So I put at the beginning the fish I was thinking of getting. I wanted a yellow watchman goby which would be paired with a pistol shrimp, lawnmower blenny (or other), clownfish pair, wrasse that would work with coral and shrimps/hermit crabs, and I wanted a showpiece fish like a scopus tang which I am aware that I might have to get rid of after a few years.
Yes I do, as said before I have fine caribsea sand. Are they peacful?
Would they eat flakes and pellets?
The carpenter wrasse*
wdym
should
+1 on Tomini. They are the smallest Tang species and have bristleteeth and scrape algae off rocks all day. Great clean-up crew member. Get a small one and you’ll be fine for some time.
Can you send a link because I would buy online and I am seeing multiple types.
Okay, I can work with that
Thanks so much for the in-depth response. If I wanted a leopard wrasse it wouldn't be too big for my tank? (The M. negrosensis) I would love to get a showpiece wrasse and I love the look of the leopard wrasse.Okay, I can work with that
Gobies I actually wouldn’t do a Cryptocentrus species and would instead do a Stonogobiops species, purely due to the aggression issues cryptocentrus species can have. Also, may I just bring in the idea of a group of schooling but small fish? I have a pair of Trimma tevegae and many Trimma and Eviota species can be kept in groups of 3-5. Personally I’d recommend a group of 3 one Trimma/Eviota species and then possiwbly 2 other Trimmas/Eviotas, for example;
3 Trimma tevegae and 2 Trimma cana or 3 Eviota atriventris and 2 Eviota pamae, or you could go even more out of the box and do something like 3 Eviota gobies and 2 trimma gobies.
Here’s my Trimma tevegae pair to give you insight into the Trimma genus.
And an insight into Eviota - Not my photo however this is my dream eviota species, E. brahmi (Hoping to get a pair in the future).
Blennies can be 50/50 with coral - IME Lawnmowers are more reef safe than Escenius can be. The difficulty with Salarias is getting them to feed on frozen - When I worked in the LFS I think most Salarias species didn’t feed straight away and we had to get them from GHA (It got to a point we had one tank that was just a GHA farm and nothing else other than Eviota/Trimma gobies and pods) then onto dried Algae sheets and then from that onto a mix of algae and frozen then onto frozen. Obviously this was over the course of many weeks and actually when we got new Salarias blennies in, it was I think ever 2 out of 10 or something like that would eat frozen right away. Escenius blennies we’re easier however they are less reef safe and can be a PITA.
Here’s my Gobiodon acicularis next to my Escenius lineatus that I have a love hate relationship with, these are two of 9 fish in my RS Max Nano, I have 2 wrasses, 6 gobies and the blenny.
The clownfish pair will become aggressive with age however depending on what species you get will depend on how aggressive they are. The maroons and any in the tomato complex are some of the worst for aggression, the occelaris and orange skunks are the more peaceful species IME. Not much to say on these as they’re a great fish to start with and are well known within the hobby due to Finding Nemo. Here’s a photo of my Black Photon - Amphiprion occelaris x Amphiprion percula. She’s rather more aggressive than occelaris pairs I’ve had in the past.
Wrasses, now I personally disagree with any mention of Paracheilinus. They REALLY need the 4’x2’ space to flash otherwise they dart into things more often IMHO. The genera I recommend looking into are Cirrhilabrus, Macropharyngodon, Pseudojuloides, Wetmorella, PseudocheilinOPS (NOT to be confused with Pseudocheilinus), Smaller Halichoeres. Pseudojuloides and Macropharyngodon ideally need a pod heavy tank as they scour the rock all day and need to constantly eat them to stay healthy if they aren’t already feeding frozen. I’d recommend starting with Macropharyngodon bipartitus or M. negrosensis if you did go for one of the leopards as they appear to be the easier species to keep and are good for starting leopard wrasses. As for Pseudojuloides, these are a harder genus than Macropharyngodon but have very similar care requirements. I’d recommend starting with Pseudojuloides severnsi as they are stunning as males but also are a slightly easier species to start with. Cirrhilabrus are all across the board in terms of care, extremely simple and easy. Colour wise, these IMHO are the widest, with pinks, purples, blues, reds, greens, yellows. Every colour in the rainbow is most likely to be found in this genus, however Cirrhilabrus is split into different complexes some are more peaceful than others and shouldn’t be mixed together. In general everyone follows the Chart’s guidelines however, these are JUST guidelines and can be bent and reshaped (My 4’ tank is a perfect example of this IMHO). Halichoeres are another large genus with all colours in there, I’d recommend avoiding the large species, especially Halichoeres chloropterus (A photo of my transitional male is up this page somewhere) as they can be highly aggressive. I’d recommend looking into small species such as H. iridis, H. chrysus, H. leucoxanthus, H. timorensis, H. adornatus ect. These are all peaceful and for the most part remain small, Halichoeres Chris us is on the larger side at 5 inches. Pseudocheilinops and Wetmorella are EXTREMELY similar in care to Macropharyngodon aswell so not much is to be said on them other than how they’re much more cryptic than the other genera mentioned. Here’s a photo of one (I think) replicas the chart I mentioned for Cirrhilabrus, the other genera are just pure luck on what mixes with what.
Show piece fish, I wouldn’t do any tang as my blue eye bristletooth uses every inch of my 4’x2’ tank (Not stress like however any smaller and I think he would stress). Ctenochaetus tominiensis and Ctenochaetus binotatus are very similar size wise so the tomini and blue eye would behave similarly and that has played out true IME. I would personally have a beautiful showpiece fish that’s a wrasse, I have my showpiece wrasse in my nano as a Cirrhilabrus naokoae. This photo explains more than even a million words can.
I hope this helps, Sorry about the long winded explanation on the wrasse, I kept it as short as I could I swear.
Also that naokoae is one of my 4 Cirrhilabrus wrasses, and 1 of 7 wrasses.
I personally wouldn’t go with the cryptocentrus as they get aggressive for gobies. Also Stonogobiops and Amblyeleotris show the same behaviour but not quite the aggression.
Yeah fs thats a great reason to share information with others! I will probably get the leopard wrasse in that case but am still on the fence over the goby.
I understand he can be aggressive but I really like him...
In a 55 a cryptocentrus would probably be okay, they just are the meaner of the shrimpgobies.
