Survey...... best fish for a small reef

[faztaz]

RnP I have a 30g with 2 percs, 3 Cardinals, 1 Gramma, and 1 Psuedo .. they are all doing fine and have no problems with each other or space.
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[Minh Nguyen]

Royal Gramma, Cardinals (Banggai or other types), Smaller wrasse like a four line or six lined wrasse are all very nice for a smaller reef. A Cherub, Flame or Coral Beauty angel are beautiful and graceful fish that will do well in a smaller reef.

 

[fishfarmer]

This is what's in my 38 gal, Coral Beauty, purple psuodochromis, and green mandarin. The mandarin is a bad choice for this size tank, she does relish the vitamin soaked brine shrimp though, guess I got lucky. I recently added the psueodochromis to replace my true percula clown which jumped out a couple months ago. That's probably going to do it for me. I think giving ~10 gal of tank space for small fish is a good rule of thumb. I might try a true perc again, if I find the specimen I want though.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

ok i noticed several users with what most people consider small salt water tanks ( i.e less than 55 gallons ) lets hear your opinions on what makes the best fish for smaller tank and your maximum fish number for tanks under 55 gallons

i currently have a 37 gallon with 2 percula clowns and a royal gramma

what do you have and what do you reecommend ?
also what is your tank size ?
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[tim000]

I am also intrested in this as well.^

 

[pathos]

65 gal

1) mated pair of banggai cardinals
2) mated pair of percula clowns
3) orchid dottyback

 

[Jefe12234]

I'm cycling a new 20 gallon tank right now. At first I considered a few Green Chromis since I like the fact that they school together. But now I'm thinking I'd like a lower bio-load (for the health of my corals) and something brighter as well, so I'll probably go with a Strawberry Pseudochromis. They're brightly colored, stay small, and swim in the open. And they don't harm sand bed fauna or corals. Perfect for me.

 

[JohnD]

I have one false perc and a gramma in my 30 gallon, along with hermits, cleaner shrimp, & emerald crab.

Certainly a flame angel is a great addition. Maybe next month.

 

[BananaSlug]

I had a 29 gallon reef with soft corals, corallimorphs and some LPS. The fish inhabitants consisted of a gold-stripe clown, blue fiji damsel and a six-line wrasse. All were great ingabitants for such a small reef especially the wrasse and the clown. The damsel was great too, but of course any fish added after was terrorized in such a small aquarium. I would advise adding them LAST or not at all, otherwise great hardy little fish for a small reef.

 

[fishfarmer]

tim000,
Most mandarins will NOT accept prepared foods, therefore they need lots of small live foods such as copepods, which is all I've seen mine eat other than frozen brine shrimp. BTW brine shrimp aren't the most nutritious food item, unless they're gut loaded or soaked in Selcon/vitamins.

In order to maintain the live foods that your mandarin will need, you need a tank with lots of live rock(~100 lbs), a DSB and refugium probably wouldn't hurt either and no other competitors for the food supply.

I made the mistake of putting a very small mandarin in my tank early on, she is doing fine but I believe she has put a dent in the copepod population. Amazingly the first time I put frozen brine in the tank she fattened up quickly with it. I'm going to try some other foods like frozen mysis.

I also added a pair of peppermint shrimp with hopes their breeding would give the mandarin live food. She has ignored the young shrimp as far as I've seen. There is a survey on both types of mandarins done earlier this year in the reefs.org survey section, check it out before you make a decision. HTH

[ October 07, 2001: Message edited by: fishfarmer ]

 

[Boogiechillin]

30 gallon tank w/ 1 tomato clown, 1 blue damsel, 1 bicolor blenny, and 1 tiny 6-line wrasse. Plenty of SPS and LPS corals, a good bunch of macroalgae, a cleaner shrimp, a sand-sifting star, and the usual assortment of hermits and snails. Everything is working well so far - the clown and damsel fight occasionally, but usually only at feeding time. I'm fighting that "one more fish" sensation...next summer, I'm upgrading to a 75 or 90, but I'd like to get something else now. Everything is perfectly balanced for the moment - should I hold off? Consider it a mini-poll

 

[trybka]

FWIW - I've got a 35g with arc eyed hawk, 6 line wrasse, purple firefish, and an ocellaris..... they all get along well with my corals... frogspawn, leather, torch, and hammer... the clown and firefish are my favorites

 

[clwnphish]

In my 30 I have a mated pair of gold stripe maroon clowns, and a pygmy angel, the three get along great, The clowns have 2 bubble tips to live in. There is mostly sps but theres a frogspawn in there too. Good small fish, cardinals,clowns,goby,small wrasses, *Angels*, *Tangs*. The last two only are good in smaller tanks no less than a 30 or 40, . I do not mean they are small but when you buy them tiny like the size of a nickle, and then let them grow. I have a baby hepatus tang and he just got moved to my 125 reef.I had to feed him alot of smaller feedings, about 4 or 5 times a day, to keep him happy and he is pretty demanding so make sure your up to the challenge if you do get one. He started off the size of a nickle and has grown to about 2in. I am not saying go and buy a sohal tang and stick him in a 20 g. I mean baby tangs, and pygmy angels.
Later,
Clwn

 

[tim000]

Fishfarmer- why is a mandrin a bad choice for a 38g tank? cause I was thinking about getting one for my 35g reef. please let me know.
THANKS,
Tim

 

[Rich-n-poor]

well looks like percs are very popular as are grammas i think i made good choices i would like to add either a coral beauty or mandarian but i had problems keeping these a couple years ago

I was wondering if i would still have problems now that i went with a sandbed system and have a more diverse tank. Lets hear a little about their care ir pygmy angels in general

I will probably stay away from the mandarian since i know they are harder to keep and get feeding without an extremely active sandbed

also its logical to assume your level will rise initially when you add a new fish since the bacteria culture must increase in size to compensate for the increased bio loads of the new fish how do you compensate for this

increased testing frequency water changes ?

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[absolutc]

I have a 28 gallon and a 7 gallon bow front. Each of them have damsels, and a clown. As well as some mushrooms a small coral and a feather duster. Also a few little critters here and there. Just use your best judgement. There is really no Limit to what you can have.. as you must do it in moderation for "THAT" tank. You cant stick a fish that is going to get 8" long in a 7 gallon tank. Most fish take a while to grow.. like clowns. A few years and they will outgrow a 7 gallon tank. But it works during that time. Dont overstock your tank. A 28-35 gallon tank can hold about 5 fish of small to medium size. Anything greater than 5 and you could be setting up for a chatastrophy. For each 5 gallons, you can do 1 fish safely.

Good, luck
Kris

 

[Daniel Licari]

i have a 12 gal with 2 Tomato Clownfish