Need fish recommendations please

reefiniteasy · Jul 1, 2021

Hello R2R. For the last couple of years I’ve only had 2 black Ocellaris in my 16 gallon BioCube. I felt that was more than enough fish considering the tank only had 12 gallons of water. Now that I transferrd my BioCube to a Nuvo 40 I want more fish. I plan on quarantining. I’m reading all about that now. The Nuvo 40 has a full clean up crew and the same two black Oellaris Clownfish that were in the BioCube. It has exactly 31 gallons of water.
I want attractive fish that aren’t too territorial. I also don’t want fish that I’ll have to rehome at some point. For example, a local store suggested a small Foxface. Although cool, I don’t want to rehome it in a couple years. If you have any suggestions of fish I should look into, please share. Thank you!

Jekyl · Jul 1, 2021

Do you get locally or have them shipped? Drreefsquarantinedfish.com is a good place to check them out. Tank recommendations are included.

tjohnson3 · Jul 1, 2021

Fire fish, anthias, blennies, gobies… all stay relatively small for that tank, come in a variety of colors, and are peaceful fish… maybe a Pygmy Angel to mix it up

elorablue · Jul 1, 2021

Nice tank !
I always suggest a firefish. Can be a bit reclusive but a beautiful, calm and peaceful fish. I have one with 2 clowns.

gaki · Jul 1, 2021

That’s a really nice looking tank- I think lots of fish would look really nice in it. Off the top of my head, I would suggest a yellow clown goby, which will spend a lot of it’s time perching on corals (though a small fish, they have lots of personality). Also, a pistol shrimp&goby would be cool, but they will find a burrow and stay pretty close to it. I would stay away from schooling fish given the size of the tank, but maybe a few chromosomes to add color and movement. Also a group of banggai cardinal fish might be good. Like tjohnson and elorablue said, fire fish would also be a good fit-nice temperament and also stay a good size. Also an anthias or two, but that might be pushing it- I’ve always liked fathead sunburst anthias, but that’s just me. Hope this was helpful!

reefiniteasy · Jul 1, 2021

Jekyl said:
Do you get locally or have them shipped? Drreefsquarantinedfish.com is a good place to check them out. Tank recommendations are included.

I live within 15 minutes of Top Shelf, Living Reef, and WWC so the goal is to buy locally. But I won’t dismiss the idea of shipping if it’s what I want

tjohnson3 said:
Fire fish, anthias, blennies, gobies… all stay relatively small for that tank, come in a variety of colors, and are peaceful fish… maybe a Pygmy Angel to mix it up

thank you for the suggestions. I will
Look them up

elorablue said:
Nice tank !
I always suggest a firefish. Can be a bit reclusive but a beautiful, calm and peaceful fish. I have one with 2 clowns.

I will probably get one. I saw a beautiful purple one at Living Reef. It was gorgeous. Thank you!

PatW · Jul 1, 2021

For an idea, you can go to Live Aquaria or Blue Zoo Aquatics and look for fish that are “easy”, “peaceful”, ”reef safe” and ”nano”.

Fire fish are great fish. Bengai Cardinals are good. There are a number of blennies that will work. And there are a bunch of gobies that would work. You might look for reef safe wrasses. They are colorful and peaceful. Good luck with it.

adittam · Jul 1, 2021

How about a Pink-streaked wrasse (Pseudocheilinops ataenia)? It’s one of the only wrasses that can go in tanks this small, but it’s very active and very pretty.

JayA · Jul 1, 2021

Pink-streaked wrasse. How about a solarensis wrasse (some sources recommend 40 gallons and up). Also pair of blue gudgeon dartfish, a tailspot or flame blenny, a bi-color blenny *not that colorful but loads of personality. Neon goby, sharknose goby, talbot's damsel? cherub angel, sharknose goby. ruby red dragonet down the line.

jdiefenbaugh · Jul 1, 2021

Pink streaked or possum wrasses, pistol shrimp/goby pairs and almost every goby for that matter, most blennies, flasher wrasses, liapropoma sp. basslets, a wild caught yellow assessor would look electric in there. Just off the top of my head, you have a lot of options for nice fish.

terraincognita · Jul 1, 2021

Any smaller blenny species

Pistol and Goby pairs are unique and fun

Otherwise a yasha goby or other burrowing goby is good too.

Dwarf Angel would probably be okay, but some tend to end up nipping corals so watch out.

some smaller wrasse might work out too. But try to add them last.

adittam · Jul 1, 2021

Pretty sure flasher wrasses need tanks that are at least 3 feet long for swimming room.

JayA · Jul 1, 2021

oh yeah, I currently have a striped blenny. He is not that colorful, but he is a nice looking fish and active.

Pkunk35 · Jul 1, 2021

I have a similar tank (32g cube) and I stock:

Helfrichi firefish
2 clownfish
2 dwarf trimma gobies
Cuban Basslet
Matte filefish
Eviota goby

most from biota, all live very happy
and none aggressive and none get too big. I had to take out a seale cardinal fish for the filefish bc I didn’t think there was enough swimming room. I highly recommend tiny gobies over larger ones as they can find tiny niches in the tank to live. Plus I think they look dope.
I def love em all.
One fish I wish I could find but just can’t anymore are barnacle blennies! Easily one of my favorite nano fish but I haven’t seen one for sale in forever.