Medium-Large Tanks w/ ONLY Small Fish

[E.intheC]

Does anyone have medium/large sized tanks stocked with smaller fish and few or no medium/large fish?

I'm looking to stock my current tank with fish like gobies, cardinals, blennies, etc, and would like to hear other folk's experience regarding this topic.

If you have pictures that you want to share, that'd be great.

 

[tcmfish]

I've always had this idea, just never had a tank for it.

This has always been one of my favorite tanks:
http://vimeo.com/6161531

 

[jayelblock]

If you consider a 65g medium, than my tank qualifies. The largest fish I have by length is an alligator pipefish (6"), but he's skinny. The largest fish I have by mass is a target mandarin--maybe 2.5". The only open water swimmers I have are two threadfin/big eyed cardinals, and the largest is perhaps 1.5". They're pretty shy, so often when I observe the tank, I don't see any fish swimming, but there's always a lot of action on the rock scape.

Stock list is as follows:
2 x Flaming prawn goby
1 x Target mandarin dragonet
1 x Pink bar goby
1 x Hasselt's goby
1 x Alligator pipefish
2 x Threadfin cardinal

 

[Gogandantess]

I've always had this idea, just never had a tank for it.

This has always been one of my favorite tanks:
http://vimeo.com/6161531

Incomplete without a few nice Tangs :lol2: ... I need more personality.

 

[E.intheC]

Incomplete without a few nice Tangs :lol2: ... I need more personality.

I disagree actually. That tank looks great. When I picture a reef in the ocean, I see schools and shoals of small fish like anthias darting in and out of large coral colonies, with the occasional apex predator swimming through. That's what I'm going for in the new tank. (As best I can in the small confines of my glass cube).

 

[tcmfish]

Incomplete without a few nice Tangs :lol2: ... I need more personality.

If you watched the video, there are tomini tangs. After just quickly clicking through the vid again I counted at least 4 in one frame, but there are probably at least a half dozen or more. The tank is just sooo large.

But big tangs make the tank look small. They are beneficial for some algae control, but just because you have a big tank doesn't mean all the fish should be big. Small fish will make the tank look bigger. Big fish will make it look smaller.

 

[Ambition]

I actually prefer that the tank be made up of mostly small fish. Maybe the occasional large fish in my dream tank (750-1200gal).

My 120 will not have any fish that will get bigger than 4", even the larger fish not guaranteed to reach the max length.

 

[chem-e]

I only keep smaller fishes in my 55 gal and I really like it because I can stock more fishes if I wanted to and I don't have a problem with excess nutrient. I keep a small blue tang, tail spot blennie, yellow coris wrasse, purple firefish, and a small flasher wrasse.

 

[RN.......]

I've always had this idea, just never had a tank for it.

This has always been one of my favorite tanks:
http://vimeo.com/6161531

I love This tank, although I think one large fish would be great in there.

The nice thing about Freshwater fish is there is a wide selection of schooling nano fish, in salt there are practically none as far as I know. At least reasonably priced. Chromis would be great if they wouldn't kill each other.

 

[E.intheC]

I love This tank, although I think one large fish would be great in there.

The nice thing about Freshwater fish is there is a wide selection of schooling nano fish, in salt there are practically none as far as I know. At least reasonably priced. Chromis would be great if they wouldn't kill each other.

There are some shoaling fish, but you're right. They're not cheap and the mortality rates are pretty high. I had a small shoal of chromis that didn't kill each other off. My buddy has them in a 120 now and they are still going strong.

 

[pstank1]

My tank is stocked with gobies (3 masked, one rainsford, one black barred convict, one neon), one red firefish and a tailspot blenny. For now. I'll probably add a few more gobies once my tank settles down from swapping my sump. This is in a 50 gallon.

 

[o2manyfish]

Small is in the eye of the beholder

Small is in the eye of the beholder

Small is a relative term. I love the little fish, and I have a bunch of them. But in a 400g tank you have to study the tank to see them all. So while I have a bunch of tangs, they have all started out tiny. I have a collection of pygmy angels. I have 10 pseudochromis. I have about 15 different damsels and chromis. Half a dozen Bangai. Assortment of small wrasses. And 3 pairs of Perc clowns. I have a couple of large fish in my tank, that being an Achilles Tang and a Juvenile gold flake angel.

I have a small collection of gobies and blennies, and that is what I am looking for to continue adding to the tank.

So in my mind I have mostly small fish, no large tang species and none of the large angels.

Dave B

 

[Nowell York]

I'm also a proponet of proportionality.

Having been blessed to share the water column with these guys, it pains me to see a big fish in a glass box.