Help me pick a fish

[Mark75]

On the advice of many I am adding a fish or two to my 30 gal. long. The tank has a green mandarin in it now and is mostly sps. What is a good fish to add? Here are some requirements;

No pod eaters, my mandarin needs them.
Suitable in a 30
None hiding
I actually would like to add a couple or three so if your suggestion does well in small groups all the better but not a necessity.
NO nippers!!!
If you have a couple of different types of fish in mind name them all, I need to add at least two. Thanks!

 

[acrodave]

banggai cardinalfish are cool and you can keep them in a school and will bread in a fish tank

 

[Mark75]

Not a big fan of Cardinalfish, thanks for the suggestion all the same. What else do you guys like?

 

[Fishboy42]

Cardinals would do well, but it's all about preference (there are quite a few species that would do well too if you maybe like some but not others).

Gobies do well in pairs/groups. Small gobies like the neon, red-headed, or Puerto-Rican Limestripe might be nice. They sometimes hide, but part of the fun is finding and watching them.

The microdesmids (firefish, scissortails) are very pretty IMO and stay out a lot.

Dottybacks are beautiful, but they eat pods (and sometimes can be hiders), so they are probably out.

If you like clowns, they might be a good choice. They do well in pairs, don't mind small tanks, aren't too agressive or hard on the pod population and stay out a lot. I'd recommend a smaller species such as ocellaris, percula, orange skunk. The big species will be fine in that tank, but they might decide to rearrange your rocks/corals...

Some of the smaller wrasses are nice, but I think they can be hard on the pod populations too.

 

[Mark75]

A pair of true Perculas is high on my list. What about Wrasses, Fairy, Flasher? Are there any Wrasses suitable for a 30 long?

 

[phish guy]

i would go with fishboy and go for some small gobies or dart fish. firefish are very cute and aslong as there is no one to sacre them, and theres not, htey will be out all day twitching their dorsal spine. very cute.

 

[imsqueak]

gobies with companion shrimp. They add so much interest. One of my shrimps doesnt like me looking down and glaring into the tank and clicks every time I do. I chuckle every time he clicks.

I also like microdesmids (firefish, scissortails)

Two gobies w/ shrimp and one firefish would be my recommendation.

 

[Mark75]

I should have mentioned my tank is open top so I really would like to avoid "known jumpers". Aren't Firefish bad to jump ship?

 

[ct_vol]

Wrasses will dessimate your pod population...

 

[Fishboy42]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11156178#post11156178 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mark75
I should have mentioned my tank is open top so I really would like to avoid "known jumpers". Aren't Firefish bad to jump ship?

I think they are known to do that. I've only kept two pairs (in covered tanks). One pair died in a house fire and the other was eaten by Orby Unless you have those problems, they are great fish!

A friend who breeds mandarins has had several jump out of his tanks with only small uncovered areas, although that might have been during their spawning rises...

 

[cee]

I have 4 wrasses and 1 mandarin in one tank. All fat, dumb, and happy, but then again, they're all trained to eat frozen food. Some wrasses have a bigger impact on pods than others. It took years to train the mandarin to eat frozen...

 

[ct_vol]

Most wrasses like to carpet surf too...

My mandarin eats frozen mysis too...