Small guys to stock with

9

90GalFOWLR

New member
My tank has been going about a year now, maybe a little less. Its all been pretty good. Its finaly aquascaped a way I am pretty happy with. Contrary to my username it is slowly becoming a reef tank.

Its stocked with a mated pair of clowns, a hippo, bangaii cardinal, diamond goby, fire shrimp, cleaner shrimp. Even a mandarin that is doing very well after 6 months I have had him. He was an ill advised purchase that cost me a lot more than planned (refugium!).

My question is What should I add. I am thinking one more larger fish, not sure but probobly a nice tang. What I would like to do is stock the "reef" with a lot of little guys. I would love to see a little guy almost everywhere you look in the rocks.

what are some good, reef compatible, peacefull guys that I can stock a good number of.

Also, how do shrimp get along with each other. The Cleaner and fire have been in there almost since the begining... Can I add one more of each, or one of either. Whats a good shrimp number.
 
I guess I should have noticed your screen name... :lmao:

The hippo tang will likely outgrow a 90g.

You did the right thing with the mandarin, but in my experience, they are not difficult to keep if you are willing to take the proper steps.

If you decide to move the hippo out, you can try a smaller tang from the Zebrasoma genus. The Kole is a smaller one, that can be very nice. I wouldn't try another tang with the hippo still in there, though.

Other than that, it all depends on what you like. Many of the wrasses are very nice, and a pair of flashers would do well in your sized setup. I would stay away from the lined wrasses, though.

Some of the smaller Anthias are nice as well, if you're looking for little guys.

I would stay away from the chromis and the damsels.

If you want a nice, larger fish, I always love the CBB and the Regal Angel, but both have significant care requirements, and I would not advise one of them unless you do your research first.
 
Oh! And if you're doing a FOWLR, I think that one of the pygmy angels would be great. I am partial to the african flame back, and the flame angel, myself.
 
Some little bitty gobies might be nice. There are all sorts of tiny cleaner gobies (DD usually has pairs from ORA), like tigers, shark-noses, neons, and yellow-lines. They're too small to add much to your bioload, but lively and fun to watch. Just watch out for any tankmates who might have big enough mouths to eat them--they only get to be about 1.5" long, aka "snack size" in the eyes of potential predators.
 
It has turned into a reef since I made my screen name, I wish I could change it without registering a new one and loosing my post count (which is small anyway)

I was looking at a yellow eye kole tang the other day at my LFS (very trusted store) and he did mention that the hippo will outgrow it. I knew that. But he said adding a kole or something like it would be fine.

Do you say not to add the two because of crowding or aggression?

I thought about trying a CBB but even the few dollars I have spent in coral so far isnt worth trying one I dont think.

What do you think about a pair of Firefish? The purples are pretty cool.
 
You could do purple firefish without a problem.

How big is the hippo tang? It's mainly an aggression thing. It might be fine if the kole is bigger than the hippo right now. The hippo has established territory, most likely, depending on how long he's been in there. Don't put in another tang that he will be able to bully too badly. Kole's are usually pretty hardy, so if there is some aggression, it should be able to handle the stress and keep eating if the hippo is same size or, preferably, smaller.
 
When liveaquaria says they are peacefull but aggressive towards each other... Does that mean towards othe gobies or other gobies of the same type.

Could I run a pair of purple firefish, pair of neon blue gobies, and a yellow clown goby. I think they would fill out my rocks nicely.

Last question. When buying the purple firefish, they arent listed as a "pair" If I choose quantity of 2 would the probobly pair up and be fine or would they fight.
 
I'm not an expert at pairing of firefish. I have only had one at a time before, but I know that people keep pairs. I've not seen them be aggressive towards other species, including other gobies. I believe that it's just other dartfish. I would get a confirmation from someone with more experience, however.
 
Only get two firefish if they are sold to you as a "mated" pair, and you have seen them together. If you get two random ones you have a 50/50 chance of one being killed by the other. They will not tolerate another of the same sex, unless you have a huge tank.
 
Not to plug DD again (I don't work for them, I swear!), but if you have your heart set on a mated pair of firefish, I have seen them offered there periodically.
 
You can sign up for email alerts--they won't notify you about specific species, but they send you a "sneak peek" of what they might be posting on the site later that same day, and then send you a second notification once the new items are up.

A hint, though: if you're looking for something specific, especially one that might go fast like a pair of firefish, don't wait for the notification email to start checking the site. They seem to post new items before they send out the emails--sometimes quite a bit (like half an hour or so) before. If I want something specific that I've seen in the sneak peek, I start checking the DD website at about 5:30 (they usually officially post around 6 or so).
 
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