Fish Recommendations Please

4FordFamily

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I was looking at chromis, damsels, and wrasses last week. As chromis go, I need to have a good, odd handful, don't I?


The green clown goby looks rad, but is it going to lay around on the sand all day?
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I'll have to see what varieties I can find available. Are they better solo, paired, or with a few?
No, but they will likely hide in rocks not to be seen but when they DO come out -- they're neat.

I like:

Flame hawkfish, perhaps a melanarus wrasse as suggested (though a "lime green" or "green coris" might be better suited size-wise), maybe a damsel and I think you'd have a nice mix.

Fish tend to come out more with more outgoing tankmates. When there aren't many fish swimming around, the fish on the reef assume there is good reason and are cautious. I always picture finding nemo the vibrant reef until the sharks or something sinister shows up and everyone goes in to hiding. Dramatic, but a depiction of what I am talking about (albeit faux lol).
 

Wyvern

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Exactly, my Midas was stuck by his rock for the first 3 weeks till I added multiple wrasse, now that blenny is out 80% of the day.
 
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kittenbritches

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For chromis, usually it needs to be solo or a large school, as they tend to whittle it down to 1 in too small sizes. I believe anthias do the same.
How would you define a "large school?" I was looking at 3, but I don't know that my tank could responsibly house much more.
 

Sharkbait19

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How would you define a "large school?" I was looking at 3, but I don't know that my tank could responsibly house much more.
10+ would be a reasonably sized school, any less would typically dwindle down until there's one left. I would recommend either a single chromis, or perhaps a more peaceful group of fish, such as certain dartfish species.
 

i cant think

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How would you define a "large school?" I was looking at 3, but I don't know that my tank could responsibly house much more.
are you after that tight schooling look?
If you are then a bit basic of a fish, a lot of cardinals can have a school of around 5 and tend to do better in schools - avoid bangaiis they will kill eachother after being paired up
 
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Not necessarily. It's not a huge tank, but I can support ~4 more reef-friendly, peaceful/moderate fish.
I’d say a few more (I say more because you may already have one) different wrasse would be both useful and colourful - But that’s me being bitten by the wrasse bug
 
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kittenbritches

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I’d say a few more (I say more because you may already have one) different wrasse would be both useful and colourful - But that’s me being bitten by the wrasse bug
I've almost pulled the trigger on a few wrasses, but I think long-term my tank may be a bit too small.
 

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I've almost pulled the trigger on a few wrasses, but I think long-term my tank may be a bit too small.
I’d recommend on some of the smaller ones (Fairy wrasse, Black, Blue Star, Chaoti (Chaots are rarely ever kept alive successfully so I don’t recommend it - It was just an example of a leopard) Leopards, Halichoeres adornatus ect..
Although yes some wrasse are needing 50gs I’m pretty sure a 40g breeder has the same floor space as a 50g - Also things like leopard wrasse need ‘100g’ tanks long term because of an old myth about how they can’t be sustained on prepared foods (Alrhough yes this is true, they can still be kept eating live foods - They will still need pods to scavenge on all day)
 

tautog83

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Black cap basslet , swiss guard basslet, mccoskers flasher wrasse ( make sure you have a top). Starcki damsel, lubbocks fairy wrasse . I try and have fish that arent as popular ( these arent rare by any means ) though .
 

Catnip885

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I would do a fairy wrasse I love the Lubbocks and a peaceful damsel like a staghorn or a smithi I wouldn't do a firefish they are really shy and can get beaten up easily and dotties and clowns can get territorial.
 

ying yang

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My favourite fish in my tank is also my cheapest and is silver belly wrasse,the yellow in its colour is the brighest yellow ive ever seen and as they mature they get green/ orange stripes on their faces i read and always extremely active looking for something to eat on the rocks and base off corals.i got it to help me keep check off any pests that managed to get in my tank as all my fish have a job except 2 clowns but daughter insisted we have them lol
Coral beauty always active picking at rocks also.
Tail spot blennies are cool to watch as they flick their heads as they get algae off the rocks.
Bi colour blennie same.
Ywg and tiger pistol shrimp interesting watching their symbiotoc behaviour and making tunnels/ burrow under the sand.
All these fish above i got and think should be ok in a 55 gallon but research more on that if decide like any and live aquaria if look each individual fish they have a compatability chart at bottom which is good to know but most you can just work out from little research imo

Edit: can also get pure yellow coris wrasse which pretty much same exceot colours as both halicharious wrasses or however you spell it idk lol
 
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ScottyD36

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Can I get some fish recommendations for my mixed reef tank?

It's a 40 gallon breeder and in addition to corals, a BTA, and my sweet CUC, it's home to two clowns who are hosted by the bottom corner of my tank , an Orchid dottyback who almost never leaves her cave, and a yellow watchman goby who has decided to hide between two rocks for the rest of his life.

I added a pair of Banggai cardinalfish Thursday, noticed they looked a little iffy and transferred them to an isolation tank, and they were dead by morning. They were my most anticipated addition, and I'm super bummed that they didn't arrive healthy. I don't think I want to get another pair now.

I would love to add 1-2 fish that will actually swim around the tank but who won't bully the other inhabitants or eat my corals. Any recommendations?

Bonus if you have an online fish seller that you love. I don't have any good LFS nearby, and I'm kind of a hermit anyway.

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I have a similar set up. In my tank I have two clown fish, two nean gobys, a file eating aptasia, a six line wrasse and a clown fairy wrasse and a green chromis and a hector goby. All very peaceful in habitants. The clown fairy wrasse adds color to the tank and they swim everywhere in tank.
 

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As a lot of people have said their favourite fish in their tanks were wrasse I have to agree, my favourite fish in my 20g nano (It’s a grow out tank!) is my BSLW and my favourite two fish in my 100g tank are the two Lubbock’s - Cebu and Indonesian males.
The Cebu I have didn’t colour up to his full glory until I had added a smaller Indonesian male Lubbock. I don’t recommend having both variants of Lubbocki in a 40g tank however, you could have one variant of a few different wrasse - I have 5 in a 100g and that will soon go to a max of 8 because of there being another 5 big growing fish in the tank (Foxface, Tang, CBB, Genicanthus melanospilos)
 
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