Tank Mate Ideas, need some inspiration!

Nelliy · Nov 10, 2020

Hi guys,

I got out one of my old tanks I decommissioned a couple years back and decided to get it up and running again.

Previously it primarily inhabited a lionfish, eel and triggerfish.

I don’t want to have too many fish for this tank, just some nice show pieces. I was thinking an emperor angel but would like to keep some coral as well so that’s out of the question.

Just after some inspiration, maybe there’s a few species out there that work well together that I’m unaware of.

The idea I had was to keep 5 nice corals and 5 nice fish roughly, not heavily stocked just some nice main pieces that are also pretty hardy.

The tank is still in its cycling stage just wanted to prepare and plan out what I wanted.

It is a 275Litre tank not including the sump.

hds4216 · Nov 10, 2020

Emperor angels get way too large for 275 L, just FYI. A dwarf angel, such as a Cherub or Flame angel, would look great as a showpiece. They can nip at corals, but some are angels and some are nightmares. Other suggestions I have: a goby/shrimp pair (amazing symbiosis), some clowns (the archetypal reef fish), a nice blenny (starry, lawnmower, midas, or bicolor are all interesting). Some would say a smaller tang, such as the Yellow tang, could fit in 275 L, but your tank seems taller than it does long and tangs typically need vertical room to swim. A Tomini might work though, they're one of the smaller available tangs.

Other random fish like royal gramma, firefish, hawkfish could also work. Wrasses would be cool as well.

Nelliy · Nov 10, 2020

hds4216 said:
Emperor angels get way too large for 275 L, just FYI. A dwarf angel, such as a Cherub or Flame angel, would look great as a showpiece. They can nip at corals, but some are angels and some are nightmares. Other suggestions I have: a goby/shrimp pair (amazing symbiosis), some clowns (the archetypal reef fish), a nice blenny (starry, lawnmower, midas, or bicolor are all interesting). Some would say a smaller tang, such as the Yellow tang, could fit in 275 L, but your tank seems taller than it does long and tangs typically need vertical room to swim. A Tomini might work though, they're one of the smaller available tangs.

Other random fish like royal gramma, firefish, hawkfish could also work. Wrasses would be cool as well.

Thank you! Size isn’t too much of an issue as in a year I’ll be building a in wall tank around 1000-2000 litres so everything will be going on that tank eventually. Obviously I can’t chuck a full grown large fish in now, but a juvy (depending on the species) shouldn’t outgrow it in a year.

I have kept most of Before fish before and have some of them in my other two tanks, I am brainstorming to see if i can get something different this time around!