Reccomendations?

[cuticom]

I'm still trying to decide on the last fish for my tank, at the moment I only have the 3 PJ cardinals, the clowns aren't in the plans for a few months yet but they are a must have. I'm looking for something that's quite bright and colorful (think dottybacks, damsels, clownfish, coral gobies etc) and small, less then four inches. I also want something quite lively that will be at the front of the tank.

The tank is 42g, with an 8g sump, so 50g total volume, and at the moment is stocked with, three pajama cardinals, with a pair of occelaris clowsn to be added. It is a reef tank so whatever goes in must be coral/invert compatible.

I was thinking about a yellow coral goby, their quite lively at the store, but what are they like in the tank? are they front and center always? or do they just hide? Dottybacks are also something else I'm looking at, but their really expensive here for some reason and seem very aggressive. What about a sixline wrasse?

Any ideas would be very wlecome
Emma

 

[thomas10051988]

can i suggest a royal gramma mine is always at the front and is very bright and colourful also the sixline wrasse can be a risk with inverts

 

[Musho3210]

gobies are normally slightly shy, will swim around, but when your face is in the tank, they dart in the rocks and hide. I wouldnt get one for the activity, but gobies look VERY nice IMO.

A type of small wrasse maybe?

 

[cuticom]

Sadly royal grammas are near impossible to find here and when they do turn up are far out of my price range (the two times O've seen them they've been well over $100)

I do like the sixline wrasses, but are they compatible with the other fish? what if I got a yellow coral goby and a sixline wrasse? would that overstock the tank?

 

[Musho3210]

what goby exactly? Clown goby (Gobiodon okinawae) or Yellow watchman goby/Yellow Shrimp Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)

 

[@ombomb]

I have a sixline wrasse and while it's a beautiful fish, under no circumstances would i buy another one or recommend anyone add one to a community tank.

They are 3 inches of purple evil when they want to be.

 

[thomas10051988]

thats really expensive for a r gramma you could get one online for about 30 i agree on the wrasse they do harass other fish

 

[cuticom]

Clown goby

Oky dokes no sixline then LOL

I live in Australia, we are very careful over our reefs and whats imported, everything is higher priced, I don't really mind it means less fish are mistreated, royal grammas just happen to be one of the very very hard to find very expensive fish around here, I'm not completely sure but I think they need to be imported, and can't be propagated...

 

[SkiFletch]

They CAN be tank-bred for sure, we get tons of them here in the States. Musn't be that much of an interest down there on the opposite side of the globe, or enough of a market, cause it can surely be done.

 

[n3ont3tra]

What about flame hawkfish? I've heard of it eating CUC and shrimp but I have two and they haven't touched a thing. Bright red, and always out.

 

[cuticom]

Hmmm okay, dunno what the story is then, but there so rare to see, most reefers I know go with the royal dottyback if they really want a royal gramma.

Would a flame hawkfish work? the colours are awesome, I know nothing about them though LOL.

My Mum thinks I should get a bicolor angel, but I'm 90% sure that they would wreck all my LPS, and since the tank will be an entirely LPS tank.... Can anyone confirm their coral nibblers? just so I can show Mum before she does one of her famous impulse buys and gets me one

 

[n3ont3tra]

Like most other dwarf angels there is about a 50% chance they'll eat corals.
they also aren't as hardy as some of the other dwarf angels, from what I've read.

Flame hawks get 3 to 4 inches and they might eat clean up crew. I have a mated pair of them in my 37g and they've never touched any of my clean up crew. They've been in about 2 months now. I had skunk cleaner shrimp, astreas, turbos, cerith, nerite, nassarius. I have a fighting conch, emerald crab, serpent starfish, scarlet hermits... They've never attacked anything. For fish I have a firefish, a midas blenny, and a clownfish. They're /always/ out where you can see them. Even when my hand is in the tank. Awesome fish.

BTW royal dottybacks are wayyy more aggressive than royal grammas.

 

[Crazy fishes]

I was reading in here a thread by, I think, Lynden. Apparently provided you keep the dwarf angel well fed it won't eat your corals. I think he was saying it is a survival strategy; eat something that tastes foul rather than starving to death..... They are beautiful fish, relatively small but make sure the water chemistry is stable they are delicate.

Regards

 

[chris348]

That Royal Gramma is one stunning fish though..