Fish Suggestions?

[DerekG4]

Lately I’ve been trying to add more fish but I can’t think of many for my tank. My tank is 150 gallons, lots of live rock and all kinds of corals. Parameters are good (except for my salt that I keep at 1.028 and temps are at 82) I currently have a 4” Sailfin tang, 3” blue tang, 3 1/2” yellow tang, 2” Kole Tang, 2” Banggai Cardinal, 4” Yellow and Purple Corris wrasse (H. Leucoxanthes), 3” Starry Blenny, 1” Lubbock Fairy Wrasse, 2” “Fancy” Ocellaris Clown, 1” Platinum Clown, and a 4” male Purple Queen Anthias. Inverts include: 10-15 blue leg hermits, 1 red leg hermit, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 sand star, 1 rock anemone and 2 Bubble tip anemones.

There’s occasional fights with my blue tang and Kole Tang (used to be much worse initially), occasional fights with my yellow tang and sailfin (yellow tang used to constantly have him trapped in a corner,
Not letting him move at all, they’re kind of fine now) and my Kole Tang chases my Starry blenny into a hole, he’s almost never out because of him. Judging from this I know I shouldn’t get any other algae eating fish and definitely no more tangs.

I was thinking of adding either 3 small PJ cardinals or 1 Medium-Large PJ Cardinal, or 3 Stop Light Cardinals. I hear the stop light cardinals might hide a bit compared to the PJs. I’ve also noticed they’re hard to find in my area. I’d get a firefish or another scissor tail goby but I had one not too long ago that would almost never come out and died by going into my overflow and into the wet/dry.
I was also thinking of getting a goatfish (my job sells many of them) and they look pretty interesting and unique. I’m just worried how they are with inverts.

I was also told that it’s unlikely my purple queen Anthias would live long term, if it does die, which Anthias should I get that’s a fair size, has nice color, and is a great eater? I had a pink square that lasted for 2 months (didn’t want to eat at all) and a red belted Anthias. It was a good eater but he randomly disappeared in my tank after like 5 months.

So which would be best, 1 large PJ, 3 small PJs, or 3 stop light cardinals? I was also thinking about some Chromis, but what other ones are out there that are peaceful and not the blue/green Chromis? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. These will probably be my last fish I add (unless some other die) unless it doesn’t seem like it’s overcrowded.

 

[DerekG4]

I think I’m going to go with 3 small Pj cardinals. I may also remove my Kole Tang and trade him for something else.

 

[humaguy]

for fish your sg should be between 1.010-1.023, some with corals go to 1.026 but 1.028 is too high and taxing on fish. fish do better with lower salinity.
why were you told they the queen would die?
it doesnt seem like any qt is going you should def consider that.

good luck,

tk

 

[DerekG4]

for fish your sg should be between 1.010-1.023, some with corals go to 1.026 but 1.028 is too high and taxing on fish. fish do better with lower salinity.
why were you told they the queen would die?
it doesnt seem like any qt is going you should def consider that.

good luck,

tk

I was told the queen may die because they're very difficult to keep long term due to being a super picky eater.

I've had my tank around 1.026-1.028 for a good year now and most of my corals are doing well. I know it's higher than what it's supposed to be I've noticed most of my corals thrive when it's high. Most of my fish seem healthy (besides my blue tang and yellow tang a little beat up).

I'd get a quarantine but I don't have the space for it.

 

[McPuff]

I was told the queen may die because they're very difficult to keep long term due to being a super picky eater.

I've had my tank around 1.026-1.028 for a good year now and most of my corals are doing well. I know it's higher than what it's supposed to be I've noticed most of my corals thrive when it's high. Most of my fish seem healthy (besides my blue tang and yellow tang a little beat up).

I'd get a quarantine but I don't have the space for it.

You can set up a 10g for QT. I'm sure you could find space for that if you're creative. It doesn't take much. But it'll pay off for you.

