minimum size tank for bicolor dottyback?

well my neon goby recently jumped out of my 5 gallon nano reef so i went to the lfs yesterday. they had a tiny little pacific dottyback, or bicolor and the worker told me he would do fine in my tank, i was very unsure of this as i know my fish fairly well and know almost all the care requirements of the fish in the store, however so does this guy and he had never steered me wrong before and is always extremely knowledgable. so i was just like ok may as well try it. now i see they really need at least a 20 gallon tank.

so the thing is i have a 10 gallon tank that is almost finished cycling, probably has a couple weeks left, im wondering if this little guy will be okay in my 5 gallon until then? he is about 1 inch long. but he appears to be doing great he started eating only 20 minutes after introduction.

also do you guys think he will be good long term in the 10 gallon tank?

 

30 gallon minimum is suggested but it should be ok in there with maybe one at most two more fish until you upgrade or he bullies them first.

 

there will be no other fish in either tank, i may set up a larger tank in the future, but not any time soon it will be a good 4 months at least. i hope it works out until then.

 

I believe you should be good then.

 

they are mean, but if its the only fish that wont be an issue

 

I'm going to be the downer here...I really feel 5 (or 10) gallons is too small for the dottyback.

And as mentioned, they are super mean (usually), so you won't be able to add any more fish.

 

i never planned to add any more fish, i said i will be planning a larger tank in the next few months to put him in. which is why everyone else said he would be just fine. he is very very small, not even an inch quite yet.

 

I thought you said your larger tank would be 10 gallons? Which is too small. Guess I read it wrong.

 

that was the tank again that i was planning on switching him into, for long term, but then i realised that i am planning a larger reef tank build in the future, but note fairly soon maybe 5-6 months from now. as i said in post 3.

 

id say at least 500 gallon because i saw one at the LFS tear apart 2 foot grouper LOL