What’s your favorite “colorless” fish?

[Waters]

Two that come to mind for me are the Algae Blenny and the Kole Tang.

 

[polyppal]

 

[polyppal]

Mine would have to be my Flame Tail Tomini Tang, not colorless in my opinion but definitely could be compared to other beautiful fish in this hobby.

I honestly like my $50 flame tail more than my $300 Tahitian white tail

 

[DeniseAndy]

My goofy guy....
He can sit right in front of me and I will not see him. He loves a large toadstool the same color as him. Not a great picture, but recent anyway.

 

[mrtallbear86]

I love my scopas tang. By far the prettiest fish imo

 

[WVNed]

Banded Sleeper Goby

A tireless worker sifting sand.

 

[ACIAMPA]

Engineer goby! These guys are awesome, pseudo eel that gets ~16 in long. Mines still a little guy

 

[i cant think]

Engineer goby! These guys are awesome, pseudo eel that gets ~16 in long. Mines still a little guy

I miss my engineer goby, it’s a pain my new LFS gets them in almost never.

 

[ApoIsland]

Decades ago I was walking through the aisles of the LFS store checking out fresh water fish when I came to a tank with blue damsels lit by PC lighting.

I had a moment.

What was that?

It took fish keeping to a newlevel.

From the blue damsel, to the clownfish, to the yellow tang. How many of us followed that progression stocking up our tanks with the most colorful fish? Bright colors are a huge attraction in this hobby.

Then it continues with the corals. We are a hobby obsessed with colors and florescence.

But if you are in this hobby long enough you start looking at marine life differently.

I have three, less colorful, more camouflaged fish in my tank right now that I love. I wouldn’t have given them a second look years ago, but now I can appreciate them.

My first is what I believe is a female yellow watchman goby. It’s not yellow, but more brown and white. It paired up instantly with a pistol shrimp and can be quite amusing.

The second fish I acquired is an aiptasia eating file fish. You have to really look for this fish. You can often find it swaying with the current in a Sinularia coral. It blends in and can be mistaken for the coral.

Recently I bought a Scopas tang. It’s basically a yellow tang (Zebrasoma), but it has black fins, a white face, and a shimmer of yellow from the body under white lights.

One more fish I had years ago was an lawnmower Blenny. When people came over they loved looking for “Waldo.” He was often hiding in plain sight.

So, how do you feel about these “dull” fish. What they lack in color they often make up
in personality.

Do you have any in your tank? What’s your favorite?

I'm a tang lover so any of the bristletooth tangs would be my favorite dull colored fish based on utility and swim pattern. They are all so bland it unfortunately took me 6 or 7 years to put one in my tank. I love the way they cruise in and out of the rock work and you can't deny their insane algae cleaning ability.

 

[i cant think]

I'm a tang lover so any of the bristletooth tangs would be my favorite dull colored fish based on utility and swim pattern. They are all so bland it unfortunately took me 6 or 7 years to put one in my tank. I love the way they cruise in and out of the rock work and you can't deny their insane algae cleaning ability.

I find the only ones that are dull are the Hawaiian kole tangs, the rest are all rather patterned but I agree with you!! By far the best tang out there for any tank and more suited for captivity compared to their pelagic swimming cousins!!

 

[ApoIsland]

I find the only ones that are dull are the Hawaiian kole tangs, the rest are all rather patterned but I agree with you!! By far the best tang out there for any tank and more suited for captivity compared to their pelagic swimming cousins!!

That's funny. I considered the Kole to be the prettiest of that group with their yellow eye and the distinguished lines. I had one for a few years and really enjoyed it until it ran out of algae to eat and started scraping my favorite favia. I will get another though if I ever have the opportunity again.


**actually I have to edit and say the white tail bristletooth is the prettiest of those in my opinion. I had one for all of three months soon after I gave away the kole. I just could never get it to eat. That was a tough one to lose. Only the 2nd tang I have ever lost in 10 years and by far the most expensive fish I have ever owned. I liked the kole so much I had to go for it though. Major bummer.

 

[Lyss]

This is too funny b/c I literally have only 3 fish in my 20g and the first thing everyone says when they see them is, “why didn’t you get colorful ones?” The expectation from others is that SW = hugely colorful fish.

I have a tailspot blenny, and while he’s more colorful than something like a lawnmower blenny, he’s still fairly dull colored overall. He looks kinda purple and blends in w/the rocks. Then I have a clownfish pair that I purchased as regular orange ocellaris. They turned black lol. Just a tiny bit of orange around their faces, and the female is pretty much almost 100% black and white.

 

[Ardeus]

Like impossible to find RN! But one of the best schooling reef fish out there

It's a schooling fish in the wild, but in the tank 99% chance they'll kill eachothe4 down to a pair.

 

[AMG63Addison]

I have the stippled, it tends to stay in the back part of the tank and since its black you can barely notice it if it stays still, but watching it swim on the glass is super cool

How is clingfish doing, will/can it eat small shrimp or inverts?

 

[angelsandtangs]

Blue eye cardinalfish