 

[DerekG4]

Well, as expected, my purple queen Anthias died yesterday. Doubt it was starvation, his stomach wasn’t skinny and was eating fine. Randomly found him with his eyes partially gauged out and half his body eaten. Assuming it was already dead and my few hermits and peppermint started eating it.

I did get sunburst Anthias that was eating fine and a pajama cardinal.

My sunburst is out but once it’s feeding time he’s scared to eat with all of my tangs going in a frenzy when they see food.

The pajama cardinal I suspect is dead, he was out just fine last night and he disappeared. Can’t find him anywhere. I think I may have something in my tank that might be eating small fish. I added a striped cardinal like a month ago and also disappeared right after the first night. No ammonia spike, no carcass, no trace of it at all. With the pajama cardinal, this is probably the 8th small fish I’ve had to simply disappear. He was about an Inch in length. He was a healthy fish too, he was in one of my job’s display tanks for a few months, so if he did die, it wasn’t from the fish simply being in poor health.

 

[nereefpat]

I think I'm going to go with 3 small Pj cardinals. I may also remove my Kole Tang and trade him for something else.

The cardinals should be a good addition, but you may end up with 2.

I would keep the kole, and trade in the sailfin and blue tangs.

 

[DerekG4]

I’m most likely gonna buy another 3 pajama cardinals but maybe a little larger than this one I have. That’s if my other one is dead, if not I’ll get 2. I don’t think they should fight, I’ve read they’re much more peaceful than the banggais (which I know would kill each other if there were more than 2) and at my job there’s a 220 display tank with about 7 of them in there. All are almost full grown and never fight, at least not that I’ve seen.

I may get rid of my Kole. He’s still bullying my blue tang every once in a while. Doesn’t bully the Blenny as much anymore, he’s starting to come out now. The Kole even fights with my Yellow wrasse.

 

[DerekG4]

Now that my Kole tang is gone, I’ve been thinking about getting either a small Blue Jaw Trigger or a Sargassum Trigger. I know both are supposedly completely reef safe but may eat inverts. Which of the 2 would be more likely to NOT eat inverts?

I only have a peppermint shrimp (he’s never out, only comes out at night) about 10-15 snails or so and probably very few hermits at this point (all of them were constantly fighting for bigger shells, haven’t added any new ones in like 8 months). I may know have much inverts at the moment but I was hoping to add maybe a cleaner shrimp in the future or more peppermints for Aiptasia control. I don’t mind not being able to add any shrimps but I definitely at least need to keep a cleanup crew of some sort.

I also figured the smaller they are the less likely they are to go after inverts? I see fair sized (3-5 inches) blue jaws all the time but I never see a tiny 1-2 inch Trigger. Have yet to see a Sargassum Trigger anywhere.

I’d like another Tang but I figured at this point they’d just keep fighting, so I’ll ignore those. Also wanted the reef safe bannerfish (Heniochus Diphreutes) but I already have 3 black and white fish (Sailfin Tang, banggai cardinal and a Kamohara Blenny) and want something of a different color and pattern. Can’t think of any other fair sized fish that’s coral safe besides those 2 triggers. Don’t wanna do any more Anthias for now, my sunburst randomly started hiding and I suspect he may be dead. If I do get one I’m making absolutely sure it’s one that’s eating pellets.

 

[Jesterrace]

Lately I've been trying to add more fish but I can't think of many for my tank. My tank is 150 gallons, lots of live rock and all kinds of corals. Parameters are good (except for my salt that I keep at 1.028 and temps are at 82) I currently have a 4" Sailfin tang, 3" blue tang, 3 1/2" yellow tang, 2" Kole Tang, 2" Banggai Cardinal, 4" Yellow and Purple Corris wrasse (H. Leucoxanthes), 3" Starry Blenny, 1" Lubbock Fairy Wrasse, 2" "œFancy" Ocellaris Clown, 1" Platinum Clown, and a 4" male Purple Queen Anthias. Inverts include: 10-15 blue leg hermits, 1 red leg hermit, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 sand star, 1 rock anemone and 2 Bubble tip anemones.

