Fish suggestions for 75 gallon

[Madhav]

Hello All,

I upgrade my setup from 40 to bottomless 75 and currently have 2 clowns who are ~2 inches long and a new awesome brown powder tang who is 3 inches.
What do you guys think I should add ? I like peaceful and reef safe fish. Im definitely going to add a mandarin after a year.

 

[Spare time]

I have these in my 75;

Tomini tang, Wantanabei Angel, Sun Damsel, 2 clarkii clowns, a lawnmower blenny, and a diamond goby. Thee all do very well together.

I would highly recommend yellow coris wrasses as they are pretty and peaceful as well as active. Fairy wrasse would be neat. You could also do some lyretail anthias, a royal gramma, jawfish, any sort of goby, any sort of cardinal, etc.

 

[PatW]

Go to live aquaria or bluezooaquatics and check out the fish that are reef safe, easy, and peaceful.

Cardinals - I like Bengai but I bet many will do just fine.
Chromis - they tend to murder each other but one can be nice.
Ctenochaetus tangs. I like the yellow eyed kole. They should do OK in a 75. They can be great fish.
Flasher wrasses and fairy wrasses - you could have a couple.
Dartfish - these are nice fish also.
Gobies - there are a pile of small interesting gobies to choose from.
Blennies - there are some very nice blennies.
Dwarf angels - often not really reef safe but they can be a very nice feature fish.

 

[Chef Mateo]

PatW ^ Has some good reccomandations, I would reccomand the same fish most other fish get too big for a 75 gal.

You wouldn't be able to have a yellow coris wrasse if you are bare bottom

Do you plan on upgrading your tank again soon just because of the powder brown

 

[Madhav]

I have these in my 75;

Tomini tang, Wantanabei Angel, Sun Damsel, 2 clarkii clowns, a lawnmower blenny, and a diamond goby. Thee all do very well together.

I would highly recommend yellow coris wrasses as they are pretty and peaceful as well as active. Fairy wrasse would be neat. You could also do some lyretail anthias, a royal gramma, jawfish, any sort of goby, any sort of cardinal, etc.

Yellow Coris Wrasse is beautiful unfortunately my tank is bare bottom so cant keep it. Lyretail anthias are beautiful, definitely on top of my list now,I want to keep 3 so add them all at the same time?. I had a royal gramma they add color for sure. Jawfish without sand is a problem. Im going to keep a mandarin so goby list is full dont want any conflicts .

 

[Madhav]

Go to live aquaria or bluezooaquatics and check out the fish that are reef safe, easy, and peaceful.

Cardinals - I like Bengai but I bet many will do just fine.
Chromis - they tend to murder each other but one can be nice.
Ctenochaetus tangs. I like the yellow eyed kole. They should do OK in a 75. They can be great fish.
Flasher wrasses and fairy wrasses - you could have a couple.
Dartfish - these are nice fish also.
Gobies - there are a pile of small interesting gobies to choose from.
Blennies - there are some very nice blennies.
Dwarf angels - often not really reef safe but they can be a very nice feature fish.

Cardinals add a different element to tank because of the way they swim. Chromis I got were bullies and my clowns are tank bred I feel they can be bullied by bristle worms too, LOL. Are 2 tangs in 75 gallon ok? Looking for flasher wrasses in my LFS. Are dartfish ok in bare bottom?

 

[Madhav]

PatW ^ Has some good reccomandations, I would reccomand the same fish most other fish get too big for a 75 gal.

You wouldn't be able to have a yellow coris wrasse if you are bare bottom

Do you plan on upgrading your tank again soon just because of the powder brown

My powder tang is small, if he outgrows Il upgrade but I think theres time for that.I have never seen such a caring fish, it allows my clowns to eat first and also swims with them.

 

[Spare time]

Cardinals add a different element to tank because of the way they swim. Chromis I got were bullies and my clowns are tank bred I feel they can be bullied by bristle worms too, LOL. Are 2 tangs in 75 gallon ok? Looking for flasher wrasses in my LFS. Are dartfish ok in bare bottom?

Tomini will be fine even when fully grown and they won't fight your other tang (they are not the same genus so it is not likely that they will fight). Dartford should be fine.

