Can I add a mandarin goby and 2 spot goby to tank

Grizzly_Jordy

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I'm planning on culturing both phyto and copepods to dose into my 20 gallon cube tank and i was wondering if i could get both a mandarin goby and a 2 spot goby to it. I already have a clownfish, tailspot blenny, yellow clown goby, and banggai cardinal. None of these fish usually hang around the sand bed from what I've seen so i wanted to add both the 2 spot and mandarin if possible. The 2 spot goby to be able to clean the sand bed, and the mandarin because it's a great looking fish. Would this be a good idea or should I just put only one? The mandarin will be a wild caught but fat healthy one that's been at my lfs for the past 2 months
Tank is about 5 months old now with pretty big copepod population and planning to be dosing almost every week if my copepod culturing works out
 

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I'm planning on culturing both phyto and copepods to dose into my 20 gallon cube tank and i was wondering if i could get both a mandarin goby and a 2 spot goby to it. I already have a clownfish, tailspot blenny, yellow clown goby, and banggai cardinal. None of these fish usually hang around the sand bed from what I've seen so i wanted to add both the 2 spot and mandarin if possible. The 2 spot goby to be able to clean the sand bed, and the mandarin because it's a great looking fish. Would this be a good idea or should I just put only one? The mandarin will be a wild caught but fat healthy one that's been at my lfs for the past 2 months
Tank is about 5 months old now with pretty big copepod population and planning to be dosing almost every week if my copepod culturing works out
None of those are a good idea in that size tank, if you want the mandarin behaviour, look into either a Ruby Red Dragonet or a Griessinger Goby.
Both of those fish have the same diet as a mandarin but are better suited for the smaller tanks.

As for the goby, these guys will just starve in your tank size without an established, deep sandbed and even then, in a 4’ tank for this species to thrive you want to have a 3-4” deep sand bed that’s Atleast 2-3 years old. Think how much of a deeper sand bed you’d need in a nano tank… It’s just not worth it, wait until you have the tank to suffice for these species. For a more in depth view I have an article about the Sand Sifting gobies and why they’re bad candidates for most reefs.
 
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Grizzly_Jordy

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None of those are a good idea in that size tank, if you want the mandarin behaviour, look into either a Ruby Red Dragonet or a Griessinger Goby.
Both of those fish have the same diet as a mandarin but are better suited for the smaller tanks.

As for the goby, these guys will just starve in your tank size without an established, deep sandbed and even then, in a 4’ tank for this species to thrive you want to have a 3-4” deep sand bed that’s Atleast 2-3 years old. Think how much of a deeper sand bed you’d need in a nano tank… It’s just not worth it, wait until you have the tank to suffice for these species. For a more in depth view I have an article about the Sand Sifting gobies and why they’re bad candidates for most reefs.
Those ruby red dragonets look pretty cool too, Thanks!
 
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Grizzly_Jordy

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None of those are a good idea in that size tank, if you want the mandarin behaviour, look into either a Ruby Red Dragonet or a Griessinger Goby.
Both of those fish have the same diet as a mandarin but are better suited for the smaller tanks.

As for the goby, these guys will just starve in your tank size without an established, deep sandbed and even then, in a 4’ tank for this species to thrive you want to have a 3-4” deep sand bed that’s Atleast 2-3 years old. Think how much of a deeper sand bed you’d need in a nano tank… It’s just not worth it, wait until you have the tank to suffice for these species. For a more in depth view I have an article about the Sand Sifting gobies and why they’re bad candidates for most reefs.
Would you happen to know how often I'd need to dose copepods for the ruby red dragonets? I know for sure right now there's a pretty large population but if i happen to get a dragonet now when would i need to add more pods?
 

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Would you happen to know how often I'd need to dose copepods for the ruby red dragonets? I know for sure right now there's a pretty large population but if i happen to get a dragonet now when would i need to add more pods?
If you can get bags of pods, I’d go weekly but if you get tubs I’d go monthly (every 2 months at a push).
 

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the 2 spot goby will 100% starve to death unless weaned onto frozen food as they ONLY eat stuff out of the sandbed and likely won't go after copepods, i learned this the hard way when i added a pair to my 50 gallon. they disappeared after only a couple weeks. i wanna try another pair but i dont have the time at the moment to try and teach them to eat frozen.
 

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