Seriously?
This is a recipe for disaster.
Gobies stay to the bottom of the tank. If you do not have a developed pair you will have deaths in those tight quarters.
Petricola NEED a lot more space and will also be at the bottom of the tank.
I am not sure why you would want Ancistrus in this setup. They will search out and eat all of the algae that you would want you Mbuna and Gobies eating or they will end up starving to death.
They probably won't listen...
I'd nix the Ancistrus and choose either gobies or demasoni, myself.
Matt
In any tank.... the gobies will end up dead and only with a pair. Doesn't matter if it's 8 foot or 2 foot. Now the demasoni.... I dunno that is your guys specialty
The gobies will live at the bottom and anywhere else they like... they will not stay at the top of your tank even if you give them a shelf.
I'm not a cichlid expert, so I'll leave the Demasoni advice to those who know what they are talking about.
But as far a gobies go, I have several in a river tank. Gobies like shallow tanks that have rocks for them to rest on while a VERY strong current is washing over them. I have a Marineland C530 canister filter with a spraybar plus a powerhead blowing over the rocks. And even though you
think that the gobies will stay in the upper rocks of the tank, they will not! They will always seek the bottom of the tank, no matter how deep the tank is. I have my gobies in a 40g breeder tank and on one side the rocks go about halfway up the tank (about 6 to 8 inches from the top of the tank and slowly step down, terraced for lack of a better word. And the gobies still go to the other side of the tank and hang out there where the tank is about 12 to 15 inches from the top. So even though you think that they will stay and hang out in the "1 inch" area near the top, they won't.
Like others who mentioned about nixing the Ancistrus sp., I agree with them. Gobies need A LOT of green and brown algae to survive! It's practically the only thing they will eat, unless you supplement them with algae flakes or Repashy Soilent Green. They will starve and die. I've had some gobies die on me in the past because I couldn't get enough algae for them to eat. The Ancistrus will compete for the algae and they are much more voracious eaters.
As far as gobies killing each other, I think it depends on the species. I don't have the goby that you are looking for. But I do have some and I have 4 males and 2 females. While the males do fight and try to play "king of the rocks", they haven't killed each other off and I've had them for almost a year.
As far as petricolas go, I have 30 g cube tank with about 24 of them with rocks going up two sides of the tank. See pictures:
http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12906 . And mine don't stay at the bottom of my tank. They swarm all over the rocks and at night are all over my tank when the lights are out. During the day, they hide out in the rocks, so they need plenty of room!
Though, our advice is not exactly what you want to hear, a lot of the people here are know what they are talking about because they have done their research, asked advice from each other and have had a lot of experience over the years. We aren't trying to steer you away from the fish you want, but we want to help you set up a tank where the inhabitants survive and remain healthy. Believe me, I wish I had listened to experienced hobbyists' advice in the past. It would have saved me a lot of heartache and money
I hope this helps.
Arlene
