Good hardy fish for 45 gal nano

[saullman]

Hey guys,
. Need some suggestions for fish for my 45 gal JBJ. Right now I have a firefish, 6 line, and cleaner shrimp. I do have some corals (soft and LPS) so they would have to be reef safe. I also a have a small CUC so they would have to be invert safe. My luck keeping fish for more than a few weeks/ months has been not very positive. I would say that I'm a novice at keeping fish, but I'm an expert at killing them. I need something very hardy that can tolerate my mistakes. What are your thoughts?

 

[Old Fritz]

Gobies, blennies, and hawkfish are bulletproof in my opinion, but with the shrimp that rules out the hawkfish. Tailspot blennies are one of my favorites but for a 45 gallon you wouldn't see him much so like a midas or canary blenny would do well in there or a lawn mower blenny but they don't stick out as much. Pearly jawfish and blue sleeper gobies both sift through your sand and look awesome while not getting too large. Once you're more confident a dwarf angel would do well like a coral beauty, flame, flameback (my personal choice), or a bicolor.

 

[saullman]

Gobies, blennies, and hawkfish are bulletproof in my opinion, but with the shrimp that rules out the hawkfish. Tailspot blennies are one of my favorites but for a 45 gallon you wouldn't see him much so like a midas or canary blenny would do well in there or a lawn mower blenny but they don't stick out as much. Pearly jawfish and blue sleeper gobies both sift through your sand and look awesome while not getting too large. Once you're more confident a dwarf angel would do well like a coral beauty, flame, flameback (my personal choice), or a bicolor.

Thanks for the reply. Something I forgot to mention is that my substrate is not sand, it is crushed coral so that's going to eliminate some of your choices.

I already had a lawnmower blenny and killed it. For some reason one day he just stopped eating and basically committed suicide.
There are 2 problems with the angels you recommended
1- they are supposed to be housed in tanks larger than a 45.
2- they are known to nip at corals
The pearly jawfish, Midas blenny, and sleeper goby needs a sandy substrate which I don't have.
Tailspot and canary I looked up and are both good choices for me.

 

[joec]

Honestly, I would get rid of the six line, it is likely to be very nasty to peaceful tank mates particularly since you put him in there so early on. The fire fish is not a good tank mate to keep with a six line. A pink streaked is a good replacement for the six line. Then just add peaceful fish after that.

You need to quarantine your fish and you will be far more successful. Your fish are dying because they are diseased and those diseases are now in your tank. Unless you change your protocol, the deaths will continue

 

[mattzang]

like mentioned above, i'd probably start QTing if stuff is dying. maybe try captive bred fish too, much hardier. afaik if you order them directly from breeders they should be disease free, the issue would be if they spend time in an in between situation at an lfs or wholesale place. no matter how hardy fish are, if there's disease in your tank there are going to be issues. have you tried making a post in the disease forum and seeing what they recommend?

sixlines are mean fish and unlikely to be nice to the smaller kind of fish you'll want to add in a tank that size.

i have a midas blenny so i can say for sure it does not need a sandy substrate or substrate of any kind. tailspot is the same genus as midas so just don't combine those. Meiacanthus blennies are cool too, they're more open water swimmer types. Ecsenius blennies are kind of a combination, they'll perch for awhile, swim for awhile, etc. my midas likes to post up in a hole in the rocks and just peek his head out, it's pretty adorbs

 

[Old Fritz]

Thanks for the reply. Something I forgot to mention is that my substrate is not sand, it is crushed coral so that's going to eliminate some of your choices.

I already had a lawnmower blenny and killed it. For some reason one day he just stopped eating and basically committed suicide.
There are 2 problems with the angels you recommended
1- they are supposed to be housed in tanks larger than a 45.
2- they are known to nip at corals
The pearly jawfish, Midas blenny, and sleeper goby needs a sandy substrate which I don't have.
Tailspot and canary I looked up and are both good choices for me.

they recommend a 55 or more for some dwarf angels because they like to graze, never had a problem with aggression in a smaller tank.

Pearly jawfish and sleeper gobies do fine on crushed coral never had an issue. I've never heard of midas blennies having issues with cc.