What Fish For A Newbie

[pedrumms]

I am getting my new tank tomorrow. Have been keeping tropical on and off for about 10 years and have decided to take the plunge and start a marine tank (fish only to start)

I am getting a Rena 120 x 4 275 ltrs.

I know its going to be quite a while before my fish go in so while I'm waiting I'd like to start thinking about what fish I'm going to put in. I definitely want some clowns but apart from that I have no idea. I don't really want something that's going to get too big for my tank. A lot of the info on the web seems confusing, nearly all the fish I look at seem to be agressive (even clowns).

Any ideas or info would be much appreciated.

 

[Opcn]

Reefs are like cities, and alot of reef fish have to fight for there space, dont get more than a pair of clowns of the same species and get them at the same time and small, and don't get maroons. clowns tend to not like each other and maroons tend to hate the world. Damsels are easy but mean, wrasses are a much better option, reef safe preferably, they are beautiful and mostly hardy and not quite as mean as damsels. Dwarf angels are good so long as you have no corals or clams for them to nip at. There are lots of nice gobies and blennies, and firefish are a good option too, being rather desease resistant and interesting but they must have live rock, infact most fish prefer live rock so FOWLR would probably yield better results for you, and a FOWLR is a whole lot easier to turn into a soft reef than you might think. Good luck to you whatever you choose to do.

 

[veen]

I am getting my new tank tomorrow. Have been keeping tropical on and off for about 10 years and have decided to take the plunge and start a marine tank (fish only to start)

I am getting a Rena 120 x 4 275 ltrs.

I know its going to be quite a while before my fish go in so while I'm waiting I'd like to start thinking about what fish I'm going to put in. I definitely want some clowns but apart from that I have no idea. I don't really want something that's going to get too big for my tank. A lot of the info on the web seems confusing, nearly all the fish I look at seem to be agressive (even clowns).

Any ideas or info would be much appreciated.

check this link out.
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1926

i personally have a coral beauty angel (a type of dwarf angel) in my 30g with soft corals & lps corals. it hasn't touched a thing but the live rock, it grazes on the rock for the algae. i keep it very well fed, though, so that may be why it hasn't resorted to nipping the corals or fighting with the other fish (a percula clown & an ember blenny).

i agree that firefish are a good option. i have a purple that is friendly & beautiful & hardy in my 12g .

it's been my experience that my percula wasn't agressive except with her mates. sounds werid, but she killed off 2 of her mates in short succession. 1 of them she had been with for months. when we replaced him she tolerated the new guy for only a short while then killed him. after that we decided to keep her single & she's been sweet as pie since then. the only annoying thing she does is host the hairy mushrooms & the goniopora. the mushrooms seem seem to be tolerating her hosting them but we had to move the goniopora to another tank as it's much more delicate than mushrooms & would have eventually died after her hosting it for too long.

HTH.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Almost all marine fish besides the shoaling ones are aggressive toward their own species. If you like them, the only damsel I would reccommend is a yellow-tail. Mine is the shyest fish I own. I know that this is apparently rare, but it just goes to show that not all fish follow suit when it comes to generalizations about their species and that they can have their own personalities. I noticed that no one had mentioned royal grammas. They are one of my favorite fish color-wise and personality-wise. They were the fish that made me want a marine tank in the first place. But anyway, browse liveaquaria.com's marine fish beginner fish section for some more ideas.

 

[Matty]

a great white pup...

seriously though..a clownfish? Not one of the exotic species though...