Hey guys, Im setting up a small reef tank in my son's room and I need ideas of some fish that'll be well suited for a tank this small. It's finally cycled and all ready to. Preferably I want something brightly colored and something that'll stay out in the open more to catch his attention. I have a couple different combos in mind, but nothing I've fallen in love with yet. The colors I would really like to have in there for him are yellow, purple, blue, and red or orange. Preferably fish with 1 solid color so like 1 purple fish, 1 yellow fish, and 1 red fish. Some of my favorite fish are clowns, orchid dottybacks, firefish, banggai cardinals, blue green chromis and I love dwarf angels but I know they're off limits for this tank. Thanks in advance for your ideas!
Need fish suggestions for 16 gallon reef
- Thread starter DJasak
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juniorrocketdad
New member
Burtonboy182
New member
Goby shrimp pair would be a cool addition.
GimpyFin
Active member
Lol. Strike two.
Lol never owned one that small and i am drawing a blank on what red fish of solid red color could fit in a 16g, you can always hop on liveaquaria and look into thier fish selection they generally have fish selections that most lfs have along with minimum tank requirements and thier max length so that you could see what catches your eye. Good luck
juniorrocketdad
New member
A Firefish is prolly your best bet
I really like the blue green chromis too! But I want variety in my livestock and I know more than 3 is really pushing the envelope for this tank. But my thought process is if I start with all juveniles and up my wc schedule as well as rehome some fish once they start to out grow the tank I should b ok. So I was thinking 2-3 of the blue green chromis, 2 banggai cardinals, 1-2 fire fish and 1 royal gramma. Now I know that's really overdoing it for a tank this small but like I said I would be starting off with juvenile fish, nothing more than 2" big. And everything I've listed doesn't get much bigger than 3.5". Plus if I time this right I'll have my 220 up and running and I'll be able to hand down my 45 gallon to my son b4 his fish get too big. Worst case scenerio I have a couple friends and brothers who would gladly take some fish off my hands. What do u guys think?
ReefWhatYouSow
New member
Personally I would put different color gobies; like a clown, citron, panda, black.... Stuff like that.
But I guess if you were looking for that red you could put in a Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse or Swissguard Basslet?
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But I guess if you were looking for that red you could put in a Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse or Swissguard Basslet?
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HammerLover
New member
A possum wrasse is very cute and fits well in a nano
Love those clown gobies, especially the yellow ones
Some gobies like yasha and hifin or watchman paired with a candy pistol shrimp would be a good combo too
Purple firefish is very colorful and very docile too
Love those clown gobies, especially the yellow ones
Some gobies like yasha and hifin or watchman paired with a candy pistol shrimp would be a good combo too
Purple firefish is very colorful and very docile too
Thank you for all the suggestions! Now you've got me thinking on what I want to do! I like the possum wrasse idea, I really like my firefish, I'm afraid to add a purple one cause I don't want them to fight. I had a yellow clown goby b4 and I thought he was so cute to look at! But I also like the idea of a pistol shrimp/goby pair, that would b fun to watch. Also like the blue green chromis idea, they are a very nice pop of color, but I am looking for as much variety and life as possible. Still would love to have a nice brilliant purple in the tank, too bad the royal gramma wouldn't work, I was originally thinking an orchid dottyback but thought the royal gramma would b a better alternative. Any ideas?
bat21
New member
yellow clown goby is a must. For purple though, the purple firefish is the only option for a tank that size and I would not add one with an existing firefish. and I would be hesitant to put a chromis in there as well. They get much bigger than you think.
For the most variety of interesting behavior, I'd get a yellow clown goby, and a goby/shrimp pair.
I actually disagree with the opinion that possum wrasses are ok in 10-15 gallon tanks. I feel like my 65 is too small for mine watching him swim around the entire tank 100 times a day.
I would recommend a pygmy filefish instead. They are very slow methodical swimmers, and are really cool fish. So if you added one of those to the three I said, it would work. It's maybe overstocked. But compatibility wise and size wise, it would be perfect.
For the most variety of interesting behavior, I'd get a yellow clown goby, and a goby/shrimp pair.
I actually disagree with the opinion that possum wrasses are ok in 10-15 gallon tanks. I feel like my 65 is too small for mine watching him swim around the entire tank 100 times a day.
I would recommend a pygmy filefish instead. They are very slow methodical swimmers, and are really cool fish. So if you added one of those to the three I said, it would work. It's maybe overstocked. But compatibility wise and size wise, it would be perfect.
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