40 Gallon long- What fish?

[Salt4Us]

Boy and I thought we were limited with the 29.

Ok with the 40 cycled we are still trying to decide what kind of fish will work in our tank. We know we are limited to 8". We eventually want it to be reef and know that it will limit as to what kind of fish to get depending on what corals we choose. We have mainly soft corals in our 29 and are thinking of going for hard corals in the 40, would love hammer or frogspawn.

As far as fish we have only decided on a yellow watchman goby, was going for a blue spot jawfish but that's a bit much $$ for a fish we'd have to order online.

Here's the ones we like:

Dwarf Flame Angel or Coral beauty, or bicolor Angel

Royal Gramma Basslet

Flame Hawkfish but not thrilled it likes to eat shrimps.



If anyone can give us some ideas, I know we could go Damsels, but we have one in our 5. Want something that has multicolor on it and personality.

Thanks!

 

[reefrunner69]

was going for a blue spot jawfish but that's a bit much $$ for a fish we'd have to order online

IMO, if your going to get an expensive fish....that's the way to go, most have a live arrival guarantee and a week beyond that, provided you follow their acclimation procedures. That's better than you get from alot of LFS.

Dwarf Flame Angel or Coral beauty, or bicolor Angel

Any dwarf angel is risky in a reef, some will pick, some won't. Some will do fine for months or years and all of a sudden decide your corals are a tasty snack :x Take it from me, I experienced it not to long ago with my African Flameback.

Royal Gramma Basslet

Great reef fish, although not very active. It will lurk in it's hole spot, with just it's head sticking out and come out for feedings.

Flame Hawkfish but not thrilled it likes to eat shrimps.

This is one of my all time favorite fish, I've owned 3, and not one has ever messed with a shrimp, thats not to say they won't, but IME if the shrimp is there first and it isn't a tiny shrimp, you won't have any problems, any shrimp added after are fair game though.

If anyone can give us some ideas,

Hmmm, in addition to the flame hawk, there is the longnose hawk, dottybacks are active and colorful (should be added last, they are highly aggressive), lawnmower blennies, red lipped blennies, firefish, clowns if I think of some more, I'll post back.

 

[d9hp]

Ok, I know you dont want more clowns, but i have to say it. They are one of my favorite fish. I would say get two purple firefish... I like the watchman idea, I want one too. Maybe a banded goby, they are super tiny.

 

[Salt4Us]

d9hp, they are our favorites too, but we want something different, love the Hawkfish, may go that way, really want the bluedot, but 70 bucks for a fish? Guarantee or not, it's a bit out of our budget. Wouldn't we have problems with the blennies with the gobies?

We are thinking as far as crabs we may try the horseshoe crabs it will stir it up and will be easier than getting lets say a brittle to stir up the sand. Will the horseshoe bother blue legged crabs? Can we have small hermit crabs with a hawkfish?

Thanks!

 

[reefrunner69]

Will the horseshoe bother blue legged crabs?

These fall into the catagory of should be left in the ocean. They won't hurt the crabs, but they will more than likely starve in your system. When they sift sand they are looking for food, worms and pods etc..Once they decimate the population they starve. If they don't...they get way to big for your tank, I see them all the time at the beach in excess of 24" in diameter, not including the tail.

Can we have small hermit crabs with a hawkfish?

Yes.

 

[Salt4Us]

Ok thanks Kevin, I was looking on Saltwaterfish.com and saw the horseshoe, I guess I should have did more research before posting anything on here, good thing I found out now.

Cool about the blue legs.

Btw, I've noticed that a lot of "Reef packages" come with red legged hermits, I thought those weren't reef safe, yet everyone lists them as being reef safe.

Thanks again!

 

[d9hp]

I have redlegs, and they dont bother anything. They are one of my favorite critters. I really wish I could get a bunch more.

 

[BrianH]

IMHO the scarlet leg hermits are safer than the blue legs. The blue legs will sometimes kill snails and other critters for their shells while the scarlets pretty much leave everything alone.

Brian

 

[Hara]

remember that there is a difference between red leg hermits and scarlet reef hermits. (I thought they were the same for a long time)

 

[fishfriends05]

This is my first reply to anything here on the forum, but I thought I would give it a try. As far as some suggestions to what kind of fish might be good in reef tank, I would suggest a Mandarin goby, royal gramma basslet( which might be helpful in the event of brisstleworms, as they feed on them), bi-color goatfish, and some of the wrasses (ie bird wrasse), in addition to the others listed above. Just dont add to many bottom feeders or else they will starve as mentioned. I found out the hard way. Another suggestion as far as bottom feeaders that will rumage through your substrate and are reef safe. Is the white sand sifting starfish. They will do a better job than the brittle or serpent stars. But the disadvantage to them is that you wont see them as much, as they are usually buried in the sand.

 

[d9hp]

Mine are scarlet reef hermits, that is what they are

 

[Salt4Us]

Fishfriends05, wow thanks for picking my post as your first and welcome to AA! Thanks for the info about the starfish, our sand is the black tahitian so we'd be able to see where it is with no problem unless he's way under there. We already like the royal gramma.

Hara, thanks, I didn't know there was a difference and now I do.

 

[loganj]

Unless this is an old tank, I would shy away from the mandarin. They require a very well established sand bed to keep from starving. The goatfish may have the same problem although you may be able to get him to eat prepared foods. While I have never had a sand sifting star, I have read that they will decimate a DSB. I don't know this for a fact so it's something you'd want to research carefully before adding one. JMHO. I've found that my blue legs won't bother my snails as long as I keep some empty shells laying around in the tank for them to move in to. Most LFS's can supply empty shells at a nominal cost.

 

[tyler]

i can't believe nobody has mentioned the six line wrasse. everybody i know who has one loves it. beautiful little fish they are.

 

[Mutz]

I'd suggest a coral beauty. Along with being very colorful fish, they're easy to care for, eat a ton and are very active.

 

[Salt4Us]

We had ruled out a mandarin, it's a new tank and realize it would eventually starve. We really love the blue spot jawfish, we have a really deep sand bed for either a jawfish or a goby. But 60 to 70 bucks has anyone had a bluespot jawfish, is it worth that kind of money? I've seen the six line wrasse, I really like that one too! The coral beauty is so beautiful but I don't want to get something that is going to eat my corals later.

 

[Salt4Us]

Ok, here's what we've decided (when we get some $$)

Cryptocentrus cinctus : Yellow Watchman Goby
Gramma loreto: Royal Gramma Basslet

We will be taking (this will be the fun part) one cleaner and one peppermint shrimp from our 29.

although this may change depending on what responses I get from this...

We'd like to get a pistol shrimp, we think it will not only be cool to watch him with the goby, but maybe educational too. Thing is, with this mixture of shrimp will it cause a problem? We ruled out the Flame Hawk due to he likes small shrimp and the pistol shrimp would be on his menu for sure.

My husband would like to get 2 more fish, we'd like peaceful but reef safe. LOL doesn't leave much huh!

Look forward to comments!