How's my stocking?

Kiiyo · Feb 16, 2026

My question is, can I responsibly add a Midas blenny and a pintail fairy wrasse to my existing setup? I'm thinking yes, otherwise I wouldn't ask but I wanted to ask the experts.

Tank is an IM 50 gallon (30Lx24Wx20H) with a 20/24 (not sure as I got it second hand) gallon sump.

Stocking is
1x Occelaris
1x banggai cardinal
1x mandarin goby
1x Possum wrasse
1x Hector's goby
1x tailspot vlenny
1x black leopard wrasse

Dealing with an ulva issue at the moment.

Kiiyo · Feb 16, 2026

Clowning_Around72 · Feb 16, 2026

Kiiyo said:
My question is, can I responsibly add a Midas blenny and a pintail fairy wrasse to my existing setup? I'm thinking yes, otherwise I wouldn't ask but I wanted to ask the experts.

Tank is an IM 50 gallon (30Lx24Wx20H) with a 20/24 (not sure as I got it second hand) gallon sump.

Stocking is
1x Occelaris
1x banggai cardinal
1x mandarin goby
1x Possum wrasse
1x Hector's goby
1x tailspot vlenny
1x black leopard wrasse

Dealing with an ulva issue at the moment.

I wouldn't. Not saying it would not work, I think it might. But, you already have a bunch of wrasses and a blenny. The midas blenny is an open water blenny and it might be too much for another blenny as well as multiple open water fish to be present.

Plus, it would max out your fish load.

So, personally I would not.

But, it looks possible...

Kiiyo · Feb 16, 2026

That's fair, I appreciate your opinion. It was up in the air, so I wanted to ask.

Do you have recs for what else I could add that would be more of a free mid-top level swimmer?

I've also thought about Hawks but I plan to add shrimp so I didn't want to chance it.

Kiiyo · Feb 17, 2026

Anyone else?

Kiiyo · Feb 19, 2026

winzig · Feb 19, 2026

I believe you can add those fish.Two things matter here, at what level do these fish occupy and how much "filtration" do you have.For example skimmers, uv ,socks, live rock and live sand for our bacterias thrive.
imo from experience.

Kiiyo · Feb 20, 2026

winzig said:
I believe you can add those fish.Two things matter here, at what level do these fish occupy and how much "filtration" do you have.For example skimmers, uv ,socks, live rock and live sand for our bacterias thrive.
imo from experience.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'what level' the fish occupy. As far as filtration, I've got a nyos 120 skimmer, filter socks, and large amount of rocks. Some rocks I've had in the system for 5 years now, but plenty in the tank and in the sump. Sand is about 1.5" throughout the tank.

Tahoe61 · Feb 20, 2026

Kiiyo said:
I'm not sure what you mean by 'what level' the fish occupy. As far as filtration, I've got a nyos 120 skimmer, filter socks, and large amount of rocks. Some rocks I've had in the system for 5 years now, but plenty in the tank and in the sump. Sand is about 1.5" throughout the tank.

Gobies inhabit the low zone. Fire fish hang around in the mid section. Clowns up and down and everywhere. It's just generalizations.

Kiiyo · Feb 20, 2026

Tahoe61 said:
Gobies inhabit the low zone. Fire fish hang around in the mid section. Clowns up and down and everywhere. It's just generalizations.

Ah got it, do you have any recs for open water swimmers for a tank my size?

Marine Betta · Feb 20, 2026

Kiiyo said:
My question is, can I responsibly add a Midas blenny and a pintail fairy wrasse to my existing setup? I'm thinking yes, otherwise I wouldn't ask but I wanted to ask the experts.

Tank is an IM 50 gallon (30Lx24Wx20H) with a 20/24 (not sure as I got it second hand) gallon sump.

Stocking is
1x Occelaris
1x banggai cardinal
1x mandarin goby
1x Possum wrasse
1x Hector's goby
1x tailspot vlenny
1x black leopard wrasse

Dealing with an ulva issue at the moment.

Nice tank! I think it can work. As long as you are able to keep your water quality and fish health and aggression in check, the number of fish doesn’t really matter. This obviously becomes harder with the more fish you add. The pintail won’t be an issue. I would only caution the Midas blenny since they can be terrors in smaller tanks (less than 100 gallons) towards open water swimmers and gobies, and he may fight with your tailspot blenny. A good alternative to consider would be a flasher wrasse of some sort if you’re looking for that movement.

Tahoe61 · Feb 20, 2026

Kiiyo said:
Ah got it, do you have any recs for open water swimmers for a tank my size?

Dwarf Angel, flame.
Royal Gramma, or similar.
You already have wrasse and blennies.

Kiiyo · Feb 20, 2026

Marine Betta said:
Nice tank! I think it can work. As long as you are able to keep your water quality and fish health and aggression in check, the number of fish doesn’t really matter. This obviously becomes harder with the more fish you add. The pintail won’t be an issue. I would only caution the Midas blenny since they can be terrors in smaller tanks (less than 100 gallons) towards open water swimmers and gobies, and he may fight with your tailspot blenny. A good alternative to consider would be a flasher wrasse of some sort if you’re looking for that movement.

I thought it was a possibility of the Midas going after the Tailspot, I appreciate the feedback. I thought about a flasher, but thought it may be a bit tight since my tank is only 30" long.

Kiiyo · Feb 20, 2026

Tahoe61 said:
Dwarf Angel, flame.
Royal Gramma, or similar.
You already have wrasse and blennies.

Yeah I agree it'd be best to expand into other species to increase the odds of success. I had a flameback that had to be rehomed due to aggression and a gramma that I had for years and got huge but it would stay in its cave all day.

I am tempted by the flame angel but I know they can get nippy with coral. The color and movement is unmatched though and my angel stole my heart while I had him/her.

Marine Betta · Feb 20, 2026

Kiiyo said:
Marine Betta said:

Nice tank! I think it can work. As long as you are able to keep your water quality and fish health and aggression in check, the number of fish doesn’t really matter. This obviously becomes harder with the more fish you add. The pintail won’t be an issue. I would only caution the Midas blenny since they can be terrors in smaller tanks (less than 100 gallons) towards open water swimmers and gobies, and he may fight with your tailspot blenny. A good alternative to consider would be a flasher wrasse of some sort if you’re looking for that movement.

Click to expand...

I thought it was a possibility of the Midas going after the Tailspot, I appreciate the feedback. I thought about a flasher, but thought it may be a bit tight since my tank is only 30" long.

I love wrasses, so I don’t think more is a bad thing. Dwarf Angels are one of my favorite fish, but they would likely pick at your brain corals like that trachyphyllia. This is another wrasse, but yellow Coris wrasses are great for pest control. Be careful of your pod population though since you have a possum wrasse and 2 mandarins already. A small school of small anthias like the resplendent anthias would look great. I think a smaller species of flasher wrasse like the McCosker’s would be fine. Another option would be a starki damsel. The starki and springeri damsel are the only two damsels I would ever recommend to someone. I’ve never had a starki behave aggressively towards a tank mate, and I’ve had them in 14 gallon tanks before. Springeri are also usually peaceful and they MIGHT eat flatworms if they hitchhike on some corals. To be on the safe side I would add either one of these last.