Picked up a 20 gal last night...stocked...

[rwilliams254]

It's stocked (sorry, I forgot the names of the fish. There are 2 small yellow ones, a bigger blue one (with some pink/purple on it's nose), a goby, a bunch of snails, and some soft corals), but I have a question or two (go figure).

1. Can I add the obligitory Orange Clown? (the nemo fish for my son)

2. Do I need a protien skimmer for a 20 gallon? There's a HOB filter and 2 power heads.


Thanks

[rwilliams254]

Sorry, forgot to post picts (of when the tank was at the guy's house).

[Grins]

Sounds like you might already be stocked. Lets first see what you have. Can you post photos for ID? It is possible you'll want to evict enough to add the clown.

You don't need the skimmer for the 20g but do keep up with WCs.

[rwilliams254]

I'm thinking of moving the 2 yellow guys over to the 12 gallon Nano and bringing the black clown over (and then getting a small Orange Clown). What do you think?

[Marcus Fenix]

congrats, nice tank.

[rwilliams254]

Thanks.

[salty420]

so if you moved the 2 - clown gobies..? you'd still have 2 fish in there right? i don't think you'd be able to add 2 clowns, i'd just move the bk/wht. you wouldn't want to move the 2 little ones over and still have the clown in the 12 cause then that would be overstocked as well...

[rwilliams254]

Sorry, let me explain it a little better. In the 20 gallon there's 2 yellow fish, 1 bigger blue fish, and 1 goby (I believe). In the 12 gallon Nano Cube, there's 1 black and white clown. I'd like to move the 2 yellow ones over to the 12 gallon nano cube and move the black and white clown over to the 20 gallon...then buy a small orange clown and put that in the 20 gallon also.

End result:

20 gallon would have 2 clown, 1 small goby, 1 blue fish.
12 gallon nane would have the 2 small yellow fish.

Doable?


Thanks

[joander123]

its doable, just keep up on water changes.

The blue fish is probably a damsel, and they get nasty. You may want to even look into getting rid of the damsel, as even though they seem small and pretty... they arent.

I stupidly let a damsel live in one of my tanks and it chased one of my clowns right out of the tank, i found him the next morning.

Be careful with the 2 dif. types of clowns in the tank... They may fight, as they are colored diff, so they will not pair up, and clowns fight if you cross species.

[rwilliams254]

Damsel = A Dory fish (from Nemo)? Doesn't look like that. I'll get a picture up as soon as I get home.

Hmmm...wondering what to do then...

[joander123]

no, a damsel is not a dory fish. Dory was a blue hippo tang. Tangs get much larger, that specific blue hippo would get about 12", where as a damsel would get about 3-4".

Here are three types of common blue damsels.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=111
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=112
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=134

they all get to be about the same size or 3 inches or so, but they all get very nasty as well. If it is one of these damsel fish, i would not risk keeping it with a clown, although it can be done... it would be very stressful for the clown unless the clown is female and very dominant, and large.

[rwilliams254]

In that case it's a Damsel. :) I'll get a pict up.

[joander123]

i own a few of the yellow tail variety, they are beautiful, cheap, small, and hardy so a lot of beginning aquarists are drawn to them, but they get agressive and seriously limit what you can put in the tank.

If a damsel has been in the tank for a while, and hes used to his surroundings they can become very territorial and attack any fish that is put into the tank.

But like i said they are very beautiful, and some of them are less agressive than others, if you have the yellow tail variety they tend to be a bit less aggressive than some of the others. I cant really speak on the behave of the others, as i have not owned them myself.

[Grins]

The yellow clown gobies are cute.

I agree with the others that you most likely have a yellow tail blue damsel, not as aggressive as some of the other damsels but still aggressive.

And I'd not put mix types of clownfish in the 20g. In otherwords I'd not put 2 false percs in with the black and white clown.

[Rbishop]

Nice tank.

[joander123]

grins, i think he was only talking about 1 false perc, and 1 black and white.

But either way id would just stick too 2 of the same type.

-Jay

[Grins]

Ah, but yes, I'd still not mix types in that small of a tank.

[emonemo420]

is that corraline algea that purple? i wanna know what he did to get it looking like that!!!! (srry so off topic)

[joander123]

after a while with intense lighting it should get pretty purple on its own... not necessarily completely covered like that, but it should get a lot of purple, and red too.

It looks to me like a halide over the tank, which on a 20g its probably a 150 watt halide, so 150/20=7.5, which is pretty high intensity light, enough to crow just about any coral you like, and algae as well. 8)

[salty420]

End result:

20 gallon would have 2 clown, 1 small goby, 1 blue fish.
12 gallon nane would have the 2 small yellow fish.

Doable?


Thanks

my opinion is this - the 20 is not quite big enough for the 2 clowns and the damsel (if it infact a damsel). i'd get rid of the damsel if you want to have clowns in there.
do you know what kind of goby it is (not the clown gobies)? have you looked around at the fish on liveaquaria or saltwaterfish.com to figure it out? you really need to know if it is at it's max size. i picked up a 29 and it had 2 engineer gobies in it, they get 12" a piece - i had to get rid of them right away! you really need to know what adult size is on everything you would like to put in there to see if it's doable.
the 2 clown gobies would of course be fine in the 12 gallon.