Active fish for nano tank

[Just a kid]

So I have been helping my grandma set up her first saltwater tank, it’s 20 gallons and she added her first 2 fish on Tuesday, she got a black occelaris clownfish and an extreme Picasso clownfish. She also has 3 margarita turbo snails, 2 nassaurius snails, 2 hermit crabs, and 1 coral banded shrimp. The fish seem to be doing great and the coral banded shrimp has not shown any signs of aggression. We are going to be adding more fish in about a week. She is looking for active fish that would get along with clownfish. Some ideas I had were royal gramma, green chromis, orchid dottyback, firefish, yellow banded possum wrasse, tailspot blenny, bicolor blenny, six line wrasse, Small Coral Beuty Angelfish, Tri Color Wrasse, and Neon goby. Any other suggestions are just fine to.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hi, you might want to look through this thread for some suggestions:

 

 

[Tired]

Sixline wrasse are aggressive, and the tank is too small for an angelfish. Banded coral shrimp can't be trusted with small fish- even if they seem peaceful for now, once they get large enough, all it takes is them getting an idea. Some people keep them with small fish just fine, some don't. 

IMO, you should replace it with a yellow banded coral or blue banded coral. They stay much smaller, and as such are much less likely to attack anything. 

 

In a tank your size, 2 more small fish would be reasonable. You shouldn't get any very active fish, because that's not a large tank for an active fish to be in. 

 

Firefish can work, but are timid, so probably best not to add after clownfish. Blennies work, but aren't very active. Grammas and dottybacks are varying levels of active. Neon gobies are ideal for small tanks and will be reasonably active. Chromis have some disease risk- they often come in with something I forget how to spell. Possum wrasse are a great and slightly unusual choice. 

I'd also like to suggest aiptasia-eating filefish or pygmy filefish. They stay 3" or so. They're an odd-looking animal, and not brightly colored, but they move around the tank plenty. I think they pick at corals occasionally? 

Green-banded gobies are cute, and will hop around. 

A small shrimpgoby (antenna goby or whatnot) wouldn't add much to your bioload, and, if paired with a candycane pistol shrimp, will make a very interesting couple. You'll only see them sometimes, but their burrowing is really interesting to watch.

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, Tired said:

Chromis have some disease risk- they often come in with something I forget how to spell. 

Uronema, I believe. 🙂 

[Carson Caulfield]

 

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Sixline wrasse are aggressive

If the tank just has clowns in it, the sixline almost certainly won't be an issue. I've had more issues with sixline being bullied by clowns than vice versa. In fact, I've yet to see a clown bullied by any nano fish to the point the offender had to be removed. It's almost unanimously the opposite. Sixlines and Clowns have been kept together in 20-30g tanks for decades.

[Tired]

True, but the tank has enough space for 4 small fish. OP might prefer two additional fish over one additional sixline. 

[Just a kid]

Do you guys think a Tri color wrasse could work as the last fish. I know they only get 3 inches.

[Tired]

I don't know enough about that specific fish to tell you, but I do know that you should have a lid if you want a wrasse. IMO you should really have a lid for ANY fish (and many shrimp), but a lidless tank with a wrasse in it is pretty much guaranteed to lead to a lidless tank with a wrasse near it. If you get a wrasse, save yourself the trouble and it the slow death by suffocation, and make sure your lid has no gaps.

 

I would be concerned about aggression and space needs. That's a pretty active wrasse, from what little I know of the.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tricolor = lubbocks fairy wrasse, right? 

 

I have one, and it is very, very active and makes full use of the upper/mid-column of my 60G. I think it's more suited to a 30G++. 🤔

 

How about a pink streaked or possum wrasse instead? Stays small and peaceful, and are moderately active. Gets along very well with other fish. 🙂

[Just a kid]

8 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Tricolor = lubbocks fairy wrasse, right? 

 

I have one, and it is very, very active and makes full use of the upper/mid-column of my 60G. I think it's more suited to a 30G++. 🤔

 

How about a pink streaked or possum wrasse instead? Stays small and peaceful, and are moderately active. Gets along very well with other fish. 🙂

Yeah it’s a fairy wrasse and thanks for the info, it just looked super cool to me. 

[Just a kid]

Thanks guys for the info! I think I’m going to go with a pink streaked wrasse and royal gramma as my last fish. Is that good or is that too much bioload. I also forgot to mention that the clowns are only 1”

[Tired]

The current size of the clowns doesn't matter- they'll grow. You may see some fighting between them soon, since at that size they're likely both males, and will have to fight to determine which will grow into a female. Clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites, and when there's no female, the most dominant male becomes one. So they have to fight to figure out who's dominant. If one is larger already, it will most likely be that one. 

 

Those two fish should work. Add the gramma last, and make sure it has a few good caves to choose from. It'll pick a cave and defend that from all comers, but they generally aren't too aggressive to anything not in their cave. 

[Just a kid]

My last question for this topic, would a yellow coris wrasse work?

[Tired]

No, too big. They get 5-6". 

[Just a kid]

Oh ok, thanks for the info

[FollyFish]

On 5/14/2020 at 11:40 PM, Snow_Phoenix said:

Tricolor = lubbocks fairy wrasse, right? 

 

I have one, and it is very, very active and makes full use of the upper/mid-column of my 60G. I think it's more suited to a 30G++. 🤔

 

How about a pink streaked or possum wrasse instead? Stays small and peaceful, and are moderately active. Gets along very well with other fish. 🙂

I had a 25G at the time and added a Lubbock wrasse. It did not do well and jumped before I could remove it (my roommate's cat ate it before I could save it). He was way to active for that size tank. Snow Phoenix is right not a good fit. 

 

If you want an active wrasse try a possum wrasse. I had one in my old 25G and in my current 50G, and couldn't imagine a tank without one. They are bold active hunters and will make good use of swimming around the rock work once s/he settles in. 

[Just a kid]

I was looking at my LFS’s selection of fish and I found an angel fish called a Cherub Pygmy angelfish. They said it could work in a 20 gallon and it’s very pretty. My grandma doesn’t want any corals so that’s not an issue. Do you think that could work in the 20 gallon.

[olive]

15 minutes ago, Just a kid said:

I was looking at my LFS’s selection of fish and I found an angel fish called a Cherub Pygmy angelfish. They said it could work in a 20 gallon and it’s very pretty. My grandma doesn’t want any corals so that’s not an issue. Do you think that could work in the 20 gallon.

Pretty fish, but can get really aggressive. Look up cherub angelfish aggression and it seems like they terrorize a lot of people's fish. Plus, LA says the minimum for these guys is 55 gallons. 

[FollyFish]

2 hours ago, olive said:

Pretty fish, but can get really aggressive. Look up cherub angelfish aggression and it seems like they terrorize a lot of people's fish. Plus, LA says the minimum for these guys is 55 gallons. 

I agree with Olive, angels are very active much like wrasses. I don't think it would do well in a 20g. Pigmy Angels like a cherub will stay small enough in size for a 20g but it will still need alot more swimming space then a 20g has. Without that will get very aggressive and stressed. 

[Just a kid]

3 hours ago, FollyFish said:

I agree with Olive, angels are very active much like wrasses. I don't think it would do well in a 20g. Pigmy Angels like a cherub will stay small enough in size for a 20g but it will still need alot more swimming space then a 20g has. Without that will get very aggressive and stressed. 

Thanks for the info