Im starting to think of all the fish I would like to have in my tank overtime and im looking for some help. Im open to anything, I would like it to be compatible with most other fish. Right now I have two small Clowns and the tank is 35 gallons. Ive been having alage growth so im thinking of getting a Starry Blenny or Bicolor Blenny (from what I read they eat alage too). I also like the looks of the Blenny and there swimming motion. Please post what you think I would enjoy in my tank and would do best for the size. Also the order you would recomend adding them I know aggresive fish should go in last. Thanks Robby
Usually only agressive to other blennys. One per tank is about all it will support. I would consider some of the fish now being called nano size such as firefish, pistol shrimp/goby pairs, and maybe a dottyback, also only one per tank. As for order with your clowns already in the tank, I would place the dottyback last, the others really don't bother each other so no problem there. This mix would be a good bioload for that tank and should be placed in the tank slowly, remember it is a new tank and needs a good amount of time to adjust to each new entry.
So I did some clicking around on the web and here are the fish im intrested in. The longnose hawk or pixie hawk, Clown goby of some kind, Starry/lawnmower blenny or Bicolor blenny. Indigo dottyback or Bicolor dottyback, and six line wrassse. Please let me know if any of these fish are not compatible with each other and also what fish are most aggressive and I should add last. Thanks Robby
Your selection is pretty good, but remember you're dealing with a small volume of water. The order in which I would place them is: Pixie Hawkfish The citron (clown) goby I would not place in with the others, they are very timid and not agressive enough to compete. Starry or bicolor blenny but the lawnmower gets too large and agressive, and requires a lot of algae to survive long term. Sixline wrasse next. Can be a little agressive when older. Any of the dottybacks always last. May be too small an area to deal with these fish. Tend to run the tank once established. Seems the fish you are choosing are on the simi agressive side, thats ok if you stay with the same temperment of fish. Good job of doing your research and matching them up.
Ya it seems alot of the "nano" fish are aggressive. Im not planning on getting all the fish i mentioned. Right now looks like ill put the Pixie Hawkfish in first (I hear hawks can be aggressive but is it true the pixie will do ok being the next fish?), Then the Bicolor Blenny, Then i will decide between the dottyback or the sixline. Most likely the sixline since they are very colorful and out in the open, I want more movement in the tank. Im also planning on building up the rock work a little bit its hard to stack what I have. I will probably dill a hole in my biggest piece put small pvc pipe or something similer into it then stack another large rock on top. Should I do this before adding the hawkfish I know they like rock work. Thanks alot Norman Robby
I would not add a lawn mower blenny, like Norman said they well get rather large for a 35 and when the algae is gone they well starve in due time usally, I have yet to see anyone keep one alive over a year. As far as I'm concerned it should be a fish not taken off the reef. The others are good, the sixline well get agressive in a 35 as he gets bigger. Do you have a couple of say mexican turbo snails in there?, they well help with the algae and even with them you don't want to get to many as they well starve when the algae is gone, but most stores well take them back, when you want to lower the nbr. in the tank down, as they are always in demand. Also I think Norm touched on this, you well be adding bio load to a system already with algae issues, so you need to weigh the gains with the losses, be patient, until the tank is a year or so old.
Thanks for the tip I will probably not get the six line. I dont have any turbo snails but that Is what I plan on putting in the tank next. And I dont plan on adding anymore fish until awhile when my tank is stable. Also what kind of Crabs would you recommend? I would like to have a few to eat alage on rocks and also stir up the sand bed a little to keep it looking clean.
I use blue leg and scarlet hermit crabs but they don't really do much for the sand bed. I have a sand conch for the sand bed but your tank might not support it.
If you plan on having snails and crabs get the redleg reef hermits. The blueleg will kill your snails for their shells. The redleg don't seem to bother them or at least not as much. As far as stiring the sandbed, your tank is pretty small and too new to have a sandbed that would support any kind of sandsifting goby or conch. If you have good flow and run filtersocks in a sump, stir the top 1" of the sandbed from time to time and let the filter take out the suspended particles.
