are there any fish for a 20g long salt setup?

[daniodude]

I really want to get a saltwater tank, but I only have a 20g long, and my mom wouldn't let me get anything bigger. I was wondering if there were saltwater fish for a 20g. I was looking through my magezine from Drs. Foster and Smith(Drs foster and smith) , and they say all of the fish in their catelog need at least a 30g. my friend said maybe like a clown fish or 2 and live rock

thanx
DD

 

[Navarre]

29 gallon is really the minimum i would be hapopy with starting. eventhen its full of pitholes and dangers that larger tanks dont suffer from, (stability being one of them) which is why larger tanks are recomended for beginners and nanos are considered for experts.

A couple of clowns can live here but i would say that you might have more luck with blennies or gobies.
Try looking for:
Dot Dash Blenny
Bi Colour blenny
Sand goby
Neon Goby
Clown Goby
Yellow Goby

These are small fish and would fit betterin the tank.

PErhaps a single Royal gramma would be ok too but make sure its teh Royal gramma and not the Braziliamn Royal as the latter grows far larger. A False gramma (dottyback) would also go better here

 

[daniodude]

I'm looking in my Drs. Foster and Smith Mag again and they have a green clown goby, is that what you are talking about, and how many, or what other fish would I be able to get- if any?

DD

 

[Navarre]

Yes a green clown goby , nice little fish and lots of character!

In a tank of this size i would not add any more than 1 goby, 1 blenny and perhaps 1 other fish (very small). Marine fish tend ot be very territorial and need more room then freshwater. having too many fish of the same family in a tank this size will cause aggression most probably.

 

[daniodude]

In a tank of this size i would not add any more than 1 goby, 1 blenny and perhaps 1 other fish (very small).

what kind of very smallfish could I add, in foster and Smith they have a hi fined red banded Goby, they say it only grows to 2 inches, would one of those be okay w/ the others, or what kind of small fish could I get?

Thanx
DD

 

[Navarre]

Yeah a nice little fish with lots of character.

Dotty backs are nice and could do well in here.

 

[daniodude]

Now, How would I go about setting this up, like I looked for skimmers and all of them are for like 50g tanks and up, what should I get, what kind of filter do you use on a salt tank, like a reguler filter like a penguin 125, I'm clueless- what would I need, and about how much would it cost (in dollars preferably, if possible)?

 

[parker313]

If you check out my 10g Nano diary in the Marine & Reef Chat, I've kind of documented how I turned my 10g FW into SW. I've also detailed the costs as I've gone along. Your big cost is going to be live rock. You pretty much need 1 - 1.5 pounds of LR per gallon, so you're looking for at least 30lbs of LR. At about $6-7 per pound, that's definitely going to take a chunk of change.

Depending on what sort of corals you want to keep, you'll need to upgrade your lighting.

Filtration - I just pulled out the old filter media and used the ceramic discs, but you could fill it up with LR rubble too.

 

[Fishy411]

just so u know u can't keep un mated gobies together. U can get away with diff. kinds of clown gobies. A good tank would be 3 diff. kinds of clown gobies and a firefish.

 

[daniodude]

I've been thinking, could I do a citrinis clown goby (Gobiodon citrinis), Yellow clown goby (Gobiodon okinawae), and a green clown goby (Gobiodon atrangulatus).
or could I do like a true percula clownfish and the citrinis clown Goby and a green clown Goby and when the clownfish gets bigger put him in my new 90 gallon and get a new clown or a different kind of clown goby or somthing?

Thanx
DD

 

[Ed4567]

I've slightly missed the boat here, but when selecting fish for a small tank it is worth considering their ecological 'niches' i.e. what they spend their time doing, so that conditions are not too cramped. For example I wouldnt put a royal gramma and a sixline wrasse together in a small tank, as they both swim around in the rockwork so the chance of arguements is increased, and similarly having a number of gobies may not be a good idea if they are terratorial types, while it should be ok to have one of each 'type' of fish.
Ed

 

[Adrinal]

I will second the bicolor bleeny. Had one in a 20 regular with over flow.... big fat over flow and two large pieces of rock. Your 20L is bigger than either a 20H or a 29 as far as fish are concerned IMO.

Just make sure you are filtered well and waching that top off very closely (I was connected to another 100g of water ). Make sure you are using very porus rock or have tones of bolt holes. The joy is watching him cruse around and stick his tail in different holes checking out spots.

 

[Adrinal]

I've slightly missed the boat here, but when selecting fish for a small tank it is worth considering their ecological 'niches' i.e. what they spend their time doing, so that conditions are not too cramped. For example I wouldnt put a royal gramma and a sixline wrasse together in a small tank, as they both swim around in the rockwork so the chance of arguements is increased, and similarly having a number of gobies may not be a good idea if they are terratorial types, while it should be ok to have one of each 'type' of fish.
Ed

I agree. I would only get ONE fish for your 20g. So make it a cool one

 

[Dragonscales]

How about a warty frogfish? They only grow small, they're colourful and are interesting. You couldn't keep anything else with it though as they can eat fish up to twice their size, but they are entertaining enough to not want more in there IMO.

 

[Adrinal]

How about a warty frogfish? They only grow small, they're colourful and are interesting. You couldn't keep anything else with it though as they can eat fish up to twice their size, but they are entertaining enough to not want more in there IMO.

I was thinking the same thing!

I don't have experience with them yet...

But they seem damn cool! and Angler's are reef safe from what I know.

It may take you some time with fish string to get them to take frozen food. But, come on... thats fun stuff