Help stocking 20g Red Sea?

Tyguy35

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Hey, I have a 20g tank going on 4 months. I have yet to stock it with any fish and plan to take it slow. I did have a six line wrasse but he was a pain. so food aggressive that it tore corals up just to steal food.
Does anyone have any suggestions on fish for a nano tank. Wife doesn’t want clowns (weird right).
I have an amphipod population beginning to grow and would like something that can maybe slow them down. I have noticed my zoas haven’t been happiest and at night I can seem them swarming the zoas.
would a peppermint shrimp eat the pods?
Thanks
 

Jesterrace

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Pink Streaked Wrasse would be a wonderful suggestion as it can double as a pest eater (like the 6 line but without the nasty aggressive attitude). If you don't have any SPS in there I would strongly recommend looking into a clown goby (not to be confused with clownfish). They have wonderful colors and personalities that somewhat mimic clownfish behavior, here are some clown goby options:


You could also look into a geometric pygmy hawkfish:

 

nereefpat

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Any of the 3 possum wrasses would eat pods.
Springer or yellow tail damsel would probably eat the larger (amphipod) pods.
Royal gramma or black cap basslet
Bangaii cardinal
Firefish
Tail spot blenny

I would think any of the Lysmata (cleaner, peppermint, etc) shrimp would eat pods that they can catch, but I'm not sure.
 
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Tyguy35

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Royal gramma I will grab for sure. The pink streaked wrasse I would love but am not sure where I can find. I live in Canada some fish are hard to come by. Would a clown goby mess with inverts?
 

24/7ReeFTime

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Definitely a firefish and clown gobies are really cool to I have both and the goby is a very interesting fish to watch. they don't mess with any inversts from what ive seen.
 

24/7ReeFTime

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DONT GET ANY HAWKFISH. mine eats everything and almost killed my firefish And it was only a pygmy too. My biggest mistake. nearly impossible to catch.
 

Pbh-reef

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DONT GET ANY HAWKFISH. mine eats everything and almost killed my firefish And it was only a pygmy too. My biggest mistake. nearly impossible to catch.

The geometric Pygmy “hawkfish” or perchlet is actually not a true hawkfish (it is in the anthias family) and much less aggressive then the Pygmy spotted hawkfish I believe you had based on your build thread.

Clown gobies can hurt sps corals, especially in nano tanks where the sps colonies are smaller.

Some other suggestions besides the possum and pink streaked wrasse and Pygmy geometric perchlet and tail spot blenny include-
Black ray shrimp goby paired with randals pistol shrimp (cheaper than yasha, beautiful, the whole stonogobiops genus hovers more than most shrimp gobies because they have swim bladders, so you see them more)
- captive bred rainford goby will eat cyano and hair algae and sift sand
- fire fish (any species)
- yellow assessor is more likely to be peaceful than royal gramma in a 20
- Azure or springers damsel will eat amohipods like a wrasse and are easier to find and cheaper
 
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Tyguy35

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Any suggestions for open water fish that can fit in a small tank. Something to see swimming around.
 

Pbh-reef

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Any suggestions for open water fish that can fit in a small tank. Something to see swimming around.

For the most part open water fish don’t go in nano tanks. The azure damsel will swim around caves and rocks, the gramma will hover in the open outside it’s cave, the tail spot blenny will also swim a fair amount (much more than the related bicolor blenny will). Rainford gobies hover over the sand and rocks, the possum and pink streaked wrasses will dart around the rocks too and will be less shy as time passes. Cleaner gobies also swim a bit. Firefish spend a good amount of time hovering in the open as they become more comfortable (so long as they aren’t bullied). The most open water swimmers I’d consider for a 20 are the smallest of the fang blennies like the smiths and forktail (both of which have been captive bred).

Also consider swales or rubre basslets (both called peppermint basslets) although they are cryptic fish. Finally don’t underestimate how cool fish that perch on the rocks like the geometric Pygmy perchlet are to watch.
 
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