What are some good personality filled fish?
- Thread starter noxel56
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I have a starry blenny in my tank and he acts like he watches over the rest of the fish. Whenever I put in my hand in the tank and sits on the glass cleaner and just watches over me. He even started going after me when I have my hands in the tank. It seems like he's just trying to defend himself and the other fish when I'm doing maintenance.
That’s not bad, although it will prob be 4” in spots when it excavated. Just need some rockwork to burrow around. Just make you have a fill lid with no openings at all. I have a blue spot in my 65, very active at nite. If it’s a short tank I might worry.
Reefer Reborn
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I have 2 Percula clowns, 1 molly, 1 green watchman goby pistole pair, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 PJ Cardinal and a firefish. They all hank out with virtually no aggression. I am tempted to ad a royal gramma, azure damsel or a flasher wrasse but afraid to disturb the peace.
JLynn
Active Member
For a fish with personality, you are hard pressed to do better than a Tailspot Blenny! Not the prettiest fish but definitely one of the most active and entertaining ones to watch! I will never have a SW tank without one.
Orchid dottybacks are great fish (less aggressive than other dottybacks), extremely beautiful and active (the purple of their scales, in real life, is so bright it seems to glow). I wouldn’t say they have a ton of personality, not the way a tailspot blenny does, but they are very enjoyable to watch zoom around the tank.
Orchid dottybacks are great fish (less aggressive than other dottybacks), extremely beautiful and active (the purple of their scales, in real life, is so bright it seems to glow). I wouldn’t say they have a ton of personality, not the way a tailspot blenny does, but they are very enjoyable to watch zoom around the tank.
jasonrusso
2500 Club Member
Blennies always seem to be up to something
Stigigemla
Well-Known Member
When You are mixing different kind of fishes think a bit of where/how they live in the nature. Fishes living near the surface are normally a lot more aggresive than fishes living at 100 feet deep.
I had a 64 gallon tank a few years with 13 damsels of 5 different species a few years. The tank was doing good but one Pomacentrus probably moluccensis dominated over the plancton feeding species. I believe the moluccensis is having algae gardens in the nature and have to protect that area to have its food. There was always a lot of small fights but I seldom saw a torn fin.
In that tank a dartfish or a small blenny would not live long.
But if You have cover glass You can have dartfishes with the tailspot blenny and the wheeleri shrimp goby which I believe is the most peaceful of them. I think the zebra and evides are the hardiest followed by magnifica. Zebra and evides is easy to keep in groups but magnifica must be single or a pair in a small tank. Its the same with the tailspot blenny.
No damsels with them! They come from deeper water so they will trive faster if You begin with lower light but they will do good in strong reef light if You raise the intensity slow. Alpheus bellulus is the most active partner shrimp - often digging all day. Clownfishes are damsels. They just have smaller territories.
I had a 64 gallon tank a few years with 13 damsels of 5 different species a few years. The tank was doing good but one Pomacentrus probably moluccensis dominated over the plancton feeding species. I believe the moluccensis is having algae gardens in the nature and have to protect that area to have its food. There was always a lot of small fights but I seldom saw a torn fin.
In that tank a dartfish or a small blenny would not live long.
But if You have cover glass You can have dartfishes with the tailspot blenny and the wheeleri shrimp goby which I believe is the most peaceful of them. I think the zebra and evides are the hardiest followed by magnifica. Zebra and evides is easy to keep in groups but magnifica must be single or a pair in a small tank. Its the same with the tailspot blenny.
No damsels with them! They come from deeper water so they will trive faster if You begin with lower light but they will do good in strong reef light if You raise the intensity slow. Alpheus bellulus is the most active partner shrimp - often digging all day. Clownfishes are damsels. They just have smaller territories.
