Looking for opinions on a third fish for my 29 gallon tank.

Noodles_Jefferson · Feb 20, 2024

Hello, good people. I'm considering adding a fish. I have a 29 gallon reef tank with one yellow watchman goby, one pajama cardinal, and one cleaner shrimp plus the cleanup crew (blue leg crabs and a couple of turbo snails). MY parameters (alk, calc, mag) are little high but getting under control as I have paused auto-dosing for now. I tried adding a dottyback about a year ago but he didn't last more than a coupe of days. I thought the other two took him out but they're considered peaceful so I'm thinking maybe it was my water quality which at times was not great but is much better now due to upgrades on my system. I want to try again. what kind of fish can I get that is colorful but also not too aggressive that can coexist peacefully with a watchman goby and a pajama cardinal. Also, would two "peaceful" fish like mine be territorial enough to act aggressively toward a newcomer and possibly torment it to death? It could have been stress or maybe I didn't drip him in long enough to get him acclimated correctly. I'm going to try one more time and if this one dies and I know my water quality is good right now, then i'm going to assume these guys don't want a roommate and leave it at that. Thanks!

Spare time · Feb 20, 2024

If a previously healthy or not super old fish died and the water quality isn't obviously bad, its most likely due to disease, which makes me hesitant to add another fish.

Cthulukelele · Feb 20, 2024

What kind of dottyback were you considering? I really wouldn't suggest any outside of an orchid dottyback

Noodles_Jefferson · Feb 20, 2024

Cthulukelele said:
What kind of dottyback were you considering? I really wouldn't suggest any outside of an orchid dottyback

no, that was the last time I tried adding a new fish. for a while I had the goby, the pajama cardinal and a coral beauty. They coexisted fine for a long time. The Coral Beauty died and for a couple of years it was just the other two. Then i added the dottyback and it died within a few days. I know there could be any number of reasons why that may have happened (disease, aggression from the other fish, stress, etc.) I'm just trying to get a recommendation on a good option for a third fish. If it happens again I'll stop trying.

Cthulukelele · Feb 20, 2024

Noodles_Jefferson said:
no, that was the last time I tried adding a new fish. for a while I had the goby, the pajama cardinal and a coral beauty. They coexisted fine for a long time. The Coral Beauty died and for a couple of years it was just the other two. Then i added the dottyback and it died within a few days. I know there could be any number of reasons why that may have happened (disease, aggression from the other fish, stress, etc.) I'm just trying to get a recommendation on a good option for a third fish. If it happens again I'll stop trying.

Sorry I had interpreted try one more time as get another dottyback. A peaceful fish is a good idea. Maybe a firefish?