good nano fish?

[cg5071]

Hey guys (and gals) I am setting up a 5g marineland hex as a softie tank for my friends office. We need a fish that can live in something so small and fend for itself on the weekends. I was thinking vegetarian and thought I had found one with a bicolor blenny. One site had them in a 5g min tank but I didnt think that was right so looking around most say a 30g.

It will consist of some mushrooms and some easy softies, a hermit crab that he has taken a liking to in my tank and a few snails, and some mini brittles. I am changing the light source to 18 or so watt t5 or pc, whichever is affordable since the one that comes with it isnt meant for SW.

Thanks for any ideas and all are welcome.

[vittleking]

My 8 year old just set up his first nano, a 10 gallon and we are looking at a yellow watchman goby. Cool looking fish, and on the cheap side.

[MizTanks]

Bi color and watchman gobies get up to 2" so IMO they would be to big for a tank that small. I have and 8g biocube and I know nano fishes pretty good.
Here's my suggestion.

Tail Spot blenny which are very brave and out a lot
tangaroa goby
Yellow Rose Prawn goby/pistol shrimp combo way cool
Clown goby comes in many colors and needs a well established tank.
Orange Fire fish goby
My last suggestion issssssss A Flaming Prawn Goby!! One of the most beautiful fishes I have ever seen. Get no bigger then 1" buuuuuut they are on the pricey side at anywhere from 99.00 to 139.00 needless to say I am actually saving my change in order to get one.

I am keeping 4 of these gobies (not Flame no Clown) at the moment and love every one of them. They've been very easy to care for for me.

Happy fish hunting!!!

[jolson10450]

firefish get to big for it. blennies wouldnt be bad. they still need an established aquarium to live weekends with no food. my vote is a yellow watchman or other perching gobys. my yellow watchman stays in one spot and is about 2" which really isnt bad for a 5g tank.

if you really want something sweet, get a N. Wennerae Mantis shrimp! i had one for 8 months and loved it. i fed it every 2-4 days so it can go days without and they eat hermits and snails so if you just keep a decent ammount stocked in his tank he will always have food. i feed him pieces of raw shrimp when i did feed him. neat little guys and require minimum 5g tank. i had coral with mine but nothing too expensive. had mine in a 5.5g tank and i build an internal filter for the tank. very fun to watch them break though snail shells. i kept him on my computer desk at home!

if you don't want coral just go with the mantis, you won't have to upgrade the light or anything just throw some liverock sand and hermits and snails and him. they are very hardy. pet stores get them in on liverock a lot so ask around if you are interested.

here was mine:
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr126/boonesville/0828101449-00.jpg

that is my suggestion!

[adalius]

all are welcome.


Ok, but you asked for it. My idea? A tang! Put a big huge tang in there! Yea!:propellerhead:

[iyachtuxivm]

Clown goby.

[fawkes]

I found this link the other day... http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/showthread.php?t=2926

I have just built a 10G with a small section in one end for a sump like arrangement. I am eventually going to add an Aquaticlife Mini 115 Protein Skimmer. I really only have about 8G of swimming area. I can probably keep the water clean enough, but I need to be fair to the animals. So I was looking for fish ideas when I ran into the page above.

[fawkes]

Has anyone tried Reef Nutrition Tigger-pods with the gobies that are suggested in "mature" tanks?

[cg5071]

Thanks. I may just go with a nasau tang! :fishbones:
I would love to see a flaming prawn goby too but too much money, unless I was keeping it at home :) Still too much right now.
I considered clown gobies also.
I have seen a catalina goby, very pretty but hid in its shell all of the time.
No to the mantis,lol he just wouldnt like to feed it or watch it eat.

I will look up some of those other gobies listed as I was leaning towards one and it would be added fun to have the shrimp too. I will use some of my rock to set it up which has "cough" plenty of algae on it to eat for all the critters.

Keep the ideas coming if you happen to have any flashes of brilliance :)

[adalius]

Give him a tank with substrate, liverock, and a CUC, tell him if he keeps them alive for a year he gets a mandarin :D

[cg5071]

I suppose if there was another creature that wasnt a fish and really interesting to watch we could go that way too. I want it dirty enough though to give the shrooms ect. their food.

[jimsflies]

I like green banded gobies and tremma gobies. Similar are the red headed and tiger stripped. A pair of those would be fine in a tank that small. I'd stick with fish that are in that size range though. You can't really have a fish that likes to swim a lot since there isn't much room.

If you click on my "fish" in my postbit above you can find pics and info on some of these fish.

[cg5071]

I saw a green banded today while searching. It was really pretty.

[MizTanks]

Just go to YouTube and enter Flaming Prawn Goby. Some awesome videos of this fish in action.

[rmalone]

Tailspot blenny would work fine they come out but don't swim too much, feed em up heavy on thursday and friday and it would survive the weekend. Bi-color blenny get too large. The smaller gobies with a pistol shrimp would be cool also. But you might not see them as often as a blenny.

[adalius]

I still vote for naso annulatus (Whitemargin unicornfish). They only get up to 40" long, they'll fit right in that tank. Plus it looks like a unicorn, how cool is that?

[cg5071]

Adalius, starting trouble again? :) Those were my exact thoughts that blennies would be more active and comical but those green banded gobies are really cool. It wont happen but it would be neat if my pair of green banded pistols and the pair of gobies would interact together, but neither does that. :(

I am still putting this thing together so I have time but now it is up in the air between the green bandeds and the tailspot. I am almost jealous lol but I guess we can share it too. He also wants a couple of boxer crabs. It should be a fun little tank.

[jimsflies]

A pistol and high fin shrimp goby would be cool in a small tank like that too. I would try to go for small fish that don't do a lot of swimming. I think having a fish that is proportionate to the tank and which does some "hiding" is neater than having a fish that just swims laps.