Tank Mates

[Michael[91]]

So as it turns out, the lfs wont be getting any F8's till later next week, and since I can't find any local stores that sell pure ammonia, im just going to instacycle my tank with tetra safestart, which i learned how to do thanks to PP. but now my questions is this, i understand a f8 needs 15G and an extra 10G for each additional. but I have a 20G tank, and i dont want to only keep one F8 in a tank so i was wondering what other fish are compatible with F8's, ive heard BBG and Knights Gobys are, but what else? I was also hoping that it'll be fine to keep 2 F8's in a 20G tank.

Also, do mollys work well with F8's?

[Pufferpunk]

I wouldn't put 2 F8s in a 20g. You could add a pair of knight gobies--they are very interesting to watch. BBGs always got eaten in my F8 tank. Also there are mollies, who eat algae.

[Michael[91]]

Okay, thank you, im going to go with mollies, and eventually knight gobies.
how many of each would work with one F8

[bazil323]

I would choose only 1 other kind of fish to go with a F8 in a 20g. Since the F8 will explore the whole tank, the other fish will need enough room to get out of its way. In a 20g, you might not even be able to have anything else since it is pretty close to the minimum. IMHO, the minimum for a single F8 really should be 20g because they do like to explore every bit of their tank and do swim around quite a bit. At least mine does. He's in a 44g tank with 3 adult female mollies and a handful of their babies at various sizes (got rid of the dank male) and 8 bbgs. I really want to get some more bbgs since they are so cool. Many profiles say they stay on the bottom, but I see mine everywhere. They mostly stay in the bottom and middle, but I even see them up at the top sometimes, especially during feeding. Mine are pretty hardy and eat everything quite readily. Although, I don't feed any flakes or pellets to this tank, so I don't know about that. I doubt they'd take it though.

In a 20g, I would only do 3-5 mollies with a F8. That might be pushing it since the F8 might be an aggressive one that would bully the nonterritorial mollies. Mine is pretty peaceful and mostly ignores mollies. I've heard that knight gobies have less success than bumblebee gobies with F8s.

Personally, I would choose bumblebee gobies any day of the week. They are small enough that they can hide readily as well as be less noticeable. They do have similar colors to F8s, so that might make for a rather monochromatic tank (or bichromatic, whatever). Anyway, if you go with bbgs, you could do up to 8.