 

[Spare time]

Yellow Coris Wrasse is beautiful unfortunately my tank is bare bottom so cant keep it. Lyretail anthias are beautiful, definitely on top of my list now,I want to keep 3 so add them all at the same time?. I had a royal gramma they add color for sure. Jawfish without sand is a problem. Im going to keep a mandarin so goby list is full dont want any conflicts .

Sorry I didn't see that you said barebottom

 

[Madhav]

Tomini will be fine even when fully grown and they won't fight your other tang (they are not the same genus so it is not likely that they will fight). Dartford should be fine.

Cool. Looks like the complete stock is going to be :
Tangs - Tomini, Brown powder
Anthias - 3 Lyretail
Wrasses - Flasher, fairy
Dartfish - Firefish
Dragonet - Red mandarin
Clowns - 2

 

[CookieRdReef]

In my 75g reef I have a yellow coris wrasse, melanarus wrasse, longnose hawkfish, yellow tang, bangaii cardinalfish, pajama cardinalfish, royal gramma, coral beauty. All are peaceful fish so far.

 

[Spare time]

Cool. Looks like the complete stock is going to be :
Tangs - Tomini, Brown powder
Anthias - 3 Lyretail
Wrasses - Flasher, fairy
Dartfish - Firefish
Dragonet - Red mandarin
Clowns - 2

I recommend a pair of firefish. I notice they are much less timid with more than 1

 

[muggle0981]

Yes if ever do sandbed reccomend yellow coris wrasse

I have 4 chromis and one is picked on and hides in my corals

tomini loved when i had one, have a scopas now that is always out and about

anthias scare me cause they need to be fed so much so have always stayed away

coral beauty has been a stand up citizen, if no reef would have gone flame angel

love my picasso clown

my tank is slightly larger at the 120 mark

 

[vetteguy53081]

banghai cardinal

Firefish goby:

Tail spot blenny (algae eater):

Black cap basslet:

6 line wrasse:

Flame Angel:

Randalls watchman goby:

 

[Madhav]

Could not get hold of Tomini or bristletooth so got a yellow tang and a magma wrasse.

 

[Zionas]

You want a bottomless tank right? As in no substrate? Then I’d consider any of the Fairy / Flasher Wrasses over a Halichoeres or a Leopard Wrasse as they need to sleep in sand. I’d also not do gobies as they also like sand. The Gobiodon sp. could be exceptions but I’ve heard they’re not the hardiest and easiest to feed unless you have a very healthy specimen from the get go and can get it to eat prepared foods.

The Powder Brown needs to be in at least a 6’ tank long term. Call it one of my pet peeves, and no offense intended, but I’m not a fan of seeing fish in tanks too small for their adult size unless the reefer has at least somewhat of a concrete plan to upgrade to a system suitable for that particular species’ adult size.

Assuming your 75-gallon is a 4-foot tank, you could fit in a Bristletooth Tang except for the Spotted (Blue Eye) Bristletooth or the Striated Bristletooth or the Chevron. This means a Tomini, Yellow Eye Kole, Squaretail, or White Tail would be the suitable Tangs for a 75. A Zebrasoma really needs at least a 6’ 125 long term IMO though I’d probably put a Black Longnose or Yellow (the smallest of the Zebrasoma Tangs) in a 5’ if given enough swimming space. Purple, Scopas, Gem, and both of the Sailfin Tangs need larger tanks.

You could look into a dwarf angel, a more active blenny like a Midas Blenny, a smaller shoaling fish like a couple of Pajama or Yellow Striped Cardinals, or if you’re willing to feed frequently and have a good QT routine, a smaller species of Anthias (not an expert on them). Chromis (Blue / Green, Black Axil, maybe some of the smaller lesser known species) are OK too if you can QT for uronema but there are mixed reports on how well they do together as a group.

Any of the smaller basslets can fit into a 75. Royal Gramma, Black Cap, Swissguard, Swales, Yellow / Randall’s / McNeill’s Assessors.

If you want to do something different, assuming a 4’ tank you could have a Marine Betta. They get to 8” but aren’t very active fish. Still for bioload purposes I’d keep a 75 to 2 larger fish (6” and above) at most and this is assuming a 4’ tank.

