Fun, interesting, different fish in a frag tank

[LobsterOfJustice]

Most discussions around fish in a frag tank revolve around useful fish that serve a specific purpose such as algae control, pest control, etc. I’ve got three frag tanks and I’d like to flip the question a bit and I’m looking for ideas for fish that are just cool, different, fun. Maybe something you wouldn’t normally keep in the display tank because it’s aggressive to other fish or eats shrimp/inverts. Or maybe something smaller and interesting that would get overlooked or lost in a larger tank. The stipulations here are it has to be okay in a smaller tank (the largest of the three tanks is a 40g breeder), reef/coral safe (obviously), and needs to handle high flow.

 

[Cthulukelele]

You may be able to put something like a marine betta in the largest of those tanks?

As an aside are you an old CarolinaFishTalk user? I feel like I bought some coral from you in the distant past lol

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Yep I’m a CFT alumnus!

Ideas so far are:
- a pair or group of damsels, or pseudochromis (usually avoided due to aggression)
- hawkfish or dwarf puffer (avoided due to eating shrimp/inverts), the puffer is a bit of a coral risk
- not a fish, but a green brittle starfish (usually avoided due to eating fish)

 

[ColorMeGone]

How about Mollies?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

How about Mollies?

A few years back I tried some mollies and they couldn't handle the flow. Within a few hours they ended up taking the water slides all over the system to the sump, refugium, and even one in the display lol

Some other ideas:
Group of Trimma or Eviota gobies, pom-pom crab, sexy shrimp (all usually avoided because they would get lost, overlooked, or eaten in a larger tank)

 

[nereefpat]

6 line wrasses are sure good at this, but not necessarily different. It has a couple cousins, especially the cool looking 4-line that isn't very common.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Yep I’m a CFT alumnus!

Ideas so far are:
- a pair or group of damsels, or pseudochromis (usually avoided due to aggression)
- hawkfish or dwarf puffer (avoided due to eating shrimp/inverts), the puffer is a bit of a coral risk
- not a fish, but a green brittle starfish (usually avoided due to eating fish)

Valentini puffer is my favorite fish I've ever owned, but they nibbled on everything. They never ate full corals or anything, but they did give them a chew to see how they tasted periodically. So will depend how coral safe you are looking. They did seem to enjoy chewing fleshier stuff like LPS and softies for me. SPS I'd trust them a bit more

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Valentini puffer is my favorite fish I've ever owned, but they nibbled on everything. They never ate full corals or anything, but they did give them a chew to see how they tasted periodically. So will depend how coral safe you are looking. They did seem to enjoy chewing fleshier stuff like LPS and softies for me. SPS I'd trust them a bit more

All three of these frag tanks are almost exclusively SPS. But you raise a good point, a lot of times coral pickers are more likely to "taste" corals that are stressed or sliming, which is going to happen more often in a frag tank, and occasional nipping is also more detrimental to small frags vs colonies.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

6 line wrasses are sure good at this, but not necessarily different. It has a couple cousins, especially the cool looking 4-line that isn't very common.

Ooh, I like this. There are a couple of Pseudocheilinus options that are somewhat uncommon/unique and I assume would serve a useful purpose as well.

 

[JC1977]

I think a Toby puffer would be really cool. My blue spotted Toby never bothered any of my corals.

 

[MIKE NY]

I use my frag as a grow out tank. For example a lot of my wrasses can be very expensive as super males and don’t live that long after…so I try to get them as small juveniles which are cheaper, but also the enjoyment of watching them color up and grow.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Ooh, I like this. There are a couple of Pseudocheilinus options that are somewhat uncommon/unique and I assume would serve a useful purpose as well.

Pseudocheilinus evanidus seems to be much less aggressive than its more common cousin, P. hexataenia. It also does the same type of job, cleaning up pests. I love mine, never bothered any tankmates, even with peaceful fish like a possum wrasse, but still more than capable of holding it's own with dottybacks, larger damsels, and large fowlr fish (it currently resides in my 240 gallon with big tangs, angels, triggers, XL wrasses, damsels, a dottyback, etc).

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Tank taised catalina goby. Super colorful and can handle the more normal temps than wild. Get a bunch of flaming prawn gobies. Pygmy hawk fish, or even a dwarf lionfish for the 40.