Suggestions for small fish

[Deleted member 20245]

My 450gal has mostly large angels & tangs — all 30 of them! I need some suggestions to add color and motion to the tank. First come to mind would be a school of anthias. However, I don’t want to feed frozen. What do you guys recommend? Blue/green chromis, damsels (some can be nasty), harem of clowns? I’m leaning toward the latter - thoughts?

 

[mchain275]

Maybe a dozen Azure Damsels? Very colorful and fairly peaceful.

Lyretail or Bimac Anthias are great, too, but costly for quarantined fish.

 

[thresher]

School of a smaller variety of anthias gets my vote.

 

[wsoldier]

Anthias for sure.... I have 2 lyretail on pellets.

 

[Deleted member 20245]

Ugh - as much as I love anthias, mine never ate pellets before. I need something “affordable” — gonna get 15-30 of them.

 

[Deleted member 20245]

Anthias for sure.... I have 2 lyretail on pellets.

I had 6 before but lost them due to velvet. They only ate frozen .. it was a pita

 

[Discotu]

Since you have a large tank you can probably support a bunch of chromis. Or acclimatimg a large variety of freshwater Molly's over to SW. Ive read they make good "filler" fish

 

[Discotu]

I had 6 before but lost them due to velvet. They only ate frozen .. it was a pita

Mine eat freeze.dried mysis. Was relatively easy to train them by mixing frozen with freeze dried then exclusively freeze dried. Same with my CCB.

 

[JohnBRZ]

50 clowns

 

[Dooly]

I’d get 10 different fairy wrasse, 15 chromis, a springers damsel, 12 dispar anthias, and 12 resplendents

 

[ndrwater]

Ugh - as much as I love anthias, mine never ate pellets before. I need something “affordable” — gonna get 15-30 of them.

Talbots Damsels... Relatively cheap, super hardy..

 

[thresher]

Get an army of bizzare shrimp and crabs. When SHTH, they'll make a nice snack.

 

[Deleted member 20245]

I’d get 10 different fairy wrasse, 15 chromis, a springers damsel, 12 dispar anthias, and 12 resplendents

That’s one expensive meal for the angels!!!
I’m BB so can’t keep wrasse anyway

 

[Dooly]

Sand is only needed for wrasse that sleep in the sand like coris, leopards, anampses etc. Fairy wrasse don’t need sand.

 

[Dooly]

Maybe a couple wrasse that get on the larger side and have a bit more aggression.
Roseband and scotts would be awesome

 

[Dooly]

 

[ocellaris123]

Talbots, azure, springers, yellowtail damsels would make nice fillers

 

[drexel]

My Ignitus anthias eat flakes and pellets, so they can be trained to eat anything. I say a few flasher wrasses mixed with the right fairy wrasse or two, striped blennies are cool, but if you can find them, fusilier damselfish are amazing and shoal together like anthias, but don't have the same aggression as anthias or damsels do. They need to go through QT, but once they're in your tank, they'll be your favorite fish. Once I upgrade to a larger tank, I'll probably have six total.
But if you really want to take the deep dive into fairy and flasher wrasses, then check Hunter Hammond's site, he's done amazing work and has charts to show which wrasses can go with each other.
https://www.thewrasseguy.com/

 

[Deleted member 20245]

Talbots, azure, springers, yellowtail damsels would make nice fillers

I had no idea that there are hundreds of species of damsels!!! Will take a peek - thanks

 

[ndrwater]

My Ignitus anthias eat flakes and pellets, so they can be trained to eat anything. I say a few flasher wrasses mixed with the right fairy wrasse or two, striped blennies are cool, but if you can find them, fusilier damselfish are amazing and shoal together like anthias, but don't have the same aggression as anthias or damsels do. They need to go through QT, but once they're in your tank, they'll be your favorite fish. Once I upgrade to a larger tank, I'll probably have six total.
But if you really want to take the deep dive into fairy and flasher wrasses, then check Hunter Hammond's site, he's done amazing work and has charts to show which wrasses can go with each other.
https://www.thewrasseguy.com/

Hunter is a good guy. Had him out years ago to SCMAS to share some of his knowledge...
Hmmmmmmm.... Gives me an idea...