A group of Scissortail, Zebra, or Blue Gudgeon Dartfish will likely not kill each other in the way Firefish do.

Damsels. Yup. You could have (maybe) a pair of Chrysiptera sp. damsels, just avoid the Blue Damselfish (C. Cyanea) and Fiji Devil (C. Taupou) and stick to Yellowtails, Azures, Talbot’s, Rolland’s, maybe Starckis if you can find them but I don’t know much about them.


It all comes to whether you like more smaller fish or some larger fish but a fewer number of fish overall. Also, how much do you care about a clean up crew, shrimp, snails and so on?

A couple of of Fairy and Flasher Wrasses along with your Clownfish pair, a basslet, a smaller Tang or a Marine Betta, and a smaller shoaling fish like Cardinals or smaller Anthias or Dartfish, a Midas Blenny, and maybe a pair of more peaceful damsels would work nicely IMO. Bangaiis pair off. Pajamas and Yellow Striped I think tend to stick together more.

 

[Zionas]

These are just my ideas. Could be a bit too much so I’ll leave the jury out.

x2 Ocellaris Clowns

x1 Yellow Eye Kole Tang

x3 Pajama / Yellow Striped Cardinals

x1 Midas Blenny

x1 Royal Gramma

x1 Coral Beauty Angelfish

x1 Carpenter’s Flasher Wrasse

x1 Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse

x2 Azure Damsels

 

[Madhav]

You want a bottomless tank right? As in no substrate? Then I’d consider any of the Fairy / Flasher Wrasses over a Halichoeres or a Leopard Wrasse as they need to sleep in sand. I’d also not do gobies as they also like sand. The Gobiodon sp. could be exceptions but I’ve heard they’re not the hardiest and easiest to feed unless you have a very healthy specimen from the get go and can get it to eat prepared foods.

The Powder Brown needs to be in at least a 6’ tank long term. Call it one of my pet peeves, and no offense intended, but I’m not a fan of seeing fish in tanks too small for their adult size unless the reefer has at least somewhat of a concrete plan to upgrade to a system suitable for that particular species’ adult size.

Assuming your 75-gallon is a 4-foot tank, you could fit in a Bristletooth Tang except for the Spotted (Blue Eye) Bristletooth or the Striated Bristletooth or the Chevron. This means a Tomini, Yellow Eye Kole, Squaretail, or White Tail would be the suitable Tangs for a 75. A Zebrasoma really needs at least a 6’ 125 long term IMO though I’d probably put a Black Longnose or Yellow (the smallest of the Zebrasoma Tangs) in a 5’ if given enough swimming space. Purple, Scopas, Gem, and both of the Sailfin Tangs need larger tanks.

You could look into a dwarf angel, a more active blenny like a Midas Blenny, a smaller shoaling fish like a couple of Pajama or Yellow Striped Cardinals, or if you’re willing to feed frequently and have a good QT routine, a smaller species of Anthias (not an expert on them). Chromis (Blue / Green, Black Axil, maybe some of the smaller lesser known species) are OK too if you can QT for uronema but there are mixed reports on how well they do together as a group.

Any of the smaller basslets can fit into a 75. Royal Gramma, Black Cap, Swissguard, Swales, Yellow / Randall’s / McNeill’s Assessors.

If you want to do something different, assuming a 4’ tank you could have a Marine Betta. They get to 8” but aren’t very active fish. Still for bioload purposes I’d keep a 75 to 2 larger fish (6” and above) at most and this is assuming a 4’ tank.

A group of Scissortail, Zebra, or Blue Gudgeon Dartfish will likely not kill each other in the way Firefish do.

Damsels. Yup. You could have (maybe) a pair of Chrysiptera sp. damsels, just avoid the Blue Damselfish (C. Cyanea) and Fiji Devil (C. Taupou) and stick to Yellowtails, Azures, Talbot’s, Rolland’s, maybe Starckis if you can find them but I don’t know much about them.


It all comes to whether you like more smaller fish or some larger fish but a fewer number of fish overall. Also, how much do you care about a clean up crew, shrimp, snails and so on?

