a yellow watchman goby.
green banded gobies are neat too
Umm,... ... um.... ummmmmmm... ummm...
A bicolor blenny would be nice. Just one though.
For something that is mildly aggressive you could go with an orchid dottyback or a royal gramma. I think those are really cool fish.
Of course, you could go ultra cheap and get some blue devil damsels and watch em' stake out their territory. lol.
The list goes on and on...

 

[btldreef]

The other issue with blue spot jawfish, is that most of them develop a disease which causes their fins to rot away, it doesn't seem to have an effect on any other fish that might be housed with it and there's virtually nothing you can do to help them once they get it. I'm beginning to think that these are one of those fish that are just better left in the wild as many of them perish in the hobby.
There are a lot of cool fish (a lot of them Snake mentioned). Are you going to do a reef? Personally, I love pistol shrimp/goby pairs in nano tanks.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Very well put, BTLD!

 

[teresaq]

really on the jaw fish??? I had mine for over a yr (died when I treated my tank for flat worms) in my horse tank with about an inch and a half of sand. He made his home under a curved shaped rock, digging into the sand below. He was very cool, piling small shells around the front opening. (I also lost 3 horses to flatworm exit)
T

 

[kylev]

The tank is going to be a reef and I myself do like the goby pistol shrimp combo but the girl friend isn't a big fan, but since we are going with a reef we'd like a pretty light bioload in order to save headache. We do have a aqua c remora nano protein skimmer to help out though. I guess we will scratch the jawfish off of the list. I like the idea of clowns but wouldn't a pair be too much for a 20g or even a small dwarf angel???

 

[kylev]

Would a purple firefish and a fridmani pseudochromis work ok? If so would this be it for fish?
Thanks

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by TeresaQ http:///t/387911/20g-fish-list-help#post_3416965
really on the jaw fish??? I had mine for over a yr (died when I treated my tank for flat worms) in my horse tank with about an inch and a half of sand. He made his home under a curved shaped rock, digging into the sand below. He was very cool, piling small shells around the front opening. (I also lost 3 horses to flatworm exit)
T
Yeah, if you read up about them on Wet Web Media, they're not fans of keeping them in the home aquariums. Some people have luck with them, I had one for over 3 years, but the vast majority of them are doomed to die in our tanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kylev http:///t/387911/20g-fish-list-help#post_3416972
The tank is going to be a reef and I myself do like the goby pistol shrimp combo but the girl friend isn't a big fan, but since we are going with a reef we'd like a pretty light bioload in order to save headache. We do have a aqua c remora nano protein skimmer to help out though. I guess we will scratch the jawfish off of the list. I like the idea of clowns but wouldn't a pair be too much for a 20g or even a small dwarf angel???
A pair of clowns, if you're meaning Percula or Ocellaris would be okay, but you wouldn't really want to add anything else, maybe a small goby or blenny, but that would be it. I think a 20 is just a tad too small for a dwarf angel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kylev http:///t/387911/20g-fish-list-help#post_3419215
Would a purple firefish and a fridmani pseudochromis work ok? If so would this be it for fish?
Thanks
Touchy. Fridmani's are supposed to be less aggressive, I've had two that were little demons though. One even ripped apart the tail fin of an evil six line wrasse I had.