suggestions on small fish

[humboldt reefer]

I'm getting ready to start stocking my tank and am looking for suggestions on small fish that would max out at no more than 2 1/2". Rather than put a couple large fish in my tank I'd rather have a bunch of small ones.
So far I've got a very lonely possum wrasse.
looking at fire fish and gobies maybe some small anthias. If anyone can think of any cool small gobys or whatever that get along well with sps let me know.
Ryan

 

[ColeBC]

I have a pair of orange spotted gobies. They share a cave system and they're a lof of fun to look at.
Of course you'd need fine sand and it would be a good idea to have a pistol shrimp with them too.
I think the max size is about 3".
I also have a sharknose goby in my tank. He's about 2". He usually sits on the wall and waits for fish to swim by and any time someone swims by, he rides them around the tank and cleans them.
He even cleans by 6-line wrasse (I wouldn't suggest one of those mean buggers though)
My brown clown goby was given to me because he used to nip on sps corals. I've never really seen him do anything to any of the corals, but he does tend to sit on them most of the day.
I wouldn't get one of those ones, just in case.
You should get a firefish for sure, mine isn't as scared as most of them and he looks really nice hovering around his cave. You'd have to cover your tank though as they might jump. I have eggcrate on my tank.

Cole

 

[Sk8r]

Yellow watchman, firefish, purple and red; mandarin, blue gudgeon...

Look at the Foster and Smith nano-fish advert. They also have a compatibility chart.

 

[humboldt reefer]

Thanks guys keep em coming. The tank is bare bottom so any fish that require sand are going to be a little upset
Here are some of the fish I'm looking at. Its not a stocking list just some likely candidates.

Purple fire fish
Red fire fish
Hi fin red banded goby
Red headed goby
gumdrop coral croucher
swiss gaurd basselet
black cap basselet
orchid dotty back
royal gramma
yellow striped clingfish
red striped goby
neon goby
trimma goby
blue gudgeon
scissortail goby
powder blue surgeon fish
Maybe a majestic angel

What do you think?

 

[ColeBC]

I have a chalk bass too. She's a very easygoing fish.
Always swimming around and never hides. Eats a lot though and makes it hard for some of the others to get food. She's greedy.
They get pretty big and sometimes eat shrimps.
Mine is always leaping too, went carpet surfing once.
She gets my lights, walls and carpet wet at least 5 times a day.
They are one of my favourite fishes though. I highly recommend if you dont mind all the action in your tank. And don't mind having a fish mouth around your finger sometimes. lol

 

[humboldt reefer]

haha sounds like a cool fish. Guess I'll have to pull that one from the list some of the goby's listed up there max out at an inch in lenght.

 

[maxcab]

Pygmy Angels are really cool (love mine), not sure about SPS, I think they only are a slight risk to LPS and Clams.

 

[Reefeross]

Any goby, gobies are awesome. There are some interesting Blennies available Captive Bred these days. I really like firefish as well. I think a harem of Cardinals (any kind) is a great choice.

 

[fishermania]

That is a good list here are few other I tihnk are nice.

Here are a couple other nice basslets

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/macneills-basslet---assessor-macneilli-fish--basslets.html
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/golden-basslet---assessor-flavissimus-fish--basslets.html

Here is a small wrasse that is nice.

http://www.petsolutions.com/Possum+Wrasse-I-184200L-I-C-78-C-.aspx

Finally here are some smaller cardinals that are nice and will school.

http://www.petsolutions.com/Glass+Cardinalfish-I-114750L-I-C-16217-C-.aspx
http://www.petsolutions.com/Orange+Stripe+Cardinalfish-I-115000L-I-C-16217-C-.aspx

 

[humboldt reefer]

Thanks all. Fishermania those orange stripe cardinals are sweet. I wonder if I'd have problems with them trying to munch on small gobies? It said in the link they "may choose choose to harm small shrimp." The possum wrasse is real cool kind of a recluse though. Mine stays under the rockwork picking at pods all day. But then again my clowns hide in the shade of the braces and overflows during the day with the lights on. I think the lighting might be too much for em.

As far as the angels go I've wanted a flame angel for a long time. But I also want a majestic hmm... decisions decisions.

Reefeross are there any small algea blenny's? Most of the one's Ive seen get to 4-5 inches.

 

[fishermania]

I have a few cardinal over the years and the type of shrimp you should have problems are the very small shrimp like a small sexy shrimp, etc.

 

[SBJim]

Green-banded goby. When I find one again in an LFS, I'm going to snag it. Like the red-headed, but better looking.

http://images.google.com/images?q=greenbanded+goby&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images