What are some "Working" fish?

[SeahorseKeeper]

Saltwater mollies are good at keeping algae at bay.

 

[thePACK]

Rabbit fish..I have 2 in my reef and they will (hands down) mow down any algae! I have orange spot rabbits*not my picture but they look like this one*

 

[Maddlesrain]

Rabbit fish..I have 2 in my reef and they will (hands down) mow any algae..they put tangs to shame..

What types of corals do you keep with your rabbitfish?

 

[thePACK]

Yes, I do have them with coral and I have no nipping or harrasment issues.

 

[Kershaw]

I didn't see anyone mention them. So how about a yellow candy hog fish. I had one in my 180. Adds great color and deffintly made a dent on my bristle worms.

 

[Mary Q.]

I love my hippo, scopis and kole tang, six line wrasse and yellow coris wrasse

 

[Goby-won]

Yellow Coris Wrasse for sure. Mine had great personality and I will be replacing him. Watch out though - you will need a covered tank! Wrasse love to carpet surf. They are professionals at slipping through the smallest space, hence the unfortunate reason I need to replace lemon.:(

 

[dodge88]

i do a bunch of tangs to control algae.
but school fish is hard
copperband cleans up all aptaisia in my tank

 

[dodge88]

and kole tang is a machine too

 

[DracoKat]

I'll probably just do one Kole Tang.. the other tangs are pushing it for my tank size.

A few wrasses and a lawnmower blenny. I like rabbit fish, but not sure if they will be suitable for my tank either

 

[germs101]

I had a Pearlscale with my frogspawn that was the size of a melon, and it never bothered it. It did wipe out my aiptasis problem in a matter of DAYs that had gotten to the point where they were large enough to eat fish!

 

[danielb333]

thanks!

Not sure if I want sand-sifting gobies.. I hear they make a mess of things. got to look more into them.

Blennies are nice to have, I'll add them to my list

I have a diamond goby and he does an awesome job cleaning the top layer of the sand. Scoops it up and layers it out on the bed pretty much right where it was not messy at all. Never digs or moves large amounts from one area. I would really recommend. My maroon clownish on the other hand is a completely different story. Would get rid of him if I hadn't had him for so long. Lol

 

[danielb333]

What types of corals do you keep with your rabbitfish?

Keep in mind that rabbit fish get big too. Just as big as a tang I believe. I have a yellow spot in my 75 gallon. Got him as a baby and in less then a year time he is by far my biggest fish. One of my favorites though but needs a bigger tank to swim.

 

[germs101]

I have a diamond goby and he does an awesome job cleaning the top layer of the sand. Scoops it up and layers it out on the bed pretty much right where it was not messy at all. Never digs or moves large amounts from one area. I would really recommend. My maroon clownish on the other hand is a completely different story. Would get rid of him if I hadn't had him for so long. Lol

I second the Diamond gobie. If a perfect sandbed is what you need, they're the only way I've been able to get there.

 

[ntsekov]

thanks!

Not sure if I want sand-sifting gobies.. I hear they make a mess of things. got to look more into them.

Blennies are nice to have, I'll add them to my list

If you need safer sand-sifter, get a Two Spot gobie (Signigobius biocellatus), they also sift whole day, but they are not burrowing and they don't rearrange. You have to have live sand and see it eating food at the store, they rarely eat frozen food and/or have to be spot fed. Often sold in pairs.

Other very peacefull small fish you might want to check: Pink-Streaked Wrasse - very small and shy, won't bother any fish, constantly cleans corals and rocks. I'd not get a Six-Line in the same tank, therre is a risk the SL would be aggressive against the pigmy wrasse.

Butterfly fish, but only if you can see it eating and you have ample space.

Also dragonettes, some of them are very small and quite entertaining. Often sold in pairs.

On a side note, be carefull with blennies, they have great personalities, but there are some that nip on other fish, and not all of them would touch algae. The Algae blenny (Salarias fasciatus) is widely popular algae cleaner, but most of the time it just starves in a tank, not enough algae for its body mass, it's one of the bigger blennies in the trade.

Tangs are great algae eaters, just not any algae. And they will also make smaller fish hide more, so it's a trade, you either get 2-3 of them (mind you, different types) so the small fish will get used to bigger stuff around, and risk tang wars, or just avoid having more than one risking some fish would be scared because of it's size. In a populated tank with corals it wouldn't matter that much as fish will see less of each other.

 

[Husterix]

My ctenochaetus strigosus is by far my most active working fish. Busy cleaning the rock all day long, much more then my yellow tang.

 

[najer]

Jewel blenny but be warned, you will fall in love with it! ;)
Great natural grazer and will eat any food you throw in! :)

 

[Chrispaul]

People say tangs for alge but I got a fox face and he has striped every bit of alge from my tank! I even tried to grow a load of fancy stuff and the brillo looking stuff for natural grazing but it never stood a chance!

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Kole tangs and tangs with the same shaped mouth like Lavender and Lutenant tangs seems to graze more effectively than the yellow tang amd the ones shaped the same way.

 

[ridgley52]

Blennies are great! Also sailfin tangs are good grazers and fit in a 75 nicley

75 not even close to large enough for any tangs except for the bristletooth