Oldsalt
Active Member
My 1st suggestion tends to be pretty much luck of the draw, but I'm very happy (lucky) that I bought this 6 line wrasse late in the game (I waited nearly 18 months after I stocked up on the "fundamentals". You may not want to add one of these guys too early on because they tend to dislike like invaders on their turf). Thankfully, this guy turned out to be a real puddy-cat! He has tons of personality and he feeds directly from my hand right after I put my face near the glass. He knows when I'm coming with food and he even does a few "aerobatic" manoeuvres like rolls and loops - perhaps he's learned to beg for his food! A 40 gallon tank without a sump/fuge is a bit on the small side but you might get away with a pretty small Foxface Rabbitfish. They're hardy but you must provide algae (Nori will suffice). This guy and my Naso Tang (don't even think about getting a Naso because they get BIG - my tank with sump/fuge is 350 gallons - 6' x 3' x 2.5') love to eat the macroalgae from my fuge - they absolutely devour it! I learned the hard way that Nori can foul your water if too much is provided. I stopped using it ages ago. Instead, I bought Caulerpa Brachypus (Paddle Caulerpa that doesn't go sexual) and Chaeto (but they don't love it as much as the Caulerpa). Both my Foxface and my Naso absolutely love Caulerpa, but they can take or leave the Chaeto. I bought 500 grams (just over 1 lb) of Caulerpa Brachypus from a coral farm north of Perth over a year ago. I only let it grow in the refugium on an overlapping (2 hours before and after DT lights ramp on/off) light cycle. Oceanarium: http://oceanarium.com.au/index.toy who supply vast amounts of coral in Australia promised me that their Caulerpa doesn't go sexual, so I gave it a try and they were correct. The stuff thrives in my fuge. It grows slightly faster than it gets eaten. I have crushed coral/sand in my fuge.
OK, back to fish - Anthias are great starter fish too. They can be vivid to fairly dull, depending upon where you get them from. I have 5 Northwestern Australia genus that are quite vivid orange with an almost fluorescent blue streak under their eyes. They love to shoal together and are omnivores. Have a look at the stunning neon blue line emanating from the eye. Luckily being from Western Australia, these are a common variety and aren't expensive. You might have trouble finding these ones in the USA. Not everything here is rosy though! I simply cannot find any neon Gobies, but they are readily available in the USA. I highly recommend that you grab one if you are in the USA. They perform cleaning rituals just like proper cleaner wrasse do. Proper cleaner wrasse are notoriously finicky. They commonly starve to death after all the fish that they pick clean are no longer hosting meals. The Neon Goby is quite often mistaken for true cleaner wrasse, so be sure to do your homework before laying down any cash. Do a Google search for Al Ulrich. He has blogs about Neon Gobies and other great starter fish.
Finally, if you can find a mated pair of Banggai Cardinal fish (my pair mate every month, yielding 20 to 50 fry that I raise in a grow out tank). I have no trouble selling them to my LFS when they are 3 months old. I have a couple of urchins that the male Banggai spits the fry into after 21 days. Then I simply move them with the urchin into the grow out tank. They love to feed on enriched BBS that I get ready during the last week before the male releases his fry. I start to mix in dry 100 micron fry food (reef roids and frozen rotifers as well) on the 2nd week. Once they start to eat that, wean them off the BBS. They grow pretty fast and I feel good about not resorting to wild caught Banggais (they are becoming endangered in Indonesia - also, the use of cyanide there is a big no-no in my book because the survival rate is around 10% at best). Here's my male with a mouthful of fry on the 15th day since mating. It's amazing that the male goes without eating for a full 21 days with fry growing in his mouth! But he pigs out for the week before mating. I've learned that providing BBS during a week before mating stimulates their mating ritual. I suppose that when Banggais know BBS (or other small live food) is available, it plays an important role in their breeding process.
I could mention clownfish, but IMO they can be real savages! They will bite you if you put your hand near their no-go zone! I used to raise them but I stopped. It seems like everybody's breeding clowns these days (plus I'm getting old!). My Ocellaris pair mate every 2 weeks without fail but I just leave them to fate. Still, every so often I find a few clowns that made it past metamorphosis in my fuge. It's amazing that they actually survive the turbulent ride getting down there! I have copious quantities of pods and macroalgae in my refugium for them to live off. The ones that do grow out are simply given away to friends or traded for food at my LFS.
I made an artificial urchin out of rubber and 1mm carbon fibre rod. Here you can see that I circled 1 day old Banggai hiding in it. It's around a quarter of an inch long. I also attached a photo of my real, live urchin. At night it leaves a clean trail of rock behind. Certainly not starving!
You didn't mention if you are going to have corals. If you are, I'm sure you know what not to get.
Hope this helps you. Please feel free to ask questions. The folks here are very helpful.
