Aggression question about small gobies

[Midland246]

Hi All,

I have a 20 gallon tank that I am in the process of setting up as a goby only tank with primarily the small gobies. Assuming I can find what I am looking for I plan to get sharknose, red headed, green banded, yellow lined, yellow clown and if room allows maybe one larger one, thinking of a Randall's if I can find a male. With the exception of the Randall's they are all 2 inches or less in size.

So, my question is, are these small gobies likely to be aggressive to each other if I only get one of each? I have bought some pukani rock and plan to have lots of hiding places and ledges.

Let me know what you think.

 

[CoralNerd]

I think your going to have a fish fight with that many in a small tank however I have never tried it. I have a Yasha Goby and a small Greenbaned Goby, and I'm going to add a Neon Blue Goby and I'm wondering if 85g is going to work out but 20g sounds risky.

 

[teemee]

Hi Midland,
I suggest you maybe research aggression between the ones that look most alike - the yellow and blue neons and shark nose are almost identical. I saw on another forum (the t.o. one) that you want to get ora gobies - you can ask one of our lfs to try to get you pairs, or just wait until they get in lots and try to do it from their tanks. Though I'm not sure for these spp. many gobies can change sex, which helps. Also, ORA has a hybrid of the yellow and blue
I currently have in a 10g 1 white capped goby, 4 Grissingeri gobies, 2 Eviota pellucida, 2 Eviota nigriventris and 1 Eviota bifasciata (plus 2 pistol shrimp, 2 bumblebee shrimp (were 4 - fight to the death aggression!), 4 sexy shrimp and 1 Periclimenes brevicarpalis). No aggression, the conspecifics kind of hang out often but other than that, nada. Granted my fish are about half the size or less than the ones you want to get...
IMHO make sure there are tons of hiding places. And maybe switch things around a bit... none of these fish really spend much time in the water column, and now from my experience with my tiny fish tank, i'm missing 'swimming fish' even though the E. pellucidas hover a bit sometimes. You could always try blue line pipefish, cling fish, the ora pygmy filefish, Rainford or Hector's gobies... just my 2 pennies...