If you could choose ONE freshwater fish that could magically live in your reef - which would you pick?

[MillennialReefer]

Just for fun! - all hypothetical - do not try this! lol

Like many reefers, I started keeping freshwater fish, from planted tanks, cichlids and discuss then naturally evolved into reefing. However, due to space and my personal life I only have time to maintain one system and that is my reef. There are times I wish I could also keep a large freshwater system but in reality It wouldn't go well long term. There are so many fish that I sometimes wish were saltwater species so I can keep in my reef (excluding mollies or some brackish species). So the question also the title. If you could keep one freshwater fish in your reef, which one would it be?

Mine is a black ghost knife fish - thinking how cool it would be swimming amongst the corals with the color contrast - its a fantasy I know!

Anyone have a similar fantasy?

 

[Koh23]

Mine is a black ghost knife fish.....

Totaly agree, had one of those dudes in fw tank with my altums, had serious problems with feeding and hiding, many nights i spend with flashlight trying to make him to eat.....

Finaly i did it, and he was so relaxed that he become centerpiece in tank, they mostly hide during lights, but he was all over the place all day long....

Sadly, when he grow around 30cm in lenght it was time to let him go....

 

[Dave1993]

Arowana if i had a big enough tank

 

[Lividfanatica]

Plecostomus, hands down. Snails are great.. but if I keep pebble tooth eels or big wrasses, they are a no-go. Now a big ol' pleco in a massive tank - Sign me up!

 

[Rmckoy]

When I was a teenager . I had a fw aquarium with Oscar’s and a clown knife .
They are massive and eat their weight in feeder fish .

 

[fish farmer]

Neon tetras

 

[Pale Morning1]

I would love to have some African cichlids shell dwellers. Or I hate to say it Neon Tetras would look cool in a reef.

 

[afrokobe]

Asian arowana would be amazing, if it were legal in the us....

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Haplochromis cichlids. Or maybe just plain ol' cardinal tetras.

 

[LOVEROCK]

Red arowanas !

 

[Sean Clark]

Mine would be a bright colorful discus.

 

[Wasabiroot]

I'd have to second discus. They'd really look amazing in a reef. Other than that I'd say some kind of able bodied algae eater like a true SAE or otocinclus.

 

[o2manyfish]

Gotta be plecos --- To not have to algae wipe my tanks ever again --- Loving it. After 40+ years of wiping algae off my salt tanks I would love for them to discover a saltwater Pleco or otocinculus to take over this relentless job.

Dave B

 

[AlgaeBarn]

I would say discus, neon tetras, or Celestial Pearl Danios

 

[Sharkbait19]

Any type of tetra would be great. There aren’t many options out there for small, peaceful marine schooling fish.
A reef dwarf puffer would be great. Imagine a puffer for nano tanks.
I’d also love a marine piranha just because that would be awesome…

On the topic of cichlids, there actually are a few species that naturally are found in marine conditions. One example is the black belt vieja cichlid, which experiments have determined could actually live its life in saltwater. But nobody wants a reef tank with just a Vieja that killed its tankmates.

 

[Fichmiester]

My LFS acclimates Molly's to saltwater. Pretty cool if want another option for schooling fish.

 

[Tamberav]

Rummynose tetras - great schoolers

 

[afrokobe]

Any type of tetra would be great. There aren’t many options out there for small, peaceful marine schooling fish.
A reef dwarf puffer would be great. Imagine a puffer for nano tanks.
I’d also love a marine piranha just because that would be awesome…

On the topic of cichlids, there actually are a few species that naturally are found in marine conditions. One example is the black belt vieja cichlid, which experiments have determined could actually live its life in saltwater. But nobody wants a reef tank with just a Vieja that killed its tankmates.

while not completely saltwater, I know figure 8 and green spot puffers can do brackish and they stay relatively small. However if you are looking for dwarf puffers, then you'd be out of luck

 

[Sharkbait19]

while not completely saltwater, I know figure 8 and green spot puffers can do brackish and they stay relatively small. However if you are looking for dwarf puffers, then you'd be out of luck

Green spot can go full marine…they are just pure evil lol

 

[afrokobe]

Green spot can go full marine…they are just pure evil lol

oh I didnt know that! most puffers are pretty evil lol. I had tank of dwarf puffers and those guys were vicious for how small they were.