Need fish suggestions please.

[lennyd4]

My tank is a 65g FOWLR tank. I am only purchasing peaceful fish, making it a community tank. Right now I have an Ocellaris clown and a Pearly Jawfish. They both have great personalities, the clown sticks to his favorite corner and comes to the front corner when he sees me, and the Pearly Jawfish stays in his burrow and hovers around it frequently.

As for my next purchase I want a fish that really takes advantage of the whole water column. In the future I want to purchase a diamond watchman goby, but I dont want to make it my next purchase because he also stays along the bottom as well. So I am looking for a fish that really enjoys swimming around and can be comfortable in my 65g tank.

 

[Sunny]

Get some tangs and/or anthias. Most tangs are active swimmers. The Lyretial and Bartlets are good anthias choice.
You can also do a school of green chromis. I know they are cheap but in my opinion they are a very underrated fish. A school of them swimming around looks amazing.

 

[MadReefer]

Dave gave you some good suggestions. Cardinal fish are peaceful and can school. I have 2 PJ cardinals that are very nice looking.

 

[lennyd4]

Well I have a 65g tank. I thought that any tang wouldn't be comfortable in my tank? I have looked into the cardinal fish and I do want a cardinal, but are they affected at all by lots of water flow? I know they are "floaters" so will they be stressed out if there is tooo much flow in a tank? I will look into the anthias more.

 

[MadReefer]

I have a 75g tank with a 1 return and two Koralia 3 power heads. The cardinals seem fine swimming around.

 

[lennyd4]

I have 2 1050 koralias, a return from the cannister filter and 2 returns from protein skimmer. Its a bak-pak dual pak protein skimmer.

 

[GluttonousSolarWrasse]

I don't think any tang (besides maybe a tomini) would do well in a tank that size. I'm an obsessive wrasse advocate/zealot, as such I'd recommend checking out many of the wonderful wrasse species in the genera Cirrhilabris, Halichoeres, & Pseudocheilinus (forgive me if I have not spelled those correctly, the spelling should be close enough for google.) http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/fishes/wrasses/

 

[qwik]

If your system is a fish only,live rock you can pick from any of the Pygmy angles,potters,flame,coral beautyetc.. They will swim all over and help graze the rock and will be cool with what you have now. I also like to keep pearly jaws in a group setting so the interact with each other. They will try to out do the others houses and search and steal the nicest landscaping from each other.

 

[lennyd4]

Yea I am looking more into fairy wrasses now, but I guess it will depend on what my LFS has. I looked into dwarf angels, but I didn't want that slight chance of them being too aggressive.

 

[NewJerseyReefer]

Well I have a 65g tank. I thought that any tang wouldn't be comfortable in my tank? I have looked into the cardinal fish and I do want a cardinal, but are they affected at all by lots of water flow? I know they are "floaters" so will they be stressed out if there is tooo much flow in a tank? I will look into the anthias more.

Listen you can what ever tang you please as long he isnt to big for your 65G. But yes once he starts to get big for your 65G your either upgrade to a bigger tank or give/sell away to some one else that has a bigger tank. IMO thats how i see it yes i know some people may not agree with me. But hey at the end what matters is that its your tank.

 

[malulu]

- six-line wrasse

- royal gramma

- firefish

 

[howze01]

Listen you can what ever tang you please as long he isnt to big for your 65G. But yes once he starts to get big for your 65G your either upgrade to a bigger tank or give/sell away to some one else that has a bigger tank. IMO thats how i see it yes i know some people may not agree with me. But hey at the end what matters is that its your tank.

Can't really say that I agree with the fish "rental" idea. I think more along the lines of "in the end, what matters is that the fish is happy and live a long life." Not saying a tang won't be happy for a while in a 65 but it eventually won't be. There are hundreds of fish that will happily live their entire lives in a 65, why pick ones that won't?

 

[lennyd4]

Yea I ruled out a tang a long time ago. I definitely am looking into the firefish too. Are there any compatibility issues with them and jawfish? Just asking because they have similarly shaped bodies. My "list" would be a wrasse of some sort, a firefish, and a diamond watchman goby but im told maybe the goby and pearly jawfish may not get along.

 

[wienerdog]

I have a peaceful FOWLR and I have some pretty laid back guys. Flame angel, group of chromis, firefish, six-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, pink spot goby and his pistol shrimp, spot foxface, pair of clowns, and a fire shrimp. So far no problems and its been several months.

 

[downbeach]

I'm assuming you have a DSB, since you already have a jawfish, so I think a leopare wrasse would be a nice addition. I also like Midas Blenny's, they spend time in their hole, but are frequently in the main water column.

 

[lennyd4]

I have a decent sandbed but I wish I had a little more..not sure if I should add more with livestock in there though

 

[downbeach]

I have a decent sandbed but I wish I had a little more..not sure if I should add more with livestock in there though

How deep? What kind of substrate, i.e. oolite? playsand?

 

[NikkiT]

I have a pair of fire fish in my 57g, which we have an mp40 and a return pump running on. I have a pair of bangaiis cardinals in my 45g, which has a mp40 on it and a return pump. Both pair of fish do just fine despite the flow. I have a yellow watchman in the 45g along with a jawfish, and the goby and his tiger pistol friend frequently steal the jawfish burrow, but other than the constant relocation they seem to do ok. The jawfish and the goby have been in the same tank for approximately 9 months, so it is still a bit early. I think malulu's fish suggestions are good, to that list I would add assessor basslets (they swim upside down, which is cool) they are pretty active.
If necessary you can add additional live sand to your tank. That jawfish really needs a 3" deep sand bed, the deeper the better. You also want to provide shells and rubble so that he can construct a burrow, if you have not already.
Leopard wrasses are gorgeous, but have a very low captive survival rate, and feed primarily on copepods. They are a very difficult fish to keep. They do best in larger aquariums with lots of live rock for them to graze on.
An anathias can be a very pretty fish to have, but be careful with your species selection- if you are not too far, take a trip up to will and ethan at aquatic obsessions or to Brent and Austin at trop.

 

[JRWOHLER]

The fish that malulu gave you pics of are great fish.
Watchman may not be good choice as you suggest ...firefish don't occupy the same space generally so should be fine.
Smaller dwarf angels should be fine. They are super active and are generally reef safe...though they pick at everything in a FOWLR you are fine. Great suggestions...Atlantic pygmy angel, coral beauty, flame(harder to keep). Most any of these. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=15+16

Six line wrass, four line wrasse, mystery wrasse are all great choices.

Tangs the only two you should even consider are the kole and tomini tangs...one and only one.

All cardinal fish are good.

Blennies like starry blenny or lawnmower blenny are pretty active.

Hawkfish are very interesting can be a bit aggressive so take care. But a falco is not a bad suggestion and your tank is big enough should be ok.

Small butterfly fish like Atlantic long nose butterfly should be OK since FOWLR.

chalk bass are another nice smaller fish.

Sounds like you are doing it right so have fun.

 

[lennyd4]

My sanded is a touch under 3 which makes me want to add maybe another 40lbs . It is "live sand" I bought from pts..has shells in ir and some rubble..can I safely add more?