There's occasional fights with my blue tang and Kole Tang (used to be much worse initially), occasional fights with my yellow tang and sailfin (yellow tang used to constantly have him trapped in a corner,
Not letting him move at all, they're kind of fine now) and my Kole Tang chases my Starry blenny into a hole, he's almost never out because of him. Judging from this I know I shouldn't get any other algae eating fish and definitely no more tangs.

I was thinking of adding either 3 small PJ cardinals or 1 Medium-Large PJ Cardinal, or 3 Stop Light Cardinals. I hear the stop light cardinals might hide a bit compared to the PJs. I've also noticed they're hard to find in my area. I'd get a firefish or another scissor tail goby but I had one not too long ago that would almost never come out and died by going into my overflow and into the wet/dry.
I was also thinking of getting a goatfish (my job sells many of them) and they look pretty interesting and unique. I'm just worried how they are with inverts.

I was also told that it's unlikely my purple queen Anthias would live long term, if it does die, which Anthias should I get that's a fair size, has nice color, and is a great eater? I had a pink square that lasted for 2 months (didn't want to eat at all) and a red belted Anthias. It was a good eater but he randomly disappeared in my tank after like 5 months.

So which would be best, 1 large PJ, 3 small PJs, or 3 stop light cardinals? I was also thinking about some Chromis, but what other ones are out there that are peaceful and not the blue/green Chromis? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. These will probably be my last fish I add (unless some other die) unless it doesn't seem like it's overcrowded.

The Cardinalfish will be bullied to no end by the established current tank mates. If inverts weren't an issue, I would recommend a blue headed wrasse as it gets good size and won't put up with being bullied.

 

[Jesterrace]

Here is what a mature bluehead looks like:

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/2766/bluehead-wrasse?pcatid=2766&c=15+1379+2766

 

[DerekG4]

I mean I already have 2 wrasses, I doubt my pink and yellow coris wrasse would take kindly to a bluehead. I’d add another fairy wrasse but I don’t know if that would be a good idea. My job gets many different species of fairy wrasse from time to time so it can be pretty difficult to not buy one, especially since they’re only about $20-35 most of the time.

Had I known my banggai would chase my PJ, I would’ve never bought it. I read 3 threads that they would get along with little to no signs of aggression.

The only one I see that I’m interested in at the moment is a tiny (1-2 inch) blue jaw Trigger. Just skeptical on the whole chance of it eating inverts and potentially flipping over corals and rocks. My job commonly gets them but at 3.5-4.5 inches. I’d get it but I figured a smaller one would be much better for the fact it may not eat my hermits and not mess with my rocks. I’ve read everyone has mixed experiences with them but almost everybody says they’re completely coral safe.

I’d like a firefish or some sort of dartfish (or tilefish) but I’m just nervous of getting another one having it just fall in my overflow. I’ve had 5 in total so far. One jumped (from my old 30 gallon, didn’t have a top at the time) 2 fell in the overflow, and the other 2 simply disappeared.

I’d LOVE a jawfish, but all the ones I’ve had just end up dying for some reason.

At this point any fish is fair game for me as long as it isn’t primarily yellow or black with white (I already have too many fish of those colors) if possible, I would like a fish that is uncommon/rare to find in an aquarium. Main reason why I bought the Lubbock’s fairy wrasse and Kamohara blenny.

 

[DerekG4]

Well I called about 8 stores by me in a 25 mile radius and not a single one had a blue jaw trigger under 4 inches. So I just got a fair sized trigger anyway, so far he’s hiding and doesn’t seem to be doing much. He pays no attention to coral as expected, doesn’t bother inverts that I’ve noticed (he was right by a cleaner shrimp and the shrimp was feeling him with her antennae) the tangs seem to harass him every once in a while. The blue tang bites him a little sometimes whereas the sail fin sometimes bites him and attempted to slash him. I guess he tried doing that because he was in the sailfins usual cave. Other than that he’s a nice fish, I just hope he comes out of hiding.