A couple of of Fairy and Flasher Wrasses along with your Clownfish pair, a basslet, a smaller Tang or a Marine Betta, and a smaller shoaling fish like Cardinals or smaller Anthias or Dartfish, a Midas Blenny, and maybe a pair of more peaceful damsels would work nicely IMO. Bangaiis pair off. Pajamas and Yellow Striped I think tend to stick together more.

Thats a detailed insight, Thanks. Powder Tang and yellow tang both are pretty small like max 3.5 inches.They tend to hang out in the more populated half of the tank.BTW my tank is 3'. The anthias I got are also small. Looks like I need to watch out for the evansi since it needs a lot of feeding.

You want a bottomless tank right? As in no substrate? Then I’d consider any of the Fairy / Flasher Wrasses over a Halichoeres or a Leopard Wrasse as they need to sleep in sand. I’d also not do gobies as they also like sand. The Gobiodon sp. could be exceptions but I’ve heard they’re not the hardiest and easiest to feed unless you have a very healthy specimen from the get go and can get it to eat prepared foods.

The Powder Brown needs to be in at least a 6’ tank long term. Call it one of my pet peeves, and no offense intended, but I’m not a fan of seeing fish in tanks too small for their adult size unless the reefer has at least somewhat of a concrete plan to upgrade to a system suitable for that particular species’ adult size.

Assuming your 75-gallon is a 4-foot tank, you could fit in a Bristletooth Tang except for the Spotted (Blue Eye) Bristletooth or the Striated Bristletooth or the Chevron. This means a Tomini, Yellow Eye Kole, Squaretail, or White Tail would be the suitable Tangs for a 75. A Zebrasoma really needs at least a 6’ 125 long term IMO though I’d probably put a Black Longnose or Yellow (the smallest of the Zebrasoma Tangs) in a 5’ if given enough swimming space. Purple, Scopas, Gem, and both of the Sailfin Tangs need larger tanks.

You could look into a dwarf angel, a more active blenny like a Midas Blenny, a smaller shoaling fish like a couple of Pajama or Yellow Striped Cardinals, or if you’re willing to feed frequently and have a good QT routine, a smaller species of Anthias (not an expert on them). Chromis (Blue / Green, Black Axil, maybe some of the smaller lesser known species) are OK too if you can QT for uronema but there are mixed reports on how well they do together as a group.

Any of the smaller basslets can fit into a 75. Royal Gramma, Black Cap, Swissguard, Swales, Yellow / Randall’s / McNeill’s Assessors.

If you want to do something different, assuming a 4’ tank you could have a Marine Betta. They get to 8” but aren’t very active fish. Still for bioload purposes I’d keep a 75 to 2 larger fish (6” and above) at most and this is assuming a 4’ tank.

A group of Scissortail, Zebra, or Blue Gudgeon Dartfish will likely not kill each other in the way Firefish do.

Damsels. Yup. You could have (maybe) a pair of Chrysiptera sp. damsels, just avoid the Blue Damselfish (C. Cyanea) and Fiji Devil (C. Taupou) and stick to Yellowtails, Azures, Talbot’s, Rolland’s, maybe Starckis if you can find them but I don’t know much about them.


It all comes to whether you like more smaller fish or some larger fish but a fewer number of fish overall. Also, how much do you care about a clean up crew, shrimp, snails and so on?

A couple of of Fairy and Flasher Wrasses along with your Clownfish pair, a basslet, a smaller Tang or a Marine Betta, and a smaller shoaling fish like Cardinals or smaller Anthias or Dartfish, a Midas Blenny, and maybe a pair of more peaceful damsels would work nicely IMO. Bangaiis pair off. Pajamas and Yellow Striped I think tend to stick together more.

Thanks for the detailed insight. The tangs are 3 - 4 inches so still some time before I need to upgrade. The anthias are small and currently not worried about feeding them at all as I am going through a copepod bloom. Soon Im going to have to think about the evansi. I think Im done with my livestock except for the Mandarin which Im going to wait for 3 4 months atleast. cuc from 40G is also not too bad but will need to add some more soon.

 

[Madhav]

Dupe