Help please with finding a fish!

[Vauche]

Ok, I'm sick and tired and completely frustrated with trying to find a fish that will work for me.

Current stock in a 90G:
2 False percs
1 Bicolor blenny
2 Firefish
2 Mandarins
1 Cleaner shrimp
SPS dominated

What I'm want is colorful and visible (actively swimming). I've looked at flame angels but not really sure I want to take the risk. I've thought about chalk basslets but see these may not be the active swimmer. Wrasses would be cool but the 2 mandarins rule this out (the mandarins are reason for the tank).

Anybody, please, any suggestions that I may have overlooked?

 

[tcmfish]

Any of the Ctenochaetus sp. tangs.
Pyramid or zoster butterflyfish.
Fang blennies.
Anthias.

I'm sure there are others but those are a few that came to mind.

 

[Vauche]

tcmfish, awesome thanks for those suggestions!! Somewhere to start looking at the very least.

 

[melanotaenia]

IBID on the Anthias, there are some really cool Anthias species becoming available that you can pick up a trio or more and they add great color to the tank. Depends on what you want to spend however. You could also look to the reef safe angels.

Diver's Den usually has a few trios or groups of Anthias for sale on their site on a regular basis.

 

[jhawkor]

How about a Wrasse, like C. lubbocki or C. scottorum?

 

[Vauche]

Thanks all!

My worry both with anthias and the wrasse suggestions are the 2 mandarins and competition for the pods. I know wrasses love them pods and I have read that anthias can be a little hard to get to eat prepared foods and also peck away at the pods. Either would be awesome as I've looked at both. Had some filamentous wrasses before (no mandarin) also before I had a lid on the tank.

Is this a valid concern or am I over thinking this?

 

[tcmfish]

Do your mandarins eat anything besides pods growing in the tank? Do they eat any of the food you feed?

 

[jhawkor]

Ah, I'm sorry I didn't notice you had Mandarins. If the Mandarins are not eating prepared foods I wouldn't add a wrasse.

Like tcmfish mentioned before you could go with a tang like Ctenochaetus binotatus or Ctenochaetus strigosus. They are great algae eaters too.

 

[Vauche]

I have to say that my mandarins have a taste only for pods that I can tell. They might eat some of what I put in but I couldn't say for a fact.

 

[tcmfish]

Yeah then stay away from pod eaters. No sense in risking it. The butterfly's I recommended or the tangs would be fine and give you a bigger fish too, something your tank is lacking. If you would like to have both I would introduce the butterflyfishes first then the tang.

 

[rachenbrazil]

Blue assessor or yellow assessor would be classy touch. More peacefull than dottybacks (well fridmani would be nice too).

 

[lostintheocean]

midas blenny or a candy strip hogfish. i have the second and love him. I have eggcrate cover and he has jumped twice through, lickly i happened to be right there both times so I was able to dump him back in

 

[Vauche]

Awesome!! Thanks for all the info to everyone. There are a couple of these that I was overlooking due to the general perception I had of the species and their behavior/attributes (i.e. the butterflys and the hog fish).

Definitely some researching to do now. Quick look at the hog fish very nice looking fish in this genra, big too,(question if the cleaner shrimp would be safe but he's about 4in long so thinking yes). My wife really likes the tangs and butterflies too.

Thanks again for the tips very helpful and it gives me a path to follow!!

As always any other ideas please don't be shy.

 

[IPowderBlueTang]

Tangs!!!!!!!!1