What fish to get?
 

Having spent the last 2 months reading up on starting a fish tank, and finally getting there, i've been doing a lot more reading on types of fish I want to get. Right now I do have the one damsel in the tank, but he'll be going soon, because 1) he's too big, 2) they are mean 3) see #2.

Anyhoo, I've got a slight idea of fish I want to get, but I'd like to get your recommendation before I list what I'd like. A must however will be 2 clown fish. My tank is a 38g.

Any info is helpful... Thanks!

(btw no damsels!)

Is this tank going to be fish only, FOWLR or reef?

I guess that would help.

For the mostpart FOWLR. I may get one or two coral down the road (like several months down the road) but if anything they will only be mushroom corals.

how about...

something like a longfin fairy wrasse or a flasher wrasse? both colourful and small.

or, a blackcap basslet. they are pretty nice looking.

or, some firefish?

those are all fish I like :)

I am at a similar point with my 45 gallon tank. These are some of the fish I have been considering.

Percula clowns
Lawnmower Blenny or Bicolor Blenny
Six Line Wrasse
Blue/Green Chromis



Alex

I'd go with a small angel. Lemonpeel, potter angel and flame angels are all nice (might be too much red if you go with the flame though). Otherwise, I'd go with a sixline wrasse, but i heard they're mean suckers. Probably the last fish you want to add.

What about 2 clowns and just call it a day? Just throw in a haddoni, assuming you have enough light and add some cool shrimps.

Small Angels: not good "beginner fish" as they have specific requirements between species - these require more research and dedication than Perculas or Chromis, particularily the 3 species mentioned above. A better choice might be the Coral Beauty (Centropyge bispinosus) - they seem to have widespread success with hobbiests keeping them alive.

:eek: I don't know what you're thinking... A Haddon's (Carpet) Anemone is another bad choice for a new tank (ANY anemone is) - they are tricky even for the experienced aquarist. This is pretty common knowledge - if we're going to give newbies advice, let's be a little more careful.

Two clowns would be a good choice, if they're tank-raised Ocellaris (False Percula). They are typically hardier, and will accept most foods you can buy.

Thanks for all the info! I've been reading up on the net of the different fishes you've listed.

Here's a question. How many is enough?

Well you've got ick in the tank, it seems from your blog. If you want to start fresh, take out the damsel as planned and let the tank sit fishless for 6-8 weeks. Yeah right, I know - no one buys a tank to let it sit empty, but even once the damsel is gone, the ick will live for up to 2 months or so, waiting for another opportunity (your next fish). And newly-introduced fish with their stressed/depressed immune systems are ick magnets.

So, your choice. If you must put something else in there, go with the captive-bred clowns. They're pretty tough. Either way, it's good to wait quite a while and see how they do, what the tank does, and how things go in general before adding any more fish. Even crabs/shrimps and snails can be entertaining - I watched mine for quite a while until fish came into the picture. A few beginner corals (softies/shrooms) help add interest too.

Depending on the size of fishes and your level of filtration, you might get away with up to 5 little fishies for your 38 gal, and some people will scoff at that number (too high). In a small tank, small fish are better - imagine how much bigger that tank would seem to a tiny goby rather than a large damsel.

Take it slow, see what develops, and over the next 3-6 months you'll get a better idea of what to add. You'll learn a lot going through the maturing process with your tank, and noting how it and its inhabitants respond to the various changes and stages. (Not to mention any blunders you make along the way.)

Cheers,

AJ, thanks for your comments tons of good info! I've posted below in response to a few things...

I'm starting to wonder about 2 things. 1) did my fish really have the ick? I believe it may of just been sand on the fish from moving around some rocks and stuff. I'm not sure. I haven't noticed it on him in over a week. now. He seems prefectly healthy now, and eats a ton. I used a turkey basker, and blew some water across him, and the white dots fly off, thinking that its sand, and me just worrying too much!

I don't mind leaving the tank empty. I did for about 2 weeks when I first got it, but when I noticed the algea growth, I picked up some snails, and the 2 hermit crabs. The fish I got free from finomenal when I went to pickup some LR. They didn't want the fish, so I figured why not grab him.

Yep, crabs are freaken cool. I love watching my red scarlet crab in the evening's when its out and about tearing things up. The blue hermit crab is more interesting now that he picked up another home (shell) and roams around more often.

I will forsure get captive bred clown fish for sure. Most likely from jack and wendell. They got a cool setup there, and awesome fish!

Yeah I would rather have smaller fish than bigger ones. As it is, I think the tank is too small for this damsel. His full lap time around the tank is about .05/sec. ;)

Once I am fully setup, I'll have a 20g sump with my tank (already have the tank) and I am working on my designs for my skimmer as well. I also plan to try and fit my 5gal fuge onto the sump as well.

