My Top Picks - Reef safe fish
My Top Picks - Reef safe fish
In this next part of my new Top Picks series we take a look at reef safe fish. We take a look at some of the most popular marine fish, and also some alternative choices to consider as well.
Choosing which fish to get
The most important factor to consider when choosing which fish to get is to take into account minimum tank size recommendations. With many tropical freshwater fish tank size is less critical. Often you can keep juveniles of quite large species in small tanks and move them into larger tanks as they grow. This doesn’t work so well for marine fish though.
Why minimum recommended tank size is important
Marine fish are generally far more active than most freshwater tropical fish and they need space to zoom around and get exercise. This is particularly true with fish such as Tangs. If the tank is too small they will not gain enough muscle on their chests, leading to them growing longer and thinner in more of an elongated oval shape than a shorter taller shape like they should do. This then means their body isn’t the right shape for their internal organs and can lead to premature death from organ failure at 1-2 years old. In human terms the equivalent of their toddler or teenage years. Once they have started growing in the wrong shape this is something that cannot be corrected later.
Remember that minimum recommended tank size is just that, the minimum, ideally the tank should be larger than the minimum.
Quarantine
With freshwater tropical fish disease is less of an issue. Diseases in freshwater fish are typically less common, spread more slowly, and are easily treated in the main tank. This is not the case with marine fish diseases.
Most marine fish are wild animals, and in the wild will often have various parasites on them. Marine fish diseases can spread very quickly in closed captive systems. With some diseases such as Brookynella or Velvet, they can wipe out all the fish within days, and sometimes within hours. Most diseases cannot be treated in the main aquarium either. Despite their being many so called “reef safe cures”, they are rarely reef safe, and even more rarely solve the problem. To make it even more of a problem many of the medications required to cure fish diseases can become unstable and toxic in small bodies of water, so quarantining in tanks under 100 litres is very hit and miss, and you only really tend to get stability with medications in systems of 1,000 litres or more.
We quarantine all our fish here at Salty Revolution using a system we have developed over the last decade or so of using very high doses of Copper, Malachite green and Formalin, for very short exposure times. We typically quarantine around 10,000 marine fish per year using this system. Solving this problem for you.
Let’s now take a look at my Top Picks of reef safe fish.
Clownfish
No reef tank would be complete without Clownfish. With Clownfish it’s important to only keep 1 species of Clownfish in tanks under 8 feet long. The most popular choice of Clowns by far are Common clownfish or Percula clownfish. In the Southern part of their range such as Indonesia these are two distinct species, but, in the more Northern parts of their range such as the Philippines they are less distinct and Clowns and merge into pretty much a single species.
Whilst Common clownfish are the most popular choice, they can typically only be kept successfully long term as a pair or single female. While you may see some tanks with groups of Common or Percula clowns this rarely works out well, with most of the spare clowns doomed to being killed by the dominant female. With some species of Clownfish though the females are more tolerant of spare juveniles of their own species. So instead of keeping Common clowns also consider alternative choices such as Pink skunk clowns or Black Clarki clowns which can be kept in groups of their own kind. Bear in mind though you can still only keep 1 species of Clownfish in most normal sized aquariums.
Creating that natural reef look
To make your tank look like a slice of real coral reef the thing to avoid doing with your stocking is what we call “half a Noah’s Ark”. According to the popular nursery rhyme in Noah’s Ark the animals went in two by two, with 2 of each species (in the Bible it was actually only the non-Kosher animals that went onboard as pairs, with the Kosher animals going onboard in groups of 7, two males and 5 females). Half a Noah’s Ark is having a stocking plan of generally 1 of each species; 1 Angel, 1 Tang, etc.
There are three main reasons for avoiding a “half a Noah’s Ark” stocking plan.
It doesn’t look very natural. Wild coral reefs are dominated by shoals of fish, and a tank with 1 or 2 shoals or groups of fish generally looks far more natural, and far more impressive, than a scattering of single fish.
It’s not the best way to keep fish. Whilst some species are quite happy kept singly, many are not. They may be nervous, shy, become overly aggressive, or create other problems.
You miss out on half the pleasure of keeping marine fish. With species that can be kept in pairs or groups you will see far more interesting behaviour, and also bolder more vibrant colours when they are with others of the same species. They will also generally be more confident, feed better, and you’re likely to have less problems with feeding, aggression etc.
Choosing your shoals or groups.
In even nano tanks it’s worth having at least one shoal or group. Species such as Tail spot blennies, and Green coral gobies, can be kept in groups in tanks as small as 50 litres or less.
Whilst Chromis are a popular choice of fish in groups of 5-7 for many hobbyists, that isn’t ideal. Chromis are can grow up to 3”, and are quite messy. they also tend to do better in larger groups of 10-40, because in small groups one dominant male may pick off other members of the shoal one by one. In larger groups there will likely be several dominant males, which can then happily squabble between themselves for top spot in the hierarchy, leaving the other members of the shoal intact.
