Fish Ideas after losing my Firefish and Goby?

wheels4896

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Hi all. Feel free to skip to the ~~~ if you aren't interested in the details...

I have a 20g AIO that was planned to showcase the pistol shrimp+goby pairing. I got a pistol shrimp a few months into having the tank, after all of my fish were stocked. The reason was the LFS did not have pistol shrimp for a while. I acquired (in this order) a purple firefish, watchman goby, harp blenny, and citron clown goby. All seemed healthy and to be getting along. The firefish and goby even shared a hole (which the firefish dug immediately on being placed in the tank). The firefish and blenny would swim around together until the firefish would go to sleep in the hole. I introduced the candy cane pistol, and all seemed well at first. He joined the goby+firefish in their hole.

About a week later my firefish disappeared. My fiance found a partial corpse about a week later. Another week after that my goby disappeared. We are now ~ 2 weeks after that. I presume he is dead as well.

~~~

Rather than send more burrowing fish to their deaths with my pistol shrimp, I am trying to think of bottom dwelling fish that will not try to go into his cave. My blenny is usually in the water column, and the clown goby likes the glass a lot, so I want something that will hang out on the sand/lower rocks. I appreciate any suggestions in advance!
 

vetteguy53081

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Hi all. Feel free to skip to the ~~~ if you aren't interested in the details...

I have a 20g AIO that was planned to showcase the pistol shrimp+goby pairing. I got a pistol shrimp a few months into having the tank, after all of my fish were stocked. The reason was the LFS did not have pistol shrimp for a while. I acquired (in this order) a purple firefish, watchman goby, harp blenny, and citron clown goby. All seemed healthy and to be getting along. The firefish and goby even shared a hole (which the firefish dug immediately on being placed in the tank). The firefish and blenny would swim around together until the firefish would go to sleep in the hole. I introduced the candy cane pistol, and all seemed well at first. He joined the goby+firefish in their hole.

About a week later my firefish disappeared. My fiance found a partial corpse about a week later. Another week after that my goby disappeared. We are now ~ 2 weeks after that. I presume he is dead as well.

~~~

Rather than send more burrowing fish to their deaths with my pistol shrimp, I am trying to think of bottom dwelling fish that will not try to go into his cave. My blenny is usually in the water column, and the clown goby likes the glass a lot, so I want something that will hang out on the sand/lower rocks. I appreciate any suggestions in advance!
Engineer goby- bicolor basslet - diadems basslet-Royal gramma
 

vetteguy53081

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Any concerns on engineer goby size?

My big tank is going to have a royal gramma colony. Excited for that...one of my favorites to see while diving.
Mine of five years has reached 13" and bothers absolutely nothing.
 

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