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New fish thoughts? (1 Viewer)

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Varig

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I’m torn. I have a desire to add a couple of more fish to my tank, but nothing is really inspiring me. So I thought I’d crowd source a little bit and see what you guys think.

Current stock:
Small yellow tang
Small tomini tang
Yellow banana(halichoeris) wrasse
2x clowns
Longnose hawkfish
Yellow watchman goby/pistol pair
Starry blenny

These are in a 3’ x 2’ 65gallon tank.

I was thinking about replacing the McCoskers wrasse that jumped through my big netting (since I now have the 1/4” netting).

I also thought about a Starcki damsel, as I’ve heard they’re actually a fairly peaceful damsel.

Beyond that, I have no thoughts. Anyone have any recommendations?
 
Try a helfechi? fire fish? They are small.
Maybe a flame angel? Sometimes the are bully's. Ken has some in his frag tanks so they should be reef safe. I got 2 in QT that will be for sale in 3 weeks.
Maybe a small copper band?
Anthias are peaceful fish too.

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Those are some good thoughts. I worry the fire fish types will be too timid for my tank. I do like anthias, but it seemed like there was only 1 type that would be okay in my size tank, and then maybe only 1? Versus the 3-4 that most people seem to like so that they have a harem type setup?

Hadn’t thought of a chalk bass. I’ll have to look into that.

And the royal gramma is a pretty fish. What are your thoughts on that versus the Starki?
 
How about a flasher wrasse? Line-Spot and Blue flashers have a great red/blue coloring and the "flashing" is really cool. The Blue flasher has a forked tail while the Line-Spot's is rounded otherwise they look very sim. They also are on the small size at around 2 1/2". Never had one that was aggressive either.
 
Oh the Royal Gramma is a good suggestion as well. They are neutral but hold their own against bullies.
 
Very helpful Tim. :)

mrbill and Asif - Thanks, I'll have a look. I definitely loved the look of the McCoskers, but if a second took a dive on me I'd be VERY sad...
 
zoolan70 said:
Achilles Tang
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I would say why not? (Check out the avatar for my profile that I created 😆!)

@nessjosh: I heard my name! 😅 I would say 'what Ken does is usually not the best example, as Ken usually does not follow the norm'. (An example about the 'tang' thing above, I once had 4 - 5 tangs in a 29 gallon tank. They were itsy bitsy babies though, but you get the idea 😂.) I actually have 1 flame angelfish in every tank but that fish is still an 'add in with caution' fish. I mentally prepare to net it out if something goes astray. I did read bad stories that that fish was a model citizen the day before and it just suddenly turned the day after and went after people's corals. Afterall, corals were on this fish's menu in the wild anyway. I actually had some flame angelfish that just started nipping immediately after being added to the tank. So, ...

I will list out a few fish that I have had in the past here if it helps but I won't go into details, as I've been running issues where people asked for my inputs then turned around and said 'I hear objections!' when I went over the pros and cons. So, I try not to rain on people's parade here 😅.

In any case, for the fish, I usually go for the look, shape, size, availability, adaptability, compatibility, personality wise, etc. etc. and here is my usual considerations:

Tangs: Yellow/purple, naso, hippo
Wrasse: 1) Larger fairy sort: Solar/clown, red velvet, ... (The other ones look too dark in my tank). Smaller fairy wrasse: Lubbock, red fin, blue throat, long finned. Flasher wrasse: Carpenter, McCosker, filamented ...
Others: Orchid, neon dottyback, royal gramma, firefish, dartfish, cardinal, dragonet

Others to think about: file fish, (purple) tilefish, goby like aurora goby is also interesting ... 2 spot goby?... The orange midas blenny? ... Trigger fish? Some people are into more expensive stuff like flame wrasse, pintail fairy ... And Nox mentioned to me the other day about the fancy eight line flame wrasse. That is pretty. ... Or you can go for something that can be easily found with interesting shape like a lionfish? 😂😂 .. Somehow the marine beta fish came to my mind. They have interesting movement (and kind of 'coral safe', but not exactly 'reef safe' I believe.) ... I also thought about a school of the chalk bass now and then but haven't gotten those ...
 
linespot flashers are also very cool and look super similar to a bells flasher wrasse at 1/5 the price.
 
spsick said:
Is this a sand sleeper? Been looking at adding something and this seems a good candidate to be ignored by tang aggression.
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No, Cirrhilabrus do not sleep in sand. They will hide/sleep in the rockwork
 
nessjosh said:
Try a helfechi? fire fish? They are small.
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I like the purple. They are 1/3 the price if not cheaper and the color is amazing. I had one but it jumped. My lid has about a 1/4" gap around the edges and it found its way through. Before its own demise, it was an open water swimmer.

Big fan of mandarins. If you can get one that eats frozen it will be best. Hard part is that they think about eating so it may have a hard time competing with any tangs. They tend to stick to the rockwork so not really an open water swimmer.

I have a solar wrasse as well. That has some great color and one of the fish that swims around the entire tank.

Quite a few options in the Basslet family that have some great color. The royal gramma is pretty common and inexpensive but there are some others that have great colors as well. I have a royal gramma in my 200 and a yellow assessor in my 26. Both stay in their own little areas of the tank.

Kind of depends on where you want to see it in your tank. I would also consider if you wanted it to add function to your tank. Do you have any inverts? Add a fire shrimp!
 
To me, Ruby headed fairy wrasse and the blue headed wrasse are a bit dark. They look pretty much like black fish in my tank with all the blue lights, so I usually go for the solar/clown fairy wrasse, or the red velvet. If you'd consider those ruby/blue headed wrasses, then probably should look into the orange back fairy. That one has a larger orange patch which I think will make it looks brighter. And these fairy wrasses usually develop a mucus cocoon around their bodies when they sleep instead of diving into the sand. The other issue with the wrasse is of course, they jump. ... There are a few of them like to surf the water. That was what I learned after having the long finned fairy wrasse for a while. Every single day, when my lights were going down in the evening, it flashed, and dashed off the water and dove back in, made a lot of water splashing. It was cool but I thought the fish would either go off the tank, into the Radion fan, or something one day, and I couldn't stand having the water splashing everywhere so I let it go.

nox.rupaw said:
Go big or go home - Red Sea Eight Line Flasher

cc - @BlindSwordsman @jlanger
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@nox.rupaw, I think I sometimes spend like a king with a beggar's budget. So, I don't think I can afford that fancy fish 😂. And I don't feel like adding a new wrasse into the tank after my solar fairy jumped out. I was feeding my tank and I had the hood open. I could visibly see the darn fish jumped out, but I kept looking for it and I couldn't find it. By the time I found it, it was already dead. But every time we get a new fish, there are all sorts of issues to deal with: Possible disease, infection, .. Turning the tank into a war zone ... .. And then after all that, they jump. (In any case, @Varig, don't pay attention to this: Just get your new fish! 🤣🤣🤣)
 
A small group of Chalk Bass or Banggai cardinals are great. I also really loved my Royal Gramma.

If you have the sand bed for it, an engineer goby could be cool to get that eel shape in the tank. I can't recall the tank size requirements for those though, might need a bigger tank for that one.
 
Some were mentioned before but…..

Flame angel
Pair of Bangii
Purple firefish ( I might get rid of mine in the near future)
Bimac anthias if your tank can handle the constant feeding
Midas Blenny
Any and all fairy and flasher wrasses
 
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