Cheers from down under,
Bill A
OK, back to fish - Anthias are great starter fish too. They can be vivid to fairly dull, depending upon where you get them from. I have 5 Northwestern Australia genus that are quite vivid orange with an almost fluorescent blue streak under their eyes. They love to shoal together and are omnivores. Have a look at the stunning neon blue line emanating from the eye. Luckily being from Western Australia, these are a common variety and aren't expensive. You might have trouble finding these ones in the USA. Not everything here is rosy though! I simply cannot find any neon Gobies, but they are readily available in the USA. I highly recommend that you grab one if you are in the USA. They perform cleaning rituals just like proper cleaner wrasse do. Proper cleaner wrasse are notoriously finicky. They commonly starve to death after all the fish that they pick clean are no longer hosting meals. The Neon Goby is quite often mistaken for true cleaner wrasse, so be sure to do your homework before laying down any cash. Do a Google search for Al Ulrich. He has blogs about Neon Gobies and other great starter fish.
Finally, if you can find a mated pair of Banggai Cardinal fish (my pair mate every month, yielding 20 to 50 fry that I raise in a grow out tank). I have no trouble selling them to my LFS when they are 3 months old. I have a couple of urchins that the male Banggai spits the fry into after 21 days. Then I simply move them with the urchin into the grow out tank. They love to feed on enriched BBS that I get ready during the last week before the male releases his fry. I start to mix in dry 100 micron fry food (reef roids and frozen rotifers as well) on the 2nd week. Once they start to eat that, wean them off the BBS. They grow pretty fast and I feel good about not resorting to wild caught Banggais (they are becoming endangered in Indonesia - also, the use of cyanide there is a big no-no in my book because the survival rate is around 10% at best). Here's my male with a mouthful of fry on the 15th day since mating. It's amazing that the male goes without eating for a full 21 days with fry growing in his mouth! But he pigs out for the week before mating. I've learned that providing BBS during a week before mating stimulates their mating ritual. I suppose that when Banggais know BBS (or other small live food) is available, it plays an important role in their breeding process.
I could mention clownfish, but IMO they can be real savages! They will bite you if you put your hand near their no-go zone! I used to raise them but I stopped. It seems like everybody's breeding clowns these days (plus I'm getting old!). My Ocellaris pair mate every 2 weeks without fail but I just leave them to fate. Still, every so often I find a few clowns that made it past metamorphosis in my fuge. It's amazing that they actually survive the turbulent ride getting down there! I have copious quantities of pods and macroalgae in my refugium for them to live off. The ones that do grow out are simply given away to friends or traded for food at my LFS.
I made an artificial urchin out of rubber and 1mm carbon fibre rod. Here you can see that I circled 1 day old Banggai hiding in it. It's around a quarter of an inch long. I also attached a photo of my real, live urchin. At night it leaves a clean trail of rock behind. Certainly not starving!
You didn't mention if you are going to have corals. If you are, I'm sure you know what not to get.
Hope this helps you. Please feel free to ask questions. The folks here are very helpful.
Cheers from down under,
Bill A
Last edited:
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+1
Dwarf angels are great fish, but it's definitely hit or miss with them in regard to picking at corals.
katonge
Active Member
Mine hasn’t bothered my shrimp.
Thank you so much for this essay of a response lol. I really enjoyed the read. So one thing is, I know that you mentioned a Six Line Wrasse. I plan on keeping a flasher wrasse so I’m not sure if aggression would be a problem between the two. Another thing is don’t fox face get quite large for a 40b? They are amazing fish don’t get me wrong, but I feel like it would limit the amount/types of other fish I could have. What is the scientific name for the anthias you mentioned? I’d be interested is anthias if they wouldn’t get to large. Before reading this I was debating on either getting clowns or bangaii. If I do more small fish, I will probably go with the cardinals, but on the flip side, if I choose to have more bold fish then I will choose the clowns. Also I’m sorry that I forgot to mention that my tank will be a reef tank. I plan on having softies/gorgs but that could change. Thanks for all the help with this topic!My 1st suggestion tends to be pretty much luck of the draw, but I'm very happy (lucky) that I bought this 6 line wrasse late in the game (I waited nearly 18 months after I stocked up on the "fundamentals". You may not want to add one of these guys too early on because they tend to dislike like invaders on their turf). Thankfully, this guy turned out to be a real puddy-cat! He has tons of personality and he feeds directly from my hand right after I put my face near the glass. He knows when I'm coming with food and he even does a few "aerobatic" manoeuvres like rolls and loops - perhaps he's learned to beg for his food! A 40 gallon tank without a sump/fuge is a bit on the small side but you might get away with a pretty small Foxface Rabbitfish. They're hardy but you must provide algae (Nori will suffice). This guy and my Naso Tang (don't even think about getting a Naso because they get BIG - my tank with sump/fuge is 350 gallons - 6' x 3' x 2.5') love to eat the macroalgae from my fuge - they absolutely devour it! I learned the hard way that Nori can foul your water if too much is provided. I stopped using it ages ago. Instead, I bought Caulerpa Brachypus (Paddle Caulerpa that doesn't go sexual) and Chaeto (but they don't love it as much as the Caulerpa). Both my Foxface and my Naso absolutely love Caulerpa, but they can take or leave the Chaeto. I bought 500 grams (just over 1 lb) of Caulerpa Brachypus from a coral farm north of Perth over a year ago. I only let it grow in the refugium on an overlapping (2 hours before and after DT lights ramp on/off) light cycle. Oceanarium: http://oceanarium.com.au/index.toy who supply vast amounts of coral in Australia promised me that their Caulerpa doesn't go sexual, so I gave it a try and they were correct. The stuff thrives in my fuge. It grows slightly faster than it gets eaten. I have crushed coral/sand in my fuge.