True. The best way to go slow is having a small budget as well. Thats keeps me going slow. Also I prefer to get one thing at a time, so I can actually get to watch it and stuff. I can see myself not even noticing my crabs, snails if I got a clown right away.

Ich has about a 4 week cycle ... about 1 week in the cycle it will be visible on the fish ( the other 3 weeks it will be in either egg/larvae/freeswimming ) ... As Alan suggested you have to leave the tank fallow to be sure that once they become free swimming again there is no host available for them to latch onto.

Cheers

hmmm, could be ich then. grumble.

So if I get rid of the fish, what about my other inverts? my snails, and 2 hermit crabs.. will ich infect them?

Your inverts should be safe as the parasite feeds exclusively on fish. This is a quote from Advanced Aquarist:

"Cryptocaryon irritans is a ciliated protozoan parasite of marine teleost fish in tropical and temperate waters. This pathogen is an obligate parasite of marine fish (Iwama, Pickering, Sumpter & Shreck, 1997. Dickerson & Dawe, 1994). This means that it feeds exclusively on fish and cannot complete its life cycle unless this food source is available within its environment. The theront stage of this parasite will not survive for more than a day or two without a host fish"

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2003/mini1.htm

What ever you decide, make sure to quarintine it.

Of course. And a good call too!

Here I go off topic, on my own post, but do all of you have a completely seperate take for qt?

Yup. :P

I have a simple 10 gallon qt going through it's cycle right now. It consists of a cheap 10 gallon tank a simple sponge filter and a heater. Pretty cheap and simple insurance :smile:

Hmmm... where the hell do I keep all this? lol!

I guess my 5gal fuge I made is too small. I haven't glued it together yet, so I can always make it slightly bigger. What would be the minimum size to keep the new found friends?

I have seen recommendations in the range of 10-20 gallons. If you are planning on keeping larger fish that like room to swim, such as tangs, a larger tank is probably required.

Most likely I won't be getting any tangs at all, because of the size of my tank (38). I've read up on the "tang police" and don't want them knocking at my door.

Yep, same here :smile:

That's why I was thinking of getting a Lawnmower Blenny (Salarias fasciatus) to help with the inevitable algae, since I won't be getting a Tang.

In my opinion, Lawnmower blennies don't really take care of hair algae. They are after the "fuzz coating" that will grow on rocks and glass and such but not really the filamentous stuff. I could be wrong though, but that's what I thought it was. Mine fits that description (he won't touch hair algae, but is otherwise a very voracious eater).

Snails and crabs clean algae just fine, at least mine seem to. The only thing they don't eat is a small patch of cyano in the back of my tank. I use a mix of nerite, cerith, astrea and nassarius snails and scarlet, blue leg and left handed hermits, plaus an emerald crab to keep my tank clean. The hermits are in very small numbers, a couple of each, just because I like to watch them.

So here I am in my 4th month.

I ended up leaving the tank fishless for about 4 weeks. I ended up getting my first fish, a Green Mandarin (Mar 9th). About 1-1/2 weeks later, I picked up 2 small clownfish from OA (Mar 20th). And finally my latest addition is a extremely small Clown Goby (April 5th).

Everything seems to be doing fine (skimmerless right now). I am doing water changes every 2 weeks because of this, and running 2 802's with filters. Been doing tests every week, and always the same, 0 on everything, PH around 8.2. Salinity around 1.024-5.

I also got some more LR (total around 35lbs).

All my fish are doing well. The clown fish seem to have grown since I got them. My blue seastar (got on Feb 28th) also seems to be doing perfectly fine as well.

I know I said I'd be going FOWLR, but I ended up getting some coral (Feb 22nd). I've got 3 frags, xenia, colt and some zoos. The colt coral has really started to grow in my tank.

My tank still seems, empty. Even for its size (38g) it seems really empty. I want to get some fish that swim around, and are fairly easy to see. The Clownfish are super awesome, but just seem to sit around the powerhead, and only late at night do they boot around in the waves.

The mandarin seems to spend most of the time in the back of the tank, fairly hard to see. I've been doing some reading and such, and would love to some Anthias. However I'm not sure if my tank is big enough. What fish are recommend that do a lot of "swimming"??

I'm still waiting for my stand which is still at the cabinet shop waiting to be finished (yeap waiting 2 months now). He promised me this upcoming week, however I don't listen to his promises anymore. Once I do get it however, my 20g sump and soon to be built skimmer we go on.

I've been looking at another tank, and it looks like a 48lx15wx20h will be in store. Hopefully by june/july I'll upgrade, and thats when I'll look at getting a tang.

I may get some sharknose gobies, and I think they are pretty sweet. How are chromis? The ones I've seen in other tanks seem to swim a lot.

Thanks for reading the long post...