Small fish for small tank

C

Crawdads57

In Memoriam
It always struck me that there are so many small (~1" - 2") fish available for freshwater aquariums, but not saltwater. Now I know there are many small gobies for example and I have some of those, but I mean fish that "swim" like tetras, rasboras, etc, etc.

I realize that the lower oxygen environments where many of these freshwater fish come from is likely the reason for their small size, and that this factor alone is so much different than a reef habitat, but surely there are small "swimming" fish available for reef tanks somewhere.

Help me to fill in that mid to top level of my 15gal cube, so I don't have a bunch of fish running around on the bottom and hoping around on my rocks. Any suggestions would be great, but I am familiar with the standard chromis and damsels (which actually get fairly large compared to what I'm looking for). Basically, what is the marine equivalent of the tetras? That means that they can be kept in small groups, do not grow to more than say ~2.5" and are peaceful, swimming types of fish.
 
There are very few reef fish that stay below 2in and make it into the trade. It's not that they don't exist, it's just that the the supply chain is ill equipped to handle them properly and keep them alive.
Also catching tiny fish is tricky in a reef.
Then the tiny reef fish are rather clear than brightly colored, which makes them less attractive looking to the collectors.
Finally, most tiny reef fish that are colorful belong to the gobies or similar bottom or cave dwelling fish.

BTW, oxygenation of the water is not the reason why there are more small freshwater fish than saltwater fish. The primary reason are space and seasons. In the wild tetras rarely live longer than a year because their habitats dry out.

As for your problem in populating a nano tank - have a look at bluestripe pipefish. Once acclimated they are easy and not very difficult to feed. All of mine rather sooner than later picked up eating frozen mysis. When kept in pairs they are also not shy.

Another fish group you may want to look into are barnacle blennies.

Diademichthys lineatus is an interesting small fish, though not necessarily easy to keep.

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There are many choices in the reef basslet, cardinal, blenny & goby categories. Cleaned gobies are brightly colored and sized similar to tetras and a few species or cardinals will swim around together in loose groups too. But not sure how appropriate they are in a 15g tank.
 
I have a microfish 20g (up from a 10g), with Eviotas, Trimmas, Whitecapped goby, Grissingeri goby, etc.
The only fish that size that swim in the water column that are commercially available to my knowledge are Red spot cardinals and Aeliops megastigma.
Both are also schooling fish.
I wouldn't put the cardinals in a 10g, but you could have a school of 20+ Aeliops for sure. Apparently Bryaninops natans are supposed to swim in the water column, too, but I've had them and at least in my tank they rarely did. FYI, for aeliops, you need to feed live food - I used to hatch brine...
+1 for the blueline pipefish, try to get a pair.
Diademichthys lineatus will spend more time clinging to your glass than swimming in the water column.
Note that with any small fish like these, if you have anything even the tiniest bit aggressive, it may a) eat at least the aeliops, and b) you are much much less likely to see them, they spook easily.
 
I find already 4 feet isn't much space to swim in so....
If it was mine, in a 15 I'd put crouchers and bottom dwelling...
Maybe a pair of small seahorse , a pair of greissengers, green band gobies, a brown cheek Blenny, sexy shrimp and bumble bee shrimp ...


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ginpang said:
I find already 4 feet isn't much space to swim in so....
If it was mine, in a 15 I'd put crouchers and bottom dwelling...
Maybe a pair of small seahorse , a pair of greissengers, green band gobies, a brown cheek Blenny, sexy shrimp and bumble bee shrimp ...


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Click to expand...

The seahorse will eventually eat the bumble bee and sexy shrimp, and if it ever saw them, the grissingeri, too.
 
ginpang said:
I find already 4 feet isn't much space to swim in so....
If it was mine, in a 15 I'd put crouchers and bottom dwelling...
Maybe a pair of small seahorse , a pair of greissengers, green band gobies, a brown cheek Blenny, sexy shrimp and bumble bee shrimp ...


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Click to expand...

