Reef Safe & Interesting Additions?

[AmaleeC]

Hello everyone! What is an interesting or dangerous fish/invert to add to a 75g that is friendly with other fish and reef safe? Lately I’ve really been interested in adding a frog fish, but I’m sure he’d eat my firefish. I thought an eel would be awesome, and then looked into engineer goby’s as an alternative since eels often have a heavy bioload. Would an engineer goby be able to knock over rock work & make a huge mess of sand? Most of my rock work consists of pretty heavy rocks.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Bandtail waspfish are something different, reefsafe and generally fish safe , while predatory, apart from with small gobies and the likes. Ive never kept any but i believe @lion king keeps some, if you are interested. Though i believe they can be tricky to wean onto prepared foods from live food which may be an issue

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Two words:
Hog Choker.
They are tiny flounders found in the gulf of Mexico with a maximum length of about 5". I recently ordered one and will be getting it in the mail next month. Super freaking awesome fish that is safe with other fish & inverts because of it's diminutive size. Check it out, if you have the chance.

 

[lion king]

Those little waspfish are interesting but very cryptic, I mean you rarely see them, and feeding them is somewhat akin to feeding mandarins, high maintenance. I did a thread on them, if you search their scientific name you will it.

How about a dwarf Hawaiian eel.

 

[AmaleeC]

Those little waspfish are interesting but very cryptic, I mean you rarely see them, and feeding them is somewhat akin to feeding mandarins, high maintenance. I did a thread on them, if you search their scientific name you will it.

How about a dwarf Hawaiian eel.

That’s what I was originally thinking with the wasp fish. They’re neat and all, but elusive. I definitely check out the thread though! That seems like a really cool read.

I was considering one, they’re very nice! But I’m a little on edge with the bioload. I’ve heard eels can be a bit messy & have quite a few fish already in the tank. I don’t want to go too crazy with the last addition. Any thoughts on the bioload and of the Hawaiian eels? Would you consider their care “easy”?

 

[AmaleeC]

Two words:
Hog Choker.
They are tiny flounders found in the gulf of Mexico with a maximum length of about 5". I recently ordered one and will be getting it in the mail next month. Super freaking awesome fish that is safe with other fish & inverts because of it's diminutive size. Check it out, if you have the chance.

Very cool! I’m in FL so I’d have better luck catching one than seeing it in my LFS lol I’ll look more into them.

 

[lion king]

That’s what I was originally thinking with the wasp fish. They’re neat and all, but elusive. I definitely check out the thread though! That seems like a really cool read.

I was considering one, they’re very nice! But I’m a little on edge with the bioload. I’ve heard eels can be a bit messy & have quite a few fish already in the tank. I don’t want to go too crazy with the last addition. Any thoughts on the bioload and of the Hawaiian eels? Would you consider their care “easy”?

The little Hawaiian dwarf eel isn't going to add much at all to a 75g. The thing about messy is most people think to just drop food in or feed them big chunks, that they just rip and tear is fine. If you cut up the chunks to an appropriate size for them to easily get down, and target feed them of course, they are not messy at all.

 

[dhanking]

The hog choker sounds really interesting! Where might I be able to find one? Also what are its requirements? I looked on the web but couldn't find much. Thanks

 

[Mr_Knightley]

The hog choker sounds really interesting! Where might I be able to find one? Also what are its requirements? I looked on the web but couldn't find much. Thanks

Here's a link to the site I ordered mine from, they also carry tons of awesome NPS and inverts that you can't find at an LFS.
https://gulfspecimen.org/

 

[lion king]

Here's the write up I did on the red rooster waspfish

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/paracentropogon-zonatus-1st-impressions.699714/page-2