Fish dilemma?

[SmilingTurtle]

I absolutely love corals, and honestly, I would be perfectly happy with a coral-only aquarium. There’s a great local reef store near me where they take the time to give personal advice instead of simply selling livestock and sending you on your way. They told me that, unfortunately, keeping fish is necessary and that a fishless reef tank isn’t really sustainable long-term.

However, if that’s truly the case and I need to choose a fish, I have no idea which species would be suitable. That’s what this post is about I’d really appreciate any recommendations for a fish that is beautiful, peaceful, and reef-safe, meaning it won’t bother or damage my corals.

At the moment, I have two zoa frags. Once the current diatom bloom settles down and my existing zoas are doing well, I’d also like to add some of the following corals (not necessarily in this order) :

• Torch coral
• Frogspawn (possibly two different varieties)
• Hammer coral
• Acan or Micromussa
• Montipora (possibly two different varieties)

I’m not particularly interested in the classic clownfish and anemone combination, and clownfish themselves don’t really appeal to me.

My aquarium is quite small only 80 liters (around 21 gallons) so I don’t feel like I have a huge selection when it comes to fish.
This may sound a little strange, but I’m also not very attracted to the larger, more commonly recommended fish. I’d really appreciate suggestions for small, peaceful, colorful fish that would be suitable for my tank and future coral plans!

 

[gsw0716]

You can get a cheap damsel fish, they're usually under 10 dollars, or you can do some sort of smaller goby or blenny, possibly a wrasse like a sixline or a royal gramma. All are reef safe, easy, cheaper and will be find solo.

 

[i cant think]

I absolutely love corals, and honestly, I would be perfectly happy with a coral-only aquarium. There’s a great local reef store near me where they take the time to give personal advice instead of simply selling livestock and sending you on your way. They told me that, unfortunately, keeping fish is necessary and that a fishless reef tank isn’t really sustainable long-term.

However, if that’s truly the case and I need to choose a fish, I have no idea which species would be suitable. That’s what this post is about I’d really appreciate any recommendations for a fish that is beautiful, peaceful, and reef-safe, meaning it won’t bother or damage my corals.

At the moment, I have two zoa frags. Once the current diatom bloom settles down and my existing zoas are doing well, I’d also like to add some of the following corals (not necessarily in this order) :

• Torch coral
• Frogspawn (possibly two different varieties)
• Hammer coral
• Acan or Micromussa
• Montipora (possibly two different varieties)

I’m not particularly interested in the classic clownfish and anemone combination, and clownfish themselves don’t really appeal to me.

My aquarium is quite small only 80 liters (around 21 gallons) so I don’t feel like I have a huge selection when it comes to fish.
This may sound a little strange, but I’m also not very attracted to the larger, more commonly recommended fish. I’d really appreciate suggestions for small, peaceful, colorful fish that would be suitable for my tank and future coral plans!

I work in a shop and find myself having the same dilemma of wanting a fish but it has to be common enough to be somewhat easy to source it but rare enough that it’s not necessarily a “bread and butter fish” (as we call them). Some of the ones I love are;
Assessor macneilli
Assessor randalli
Assessor flavissima
Pseudochromis elongatus
Pseudochromis springeri
Ecsenius pictus
Ecsenius bimaculatus
Ecsenius pulcher
Petroscirtes mitratus
Elacatinus puncticulatus
Tigrigobius multifasciatus
Tigrigobius macrodon
Discordipinna griessingeri
Gramma melacara
Pseudocheilinops ataenia
Wetmorella nigropinnata
Wetmorella albofasciata
Wetmorella tanakai

This is just a fraction of the ones I always look at when I’m after something unusual but also with character - some of those can be kept in groups or pairs too which adds something else for you to look at.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I absolutely love corals, and honestly, I would be perfectly happy with a coral-only aquarium. There’s a great local reef store near me where they take the time to give personal advice instead of simply selling livestock and sending you on your way. They told me that, unfortunately, keeping fish is necessary and that a fishless reef tank isn’t really sustainable long-term.

However, if that’s truly the case and I need to choose a fish, I have no idea which species would be suitable. That’s what this post is about I’d really appreciate any recommendations for a fish that is beautiful, peaceful, and reef-safe, meaning it won’t bother or damage my corals.

At the moment, I have two zoa frags. Once the current diatom bloom settles down and my existing zoas are doing well, I’d also like to add some of the following corals (not necessarily in this order) :

• Torch coral
• Frogspawn (possibly two different varieties)
• Hammer coral
• Acan or Micromussa
• Montipora (possibly two different varieties)

I’m not particularly interested in the classic clownfish and anemone combination, and clownfish themselves don’t really appeal to me.

My aquarium is quite small only 80 liters (around 21 gallons) so I don’t feel like I have a huge selection when it comes to fish.
This may sound a little strange, but I’m also not very attracted to the larger, more commonly recommended fish. I’d really appreciate suggestions for small, peaceful, colorful fish that would be suitable for my tank and future coral plans!

That simply isn't true that a fishless reef system isn't sustainable long term!

I suspect what they mean is that without fish food input, the nutrient levels of a reef tank might get too low.

Before I retired from being a public aquarium curator, we ran a fishless coral system for years. It was even a bare bottom tank, so very little microbiome in it. Corals were fine, in fact, without fish, the system was much easier to manage.

If you truly don't want fish (and the quarantine hassle associated with them) then why not just get some macro invertebrates? Some Lysmata cleaner shrimp and other peaceful invertebrates will give you some contract and motion, and will need exogenous feeding that in turn will provide nutrients for the corals.

 

[SmilingTurtle]

Thank you so much for all the suggestions! I’m going to look into every fish and other livestock option you mentioned.

 

[Marco_99]

Once you dabble with fish…. the inevitable tank upgrade will follow

 

[BryanM]

Thank you so much for all the suggestions! I’m going to look into every fish and other livestock option you mentioned.

What Jay said is spot on.

You don't need fish, but you will have to do something about nutrients (Nitrates and Phosphates). You could simple just feed fish food a couple times a day, or you could dose some DIY nitrate and phosphate solutions.

You could also feed your corals, but I usually only spot feed once a week.