Is this a terrible fish combo?

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by BadPhish

I may just end up doing a pair of clowns with different colours or patterns...but clowns are so cliche

Cliche and sorta boring. Mine is just a mouth and not doing too much unless someone walks by the tank and then he is all "feed me, feed me". Also he nips me to no end if I have my hand in the tank.


He is starting to pork up so when he gets to 1.75 inches I'll donate him to LFS and look at another open column fish, not a clown.

[MCC]

What kind of skimmer are you using? Are you using one at all???

How much live rock? What else you plan to put in your tank??

The fishes you recommend aren't that demanding on the bio load... I am sure you can get by with a clown, firefish, and dotty.... if you have a good skimmer and lots of live rock or even a refugium mod....

If you are down to two fish only... go with the clownfish and a purple firefish ... so you can have the best of both worlds.. seems like you like firefishes and PURPLE....

[BadPhish]

I'm not using a skimmer. Just plan on keeping a good eye on my parameters and doing weekly water changes. I have 13 pounds of extremely porous live rock right now and will be adding another 3-4 pounds when I find the right pieces. Might do a refugium mod down the road.

Other than the fish I will be keeping a variety of soft corals, and of course a CUC. I might put a cleaner shrimp in there as well.

I do like purple...but for the most part I just really like super colourful fish. Since I'm so limited by the size of my tank I want it to be as colourful and eye catching as possible.

[gbeef]

A dotty or a gramma maybe terrorial. 3 Med size fishes i find is too much in a 14Gal. (thats what i had before) I would pick your favorite 2 and roll from there.

[Pier Pressure]

Dump the firefish. I had one and it hid in the rocks all day. The only time he would come out would be to eat - and then back into the rock work until it is time for the next feeding. Maybe they are not all like this but most I have seen are shy and like to hide in the rocks. If you are only going with two fish the other two (clown and dotty) would be out more would be my guess. I have a magenta dotty in a 28 and she is very peaceful.

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by gbeef

A dotty or a gramma maybe terrorial. 3 Med size fishes i find is too much in a 14Gal. (thats what i had before) I would pick your favorite 2 and roll from there.

Orchid Dotty aka Pseudochromis fridmani is pretty calm, costs a little more but worth it. Look for the eye stripe.

[Whatigot]

used to keep 2 clowns, 1 clown goby and an rg in my old aquapod.
No aggression from anyone in the year I had it.
Used to do weekly 10% changes though, as I was new to reefing and found maintenance fun back then.

RG is my FAVOURITE fish (got a harem of 3 right now), I would think that it's worth a try if you think you can keep up with water changes as that IS a lot of fish for a little tank.

FYI, a dsb will do WONDERS on a smaller, heavily loaded system, not to mention help in the natural food supple (i.e. less feedings of nitrate rich foods from you).

[MCC]

Originally Posted by Pier Pressure

Dump the firefish. I had one and it hid in the rocks all day. The only time he would come out would be to eat - and then back into the rock work until it is time for the next feeding. Maybe they are not all like this but most I have seen are shy and like to hide in the rocks. If you are only going with two fish the other two (clown and dotty) would be out more would be my guess. I have a magenta dotty in a 28 and she is very peaceful.

It all depends on the kind of fish he has in there... I had a purple firefish... yes it was scared of the yellow tang... but before addition of the tang... the firefish would come out a lot...

In his case he wants clownfish ... so i m sure the purple firefish will be fine with it....

So just stick with two fish for now... clownfish and purple firefish or the purple dotty back... i personally will go with the purple firefish..since you like firefish and purple..."best of both worlds"

Ditch the gramma... I wouldn't "bother" to do test runs to see if he is aggressive... because usually will take him/her months to get territorial...and by then you might have a nice healthy coral/fish environment..to catch a fish in that size of a tank.. .you probably going to knock over things or stress out everyone with your 'net' waving exercises So plan ahead... try to minimize your hand time in the tank and disturbing the peace....

And then slowly stock up your tank... I wouldn't advice getting way too over board yet..until you can get yourself a good skimmer.... and do a refugium mod....

What people are warning you about here is the nitrate levels...with a good skimmer and a refugium packed with cheato... that can help with the nitrate levels.... along with good water changes....

Also try nano-reef.com..... its a site perfect for you... you think BC 14 is too small??? You haven't seen what you can do .... go look at their tanks... and it will make you think you are in middle of a reef ocean inside a BC14....they have good information on which skimmer / refugium mods to use and which works and which are total waste of money/time.....

Don't let your limited size discourage you ... I just got back into reefing ..and set up a nano reef.... did lots of research first...since nanos are a different beast in maintance and stocking ...

[BadPhish]

I feel kind of dumb asking but what's a dsb? Also curious, Whatigot, what size aquapod were you keeping all those fish in?

[BadPhish]

Man there has been a lot of activity on here since I went on vaccation it was soo hard not to attempt to sneak carribean fish and corals through customs haha.

MCC thanks for the advice. I've been snooping around nano-reef for quite some time now already, it's a great site. I just prefer to post on a local site and thought I'd see what you all had to say.

I'd really prefer to stay skimmerless in such a small aquarium, but I'm sure one day I'll get tired of doing frequent water changes and end up with one.

I'm trying to restrain myself from stocking too quickly... aside from a screamin' deal I got on a few things I'm now officially one month in and my cycle is complete. Algae is getting under control THANK GOD...and hermit crabs. CUC and corals are happy and thriving... I'll probably add the first fish in one-two weeks.