First fish
 

Thinking of adding my first fish to my 3 month old 33 gallon. :biggrin: My sump/fuge will finally be up and running about this time next week (15 gallon), my pod population is booming, and and I think I'm ready ready for some fishies. What would be a good first fish for this system? I want small active fish that wont get aggresive. For sure I will be adding a true Perc at a latter date so must be compatable. I have a 1" sand bed and 52lbs of LR. Corals include Hammer frag, small colt coral, shrooms, GSP, Palys, and zoas.

You can't go wrong with a pair clowns right off the bat.

I totally agree. They have so much personality, and if you are planning to get one anyway - why not?

i agree, but if you considreing waiting for clowns like i did i started with cardinals and chromis. found my jawfish to ee quite resiliant. only guy who made it through my nitrate spike without a hitch. im suggesting cardinal and chromis because they are about 10 bucks each and not that much cash to worry about if you loss it. they are both ok with my true perks

How active are the cardnials? Whenever ive seen them at the lfs they are pretty motionless. Thinking of starting out with a juvi pair of true percs. Other than annenomies what will they host in?

They'll host in pretty much anything they please (esp. if you have captive bred clowns). My clowns have hosted in everything from frogspawn to candycane to even a powerhead.

Mine have hosted in every coral you've gotten from me. So you've got plenty in there to keep them happy!

cardinals are fairly dosile . if you want some reading material on hosts here you go.


http://www.garf.org/39/fish/pict.html

An Orchid Dotty would be nice, but best to add as your last fish. They aren't usually "aggressive", but are "bold". There are some nice Jawfish, but they don't move around the tank much...cool to watch though. Cardinals are very active, but will hide until they get used to their tank and who feeds them. I'd also say start with the clowns. :)

I started with a handful of Blue/green chromis and after 2 years, I still have 3 of the original 5. They can be a schooling fish (which mine don't tend to do) and Chris at Interior Reef has them real cheap...so good place to start.

I've read a good # of fish for a 33 gallon tank is 6. So I'm being very selective on what fish I pick. When I add my sump can I add more fish?
Anyone ever had problems with coral banded shrimp with polyps and zoas? Want a reef safe cleaner shrimp.

Hi Trev, to me, 6 fish seems a little high for a 33 gallon reef tank. Unless they are all really small fish that have no aggressive tendencies.

But that's just my opinion.

How about mollies? They are cheap, hardy and will help keep your upcoming algae issues controlled

:rolleyes:

Haha
I'm just thinking about the first fish I bought to help cycle my tank and If I were to do it again I'd start with Mollies instead of the Damsels that a LFS reccomended (which were also more expensive.) let alone a PITA

If I wanted mollies I'd have stuck with fresh water:crazyeye: And my tank was done its cycle almost 2 months ago. I got that 6 fish thing from http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...howtopic=74703
I pretty much only want smaller fish. Clown and goby sized stuff. Largest would probably be a Dwarf angelfish of some kind. Even when I was doing freshwater I much prefered smaller fish.

No comments on the CBshrimp?

Nano reef has a pretty good fish selection threadwith the smaller aquarium in mind, in the beginner forum. My first couple fish were a ocellaris clown, six line wrasse and a royal gramma. All have been great fish and there has been zero argession issues.