Stocking suggestions/advice needed for 50g

[ZzyzxRiver]

I moved up to a Waterbox 50.3 AIO recently. It’s currently home to two percula clowns and a yellow watchman goby, along with a peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, candy cane pistol shrimp, emerald crab, and a variety of snails. (Oh, and soft and LPS corals)

I’m considering the following fish, and am curious if there are any incompatibilities or things to consider before adding them.

- blackcap basslet
- royal gramma
- engineer goby
- lawnmower blenny

I’m also open to suggestions. I love a beautiful fish, but I’m most interested in fish that have interesting behaviors and personalities. Nothing with complicated diets please!

 

[Marinus]

Maybe some cardinal fish, midas blenny, fire fish, or chromis? I personally like royal grammas. Can engineer gobies eat you fish or inverts when they grow larger?

 

[Cheese Griller]

I would hesitate with the engineer goby since you already have the pistol and YWG, their burrows may interfere with each other. As far as fish with interesting personalities go, I’ve found that filefish are criminally underrated, they can be almost as personable as triggers in a much smaller package. They can be nippy with some LPS, so that is something to take into account. Blackcaps/royal grammas are interesting cave-dwellers, that behavior extends to assessors as well. Longnose hawkish are absolute hams, and their smaller mouths should keep them from eating your inverts.

 

[Nano_Tuners]

Here’s a post I started on engineer gobies a few years ago. They aren’t really a goby at all and will grow very long very quickly. Very cool fish that you will almost never see.

Personally I’d reserve them for a larger tank with a well anchored aquascape that isn’t just piled rocks

Let’s see your Engineer Goby’s

Size matters when it comes to Engineer Goby’s. They grow long like an eel to a purported size of 12”! I’ve had mine for about 6mos and got a rare glimpse of him today. Looks like he’s up to about 6”! Very impressed to see his growth from the little 1” baby I purchased him as. Lets see the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ajremington68]

with it being a 50g ima assume a 4ft tank, if so you should do a small bristle tooth tang as it'll be great at cleaning and a joy to look at then just rehome once you start questioning if it should be in the tank. OR upgrade and join the dark side :)

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Naturally the cool fish I like end up being “you’ll never see it” types!
Will a royal gramma and a blackcap basslet be okay together?
Anything that schools or is otherwise good in the water column? I find chromis to be boring unfortunately.

 

[littlefoxx]

I love engineer gobies! I had one, sadly lost her. Not sure what happened she was MIA. I never found her :( But she was super fun! I actually had her with a YWG and pistol shrimp in a 70 gallon and had no issues. They had burrows on opposite ends of the tank. They got along fine actually, I had to move her from my other tank to that 70 cause she started picking fights with Ghost my snowflake eel

 

[Cheese Griller]

Naturally the cool fish I like end up being “you’ll never see it” types!
Will a royal gramma and a blackcap basslet be okay together?
Anything that schools or is otherwise good in the water column? I find chromis to be boring unfortunately.

In that small of a tank I wouldn’t be shocked to see a blackcap and royal grammas not get along, but that’s heavily dependent on your rock scape. If you have tons of caves and territory for them, I could see them just setting up shop on different ends of the tank. Personally I wouldn’t risk it. Instead you could do a firefish and one of the basslets, firefish can have similar colors and yo an extent behavior.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Do engineer go

In that small of a tank I wouldn’t be shocked to see a blackcap and royal grammas not get along, but that’s heavily dependent on your rock scape. If you have tons of caves and territory for them, I could see them just setting up shop on different ends of the tank. Personally I wouldn’t risk it. Instead you could do a firefish and one of the basslets, firefish can have similar colors and yo an extent behavior.

Lots of nooks and crannies as well as two major caves (one not visible from this angle). Enough for blackcap and gramma? I won’t do engineer gobies; even without the goby/shrimp pair I have I don’t think my sand bed is deep enough anyway.

 

[Cheese Griller]

Do engineer go


Lots of nooks and crannies as well as two major caves (one not visible from this angle). Enough for blackcap and gramma? I won’t do engineer gobies; even without the goby/shrimp pair I have I don’t think my sand bed is deep enough anyway.

IMO no, you have a good amount of rock in there but as far as scapes go it isn’t cave-y enough for two basslets. Basslets like caves that kinda connect to the rest of the scape, which is easier to achieve in a more rock wall-type scape.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

So now I’m down to:
- either blackcap OR royal gramma
- a lawnmower blenny.
- one or maybe a pair of firefish? Would this work with a YWG?

What can I add that would be compatible with my clowns/YWG and these two?

 

[littlefoxx]

Do engineer go


Lots of nooks and crannies as well as two major caves (one not visible from this angle). Enough for blackcap and gramma? I won’t do engineer gobies; even without the goby/shrimp pair I have I don’t think my sand bed is deep enough anyway.

Engineer would be fine with that sand, they tunnel under rocks

 

[ajremington68]

Do engineer go


Lots of nooks and crannies as well as two major caves (one not visible from this angle). Enough for blackcap and gramma? I won’t do engineer gobies; even without the goby/shrimp pair I have I don’t think my sand bed is deep enough anyway.

How solid i this structe? my YWM and Piston shrimp made me learn the hard way you need stuff cemented together as they will burrow in the sand under the rocks and can cause shifts in the rock and potentially a fall.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

How solid i this structe? my YWM and Piston shrimp made me learn the hard way you need stuff cemented together as they will burrow in the sand under the rocks and can cause shifts in the rock and potentially a fall.

Cemented together and also on top of foundation rock that is flat against the base of the tank! Absolutely nothing in this bad boy is shifting!

 

[ajremington68]

Cemented together and also on top of foundation rock that is flat against the base of the tank! Absolutely nothing in this bad boy is shifting!

get those gobys then my guy!!!

I absolutely loved mine and everyone that came by loved him after he grew out of his shyness (which was a year of never seeing him) and would bulldoze outside of his cave. It was just annoying that he would find anything that he could clamp and pull it to his cave to use. Which just happened to be frags and I would be missing a zoa or mushroom and I just got tired of it. Still have the YWM that has went thru what I belive to be ich and it was him and my clowns that survived out of 10 fish....

i did love getting a bowl of cereal in the middle of the night and hearing the loudest POP of him smacking something and I would just smile and enjoy my captain crunch some more. Did kill a decent amount of hermits that didn't learn what was in the hole, but just dont by expensive hermits is the suggestion.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Ok, I’m resurrecting this thread cause I feel ready for new fish and I want updated advice based on my current situation!

3’ long 50g LPS and softie tank, four months in, with the following fish:
Two perc clowns
YWG (pistol shrimp died, I added too early, may consider another later)
Engineer Goby (he’s doing GREAT, grown a ton and so have his burrows)
Sixline wrasse (teeny tiny baby)
Royal gramma
Blackcap bass

The earlier advice was not to do two bass, but these seem to have worked out okay- the blackcap stays more tucked away and the gramma swims in the open water so there haven’t been aggression issues.

1) I originally wanted banggai cardinals but everyone says they are boring! Do I care? They’re so pretty. Would one or two be okay by themselves or do they prefer being in schools?

2) Is there a major personality difference between the various hawkfish?

3) are starry blennies not available to buy anymore? I never seen them in stores, only the lawnmower type, which I don’t think my tank currently has enough algae to sustain.

4) given my current population, who else would be a good addition? I don’t necessarily need them to perform any ‘tasks’. Just interesting to watch and if they could be beautiful to boot, that’s great.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Bump