40B grouping fish

[Strad12]

Are there any reef safe fish that can be safely/peacefully kept in groups in a 40 breeder tank? I'd like to have a lot of fish in my tank for movement and to feed the corals.

So far I've looked at scissor tail gobies, zebra bar dart fish, court jester gobies, chromis, firefish, and cardinals. I'd like something that can handle higher levels of water flow as well.

 

[TX_REEF]

firefish and damsels come to mind. lots of options with damsels, too. With either option, you'd probably be limited to just that group of fish and perhaps 1 or 2 bottom dwellers such as blennies or gobies, anything else in the water column will likely become a target for aggression.

Be careful with adding "a lot of fish", 40B real estate does fill up quite quick

 

[Isosceles]

Are there any reef safe fish that can be safely/peacefully kept in groups in a 40 breeder tank? I'd like to have a lot of fish in my tank for movement and to feed the corals.

If money isn't an issue then I'm going to recommend fang blennies (Meiacanthus). They are social, and form harems (this is how they breed them in captivity), but the only catch is they're impossible to sex so you just have to get enough of them to where it doesn't matter.

Obviously brighter species to choose from but good example pic.

Grammas will also form harems but the only reliable way to do this is to get a bunch of small ones. I would say more than 6. I had 6, clowns killed one, dominant pair formed out of the 5 and killed 2 of the other ones. I was able to save the remaining third wheel. Don't let my experience discourage you though, it can be done...

(From another thread on here)

My only other safe ish suggestion would be a harem of skunk clowns. Damsels/chromis I'd be cautious with, you'd need a ton of them to do it reliably but even then there's still the chance they pick eachother off down to 1 or 2. Springer's, Talbot's, Rolland's, and lemons I've heard are generally on the more reasonable side in terms of damsel personalities. I have contrarily also heard the "1 for every foot and a half of tank" thing. Proper Chromis you also have to go through uronema. Stuff from the genus Pycnochromis you're not having more than one in the tank long term. So on. Firefish I've also heard will allegedly pick eachother off? But I don't know how credible this is. A lot of the time I notice reef keepers will jump to conclusions as to the death of things based on the state they last see it in. Hermit ate their fish because they saw it scavenging, x ate y because z, etc. Firefish do jump a lot though and often end up being expensive crisps on the floor.

 

[Strad12]

I ended up settling on a group of 5 Mollies. So far they seem to be good algae and detritus grazers. Hopefully they can reproduce and fill in the tank even more. I should have mentioned that I have an Azure damsel that I moved from another tank, so I don't think I'll be able to add any conspecifics or lookalikes. I'm thinking about adding a small group of cardinals and maybe some one-offs like a yellow wrasse, mandarin dragonet, and maybe even a dwarf angel.