# Looking for some colorful small fish



## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

So here's my tanks so far...

1- Mbuna
1- SA Community

And I have a 38 Gallon that I'm setting up, my tap water is hard so it's perfect for another African setup. Looking for some nice colorful Tangs to go in it, would prefer a 2 species tank and non-shellies.

Was looking at the possibility of some gobys...can anyone recommend a species or two?


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

i choose, paracyps and gobies i guess.
why no shellies?


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Not a big fan of shellies, prefer to look at rocks in my tank over shells.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Ok, question regarding these guys...

On their profile it lists them as aggressive which made me think of a species only tank. However looking online for retailers I notice this saying a lot "a must for a community tank!"

So which is it? Species only tank or community safe?


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

Cook.MN said:


> Ok, question regarding these guys...
> 
> On their profile it lists them as aggressive which made me think of a species only tank. However looking online for retailers I notice this saying a lot "a must for a community tank!"
> 
> So which is it? Species only tank or community safe?


Most of the goby profiles seem to suggest an "agressive" or "highly aggressive" conspecific aggression level, with only a "mildly aggressive" aggression level towards other fish. I suspect you'll find they like to beat up on other gobies, but will leave most other fish alone. Rare is the african cichlid that's not at least mildly aggressive .

-Rick (the armchair aquarist)


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Yeah, thinking they are like the P. Demasoni in regards to their attitude. Just need to find the equivalent to yellow labs Lake Tang style


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## zenobium (Jan 5, 2006)

How about Leleupi and some Calvus or Altolamps?

-Zen


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

Calvus are the equivalent to yellow labs in my opinion. They can get along with most fish.
Paracyprichromis would be a nice addition to the calvus.

I would not suggest trying to pair off gobies in a 38 gallon.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Longstocking said:


> I would not suggest trying to pair off gobies in a 38 gallon.


Ahh, here I was thinking since they're so small 2.5" that having a couple would spread out the aggression.


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

Tangs are not like Malawi fish. "More" isn't always better.

Gobies are bi-parental mouth brooders. Meaning, the male and the female holds. Once a bond has been established, typically, only a pair will be tolerated in any tank. The pairing off process can be brutal... 4 to 6 foot tanks are usually considered good tanks for the process.

Now... there are exceptions... sometimes no "real" pair forms and a group ( meaning 6+) can live and breed together. Long term ( meaning more than a couple of years ), I have only seen this work a handfull of times.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

I was thinking of buying a pair of gobies that have already paired off. This will take a bit more work but I feel a pair of gobies will be something you don't see in every aquarium and will bring some personality.

And this is what I love about Cichlids, they vary so much from lake to lake...love it.

Thanks for all the tips, keep them coming as I am now intent on setting up a Tang community tank!


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

What is the foot print of this tank?

In all honesty... you are going to have a HARD time finding a proven pair. They are not the easiest fish to pair off and once they do pair off people don't want to sell them. I think I've only seen 2-3 proven pairs for sale over the years.

I know I would never sell a proven pair !


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

36 1/4 x 12 5/8 x 19 3/4

Yeah, I was going to be patient and wait for a pair to show up on aquabid or something, but would outfit the tank as if I had a pair of gobies in there.


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

I agree that your tank is to small for gobie's, when my male feels like taking out some agression on his wife, she needs all 200 gallons and the very extensive rockwork to get away from him. I would go with paracyps, no question about it and then, decide on a suitable tankmate for them, maybe a pair of gold head comps.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Wow, didn't think a 2 inch fish would need so much space!


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Depends on how well your pair gets on. Some need loads of space others very small amount will do.

If you go Paracyps go Paracyprichromis brieni its about an inch smaller than nigripinnis less active, requires less space and less nasty to each other does better in small groups than Paracyprichromis nigripinnis . Not saying nigripinnis won't work just brieni prob do better for you.


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

I would say the reverse is true and the brieni are more aggressive and get larger. I have a brieni male that is 6 inches :idea: Never seen a nigripinnis larger than my brieni male.

My group of brieni are A LOT more aggressive than my blue neon group. Both of my groups have wild and F1 ( unrelated ) in them so I would say that's a pretty good judge.

My recommendation is to stick with the nigripinnis.... but everyones experience is different.

The gobies.... I'm not going to say it won't work, because I have seen a pair produce fry in a 20 gallon. But, I wouldn't recommend it. Why not get just one, if you are really set on gobies? You might be waiting years for a proven pair to pop up on aqua-bid.

On another note... gobies do well in some mbuna tanks... what size is your malawi tank and what is it stocked with? You might be better off buying 5-6 gobies and pairing them off in the malawi tank. Then once a pair is formed, move the pair to the tang tank. That is... if the tank is 4 foot or larger and doesn't have any C. afras in it.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

My Malawi tank is 4 foot and there are C. Afras in it...figures right?

I'll just get one goby 

Just curious as to why you mentioned the C. Afras...they have a bad history of not playing nice?

Also (sorry for so many questions) with the Nigripinnis, how many is a solid group for my tank? 5?


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

I'd go for 6-8 ...depending on what else you are planning. No less than 6.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

This now has me thinking of swapping my SA community/planted (which is a 55) tank to the 38 and doing a Tang community in my 55...just would be extremely hard because my SA is a fully planted tank...hrmmm..

If I stick with the 38 for the Tangs stock list would be then...

1- Goby
6- Nigripinnis
1-3 Something else, maybe a single Calvus (If I don't find a 3rd species will then bump up the Nigripinnis numbers to 8 )


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## yuju (Jan 27, 2008)

sounds like it'll be a wicked setup... i actually have similar stock in a 33 gal (five paracyps and one cyanostictus)

just my own preference would be to bump up the number of paracyps rather than a third species, reason being is that while staring at my tiny shoal of paracyps i'm usually thinking how much cooler it would look to have a bigger group in there...


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

I've seen a couple aquariums where gobies have been crammed in similar to tropheus and have worked out long term. I know that most people don't like gobies enough to donate a lot of resources just to them, but it can be done and it will work. I guess its like my idea of having a 150 gallon species tank of just Ps. crabro, no one can see why I'd do it, but I think it'd look awesome.


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Are you suggesting craming 30 - 40 gobies in a tank. I can only imagine that any tank like that would be a holding tank for new arrivals only.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

See, this tank I want centered around the goby...I like those little guys


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

I figure it was in the neighborhood of 20-30 gobies in one case and 15-20 gobies in another (where the aquarium was smaller).


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