what would your BEST utilitarian fish stock be (bonus: for most tank sizes)!

[shakacuz]

what would your BEST utilitarian(fish with a job/purpose) fish stock list be?
- bonus, you can include different lists for different tank sizes.

ideally, for a 40B, my stock list would be:

1. court jester goby
2. 6line wrasse, possum wrasse, or yellow wrasse
3. lawnmower blenny

with this list you can be at 3 fish with room for other fish. court jester gobies are captive bred and have been known to eat some species of cyanobacteria as well as algae off rocks/sand. lawnmower blenny for supplemental support as they eat algae as well, and any of the above mentioned wrasses as they help with pests. the possums wrasse, to my knowledge eats flatworms, but am unsure if other pests like acropora/montipora eating nudibranchs, zoa eating spiders/nudibranchs, or bristle worms. the other 2 wrasse eats all of the recently mentioned pests!

 

[blaxsun]

My quoy's parrotfish. Like a pressure washer for my rocks... (little big for a 40 gallon).

 

[drawdz25]

I gotta chime in here.

In my 11 years of reefing, my single most utilitarian fish has been the aptasia eating filefish.

Has pretty much mowed down my rapidly spreading aptasia plague.

One small fish has wiped out 100+ aptasia in its first two months.

I caught him nipping at various snails, crabs and corals for his first few weeks. But no noticeable damage or deaths anywhere. After about three to four weeks, I caught him devouring an aptasia, and knew it was working. I was pumped. Four to six weeks later, I have maybe five visible aptasia. Feel like he is saving them for later. I’m fairly confident he’s grazing on aptasia babies that I can’t see either.
He also eats frozen foods.

The fish has been a savior to my tank TBH. Aptasia was getting out of hand.
I’ve also come to enjoy the filefish behavior. Pretty entertaining to watch, and no aggression issues in any way with a tang, clownfish, pink line wrasse and blue damsel.

The tang has also been useful for algae control.

Tank looks awesome.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

rabbitfish eat algae and I have had 3 sixline wrasse and never a problem with any of them. it probably eats many pest in my aquarium.

 

[Dave-T]

FWIW - regarding the lawnmower blenny, my experience doesn't match some of what was said here. I've had one in my tank for about a year, and all he does is pick at algae all day long. He leaves all the other fish alone, and shows absolutely no interest in either dry or frozen food when I feed the tank. He also ignores the nori and seaweed I put in to feed my tangs. My tank is algae free to the eye, but there seems to be enough in there to keep my lawnmower fat and happy.