That is not really an ideal situation for a seahorse tank. By small sea horses do you mean Hippocampus Zosterae? Its better to have 5-10 gallons for a higher concentration of your live foods and it can be a pain providing or hatching live food daily. Any other species that accepts frozen would need at least a tank twice that size for a pair.
 
Small fish for small tank

Jeff4777 said:
That is not really an ideal situation for a seahorse tank. By small sea horses do you mean Hippocampus Zosterae? Its better to have 5-10 gallons for a higher concentration of your live foods and it can be a pain providing or hatching live food daily. Any other species that accepts frozen would need at least a tank twice that size for a pair.
Click to expand...



Since Pygmy seahorses are all on the IUCN red list , yes I meant zosters because they're the only ones I've ever seen or order sheets as captive bred.
Lol... Maybe h. kuda can eat bumble bee shrimp and greissengers.


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Given what the tank is, I was not interested in the red spot cardinals or dwarf dartfish. Those seem to both be A) hard to get a hold of and B) likely to die one way or another.

I just said what the heck and got a pair of green chromis. One is 2" and the other is 1", they seem to be happy picking off the pods, but I spoiled them with frozen mysis and now they just spit out the NLS pellets. I ordered some Selcon, so hopefully they take to the pellets better if I soak them in that.

If anyone else wants to recommend a fish that truly mimics the criteria of being "the marine equivalent of a tetra" I would love to know. To me this means: they stay small, they "swim", they are "relatively" inexpensive, they are able to be kept in at least a small group, and are towards the easy end of the scale.

I am becoming more and more certain that this fish does not exist beyond what we all know of or can look up easily on liveaquaria. I saw a yellow chromis that might work, but now that I have the green chromis I like their color and their swimming behavior. I do realize that if I am going to keep the green chromis the way they should be kept that they are going to get a little larger than what this tank should have in it.

I'll be upgrading the tank anyways, and have this one slated to become a zoa garden / frag tank of sorts.

As of today the stock list on this tank is:

2 green chromis,
2 green banded gobies
1 YWG with tiger pistol

A clean up crew of nassairus, nerites, limpets, hermits (including a cool white-claw hermit from KP aquatics)

3 Finger leathers
3 St Thomas mushrooms
3 "umbrella mushrooms" discosoma neglecta (pretty decent size)
Various Palys including the biggest grandis I've ever seen, nearly 3" across, devil's armor, a cool green one, some yellow protopaly
A gorg I believe to be Muriceopsis flavida
2 small acans

Probably something else I'm forgetting. Plans for new livestock are a handful more palys / zoas and a skunk cleaner. I would say that with a 3 gallon sump that this is tending towards overstocked, but its been very stable with 6-7% water changes weekly and my tinkering with supplements to try to make Alk: 8.25 / Ca: 420 / Mg: 1280.
 
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Getting a group of free swimming fish in a 15 gallon is probably not practical. With a larger tank you can find plenty of fish that will do well in harems and loose groups, although some will move through the rock work.
 
Seriously? Pseudomugil species can be kept in full saltwater?
I may just try that out on day. In freshwater I never had much luck with them...
 
There are other brackish water options as well. I love Mollies in SW tanks. They do get a little larger for 15 gallons. Something closer to 30 would be ideal. They swim together in the water column and are good algae eaters to boot. Plus they are dirt cheap. I just bought 4 for $4 at Pet Smart a couple of weeks ago.

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After doing more research I see that this species may not actually be just one species and there seems to be a difference (maybe) between those observed in saltwater and those in freshwater. Can anyone confirm this?
 
Well, here's another one: Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis "Blueback Blue Eye"
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Cyano.htm

"They have been found in hypersaline waters (28-40 ppt) and at temperatures of 22-39°C."

If anyone has experience with this group of fish, not necessarily any one specific species, I would love to hear about it. For example, I know they're small, but what kind of flow are we talking? Will they get blown away in a typical reef tank?

Also, what kinds of corals or other life would be an approximation of a loose biotope for these fish in a natural, marine habitat?
 
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