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.