A good alternative are species such as Azure damsels, which although also do best in groups of 10+ for the same reasons, a group of 10 can quite happily live in 100 litres or so. Growing to just over 1” (just over 25mm), they are much smaller than Chromis. Azure damsels place far less strain on the water parameters than Chromis do, with a whole group of 10 Azure damsels only totalling the same bodyweight as 1 or 2 adult Chromis.
Another good choice are Cloudy damsels. These are one of my most favourite reef fish. They can be kept in pairs or groups of any size. The males only grow to around 50p size (around 1” / 25mm), with the females being only 10p size (4/5ths of an inch/20mm). Being a plankton eater they are very docile, and don’t fiercely defend territories like many Damsel species do. They make an excellent choice for the main shoal/group in a tank, or secondary shoal, group, or pair.
In larger tanks other species worth considering as your main or secondary shoals/groups are species such as; Pyramid Butterflyfish, Convict Tangs, Lipstick Tangs, or Anthias. Other good choices are some of the Wrasses and Angelfish species, but, we’ll look at those further down this blog.
Not to be missed
As well as Clownfish and shoals/groups of fish there are two others that are not to be missed out in a reef tank.
The first of these are Pistol shrimp and Shrimp goby pairs. This is probably the most interesting thing you can add to your reef aquarium. Whilst they may not look very exciting in a picture, their endless antics are very entertaining to watch. they don’t cost much, or take up much space either, so they are well worth having!
The other essential thing for a reef aquarium are wrasses. This is because wrasses are excellent pest control for corals, eating things such as Nudibranches, Flatworms, etc, which can be massive problems in reef tanks. Having one or more small reef safe wrasses will help prevent a whole load of different problems with your corals. Some species such as Yellow Coris wrasses, and Leopard wrasses, can be kept in pairs or groups too, so these can also be your main or secondary shoal/group too.
Other fish you don’t want to miss out on
There are a few more fish that are just such excellent choices that it’s well worth having them.
Copperband butterflyfish
Although these have a reputation for being difficult, it’s rather unfair. I actually consider them one of the easiest marine fish species to keep. But, to do so you need to do two things. First of all don’t house them with aggressive species such as Tangs, and secondly feed them frozen Mysis at least twice per day. As long as you do those two things you should have no trouble at all. Copperbands will eat Tubeworms and may bother Clams though, so you need to take that into account.
Mandarins
Another fish that is often considered difficult when it shouldn’t be at all. Mandarins have very small mouths, and cannot chew their food. So whilst they may take things such as Mysis etc, it’s much safer to feed frozen Copepods first thing in the morning each day. Most other marine fish will also happily eat frozen Copepods too, and they are quite widely available these days. If you have trouble finding frozen Copepods for sale locally you can usually purchase them online from places such as Charterhouse Aquatics. Here’s a link:
Charterhouse Aquatics - Frozen Copepods
Dottybacks/Grammas
You can usually only have 1 Dottyback or Gramma per tank unless they are a pair. They are well worth having though. personally I’d rather have a Strawberry dottyback as they are far less aggressive than a Royal gramma, but, if you have no other small fish then a Royal gramma is a stunning addition. Dottybacks sometimes have a reputation for aggression, but, this only happens if the tank is being massively underfed. Check out our feeding guide, or, email us for advice on how much and how often you should feed your reef.
Dwarf angelfish
The last group we are going to take a look at today are the Dwarf angelfish. These make excellent choices for the reef aquarium, having interesting characters, bright colours, and always being out and about. You can keep several dwarf angelfish in together, but, if keeping several it’s best to add several at a time.
Most species such as Coral beauties, Black hole angels, Heraldi angels, etc, can only be kept as a single specimen or mated pair/harem of their species, although they can be mixed with other species of Dwarf angelfish. Some species such as Singapore angels and Bicolour angels get along fine in pairs or in groups. A small shoal of Singapore or Bicolor angels (or both), make a stunning addition to medium to large reef tanks.
And finally
Of course these are only a small selection of the vast array of species you can keep in a reef aquarium, but, hopefully it’s given you some inspiration, and shown you a few species which you might not have considered before.
make sure you sign up to our VIP mailing list below so you can see future articles in our new Top Picks series, and other updates from us too.
Thanks for reading, feel free to share this blog.
James Goodchild, Salty Revolution.
Use the button below to go to our Main menu and see all our livestock.
Here are the other Blogs so far in our new Top Picks series. Make sure you sign up to our FREE VIP mailing list so you don’t miss out on the rest of our Top Picks series. Find out more on our El Presidente’s VIP club page (button below).
James Goodchild, Salty Revolution.
“As part of our new Top Picks series we take a look at my top picks for reef safe fish” - James