OK, back to fish - Anthias are great starter fish too. They can be vivid to fairly dull, depending upon where you get them from. I have 5 Northwestern Australia genus that are quite vivid orange with an almost fluorescent blue streak under their eyes. They love to shoal together and are omnivores. Have a look at the stunning neon blue line emanating from the eye. Luckily being from Western Australia, these are a common variety and aren't expensive. You might have trouble finding these ones in the USA. Not everything here is rosy though! I simply cannot find any neon Gobies, but they are readily available in the USA. I highly recommend that you grab one if you are in the USA. They perform cleaning rituals just like proper cleaner wrasse do. Proper cleaner wrasse are notoriously finicky. They commonly starve to death after all the fish that they pick clean are no longer hosting meals. The Neon Goby is quite often mistaken for true cleaner wrasse, so be sure to do your homework before laying down any cash. Do a Google search for Al Ulrich. He has blogs about Neon Gobies and other great starter fish.
Finally, if you can find a mated pair of Banggai Cardinal fish (my pair mate every month, yielding 20 to 50 fry that I raise in a grow out tank). I have no trouble selling them to my LFS when they are 3 months old. I have a couple of urchins that the male Banggai spits the fry into after 21 days. Then I simply move them with the urchin into the grow out tank. They love to feed on enriched BBS that I get ready during the last week before the male releases his fry. I start to mix in dry 100 micron fry food (reef roids and frozen rotifers as well) on the 2nd week. Once they start to eat that, wean them off the BBS. They grow pretty fast and I feel good about not resorting to wild caught Banggais (they are becoming endangered in Indonesia - also, the use of cyanide there is a big no-no in my book because the survival rate is around 10% at best). Here's my male with a mouthful of fry on the 15th day since mating. It's amazing that the male goes without eating for a full 21 days with fry growing in his mouth! But he pigs out for the week before mating. I've learned that providing BBS during a week before mating stimulates their mating ritual. I suppose that when Banggais know BBS (or other small live food) is available, it plays an important role in their breeding process.
I could mention clownfish, but IMO they can be real savages! They will bite you if you put your hand near their no-go zone! I used to raise them but I stopped. It seems like everybody's breeding clowns these days (plus I'm getting old!). My Ocellaris pair mate every 2 weeks without fail but I just leave them to fate. Still, every so often I find a few clowns that made it past metamorphosis in my fuge. It's amazing that they actually survive the turbulent ride getting down there! I have copious quantities of pods and macroalgae in my refugium for them to live off. The ones that do grow out are simply given away to friends or traded for food at my LFS.
I made an artificial urchin out of rubber and 1mm carbon fibre rod. Here you can see that I circled 1 day old Banggai hiding in it. It's around a quarter of an inch long. I also attached a photo of my real, live urchin. At night it leaves a clean trail of rock behind. Certainly not starving!
You didn't mention if you are going to have corals. If you are, I'm sure you know what not to get.
Hope this helps you. Please feel free to ask questions. The folks here are very helpful.
Cheers from down under,
Bill A
Back where it all began
Active Member
I have a cowfish that is great. Takes a bit larger tank, but eats out of my hand and also likes to roll around in it. Swims a lot of the time with its front horns out of the water.
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