What fish for a MacroAlgea tank?

B

BonesCJ

New member
Setting up a 90 Macro tank with about 50-75 lbs of rock arranged in one "Island", what kind of fish would you suggest for this kind of tank?

Obviously Tangs are out of the question since they are massive consumers of algae but I am wondering if there are any others that I should avoid.
 
Others to avoid off the top of my head would be: Rabbitfishes, angels, blennies.

Lots of options here, like seahorses or pipefish, or angler or lion, or more of the reef fishes like basslets, damsels, wrasses, etc.
 
Many dwarf angels are algae eaters in nature. Could be if you kept it well fed, the damage to your macros would be small. Hopefully someone with a macro tank will chime in.
 
Triggers and puffers will still eat some here and there but not likely make a dent in it. I have dwarf angels in my display that has many types of macro in it. The Angels don't really eat much algae mostly xenia and clove polyps for me.

Ive got a bunch of macro algae up in a thread in the for sale section if your interested
 
IMO, I would stay away from herbivores and omnivores in this situation. IMO, at some point they are going to taste and if they like it, it's over from there. Like mentioned above Triggers, Puffers, Hawkfish, Hogfish, Clowns, Basslets, Dottybacks, and Wrasses come to mind.
 
My triggers and puffer don't graze but they will eat algae if I drop it in the tank, that's not the point; they are destructive. They will rip stuff up just for something to do.

I'm doing a 40b macro and am planning what to put in it also, I'm considering hatching some cuttlefish. It will house some type of predator, I already have a lion tank and an angler tank, but am also considering another angler.

Filefish are interesting and can also do well in a macro.
 
Had to nix the puffer, we like shrimp to much. What about butterflies? A pearlscale would be nice as a bigger fish
 
I wouldn't rule out all blennies as some will keep the algae cleaner due to munching on the diatoms. I've also seen someone on here keep a kole tang in with their seagrasses. The answer really depends on what you want from the tank and how densely stocked it is. I personally keep a couple of macro's, caulerpa prolifera and gracilaria, in my tank with a scopas. It eats a little but not that much and keeps the rockwork clean. If I add ochtodes on the other hand it will dissappear over night.
 
Yeah I was wondering if the bristletooth tangs would be as destructive as the other species. We're going to have alot of open swimming space so out in the open colorful active fish have been requested. Possibly Anthias, Chromis or Wrasses.
 
If you build up enough of a pod population, a mandarin is a viable option.

Wrasses work well. If you have a deep enough substrate, a jawfish can work.
 
It would be cool to go Caribbean themed since most of your macros will probably come from there. I have a Royal Gramma in my 20 gallon fuge and it's doing great. Group of Blue Reef Chromis would be cool. And I second a Butterfly.
 
I've got a 1-2 inch sandbed so wrasses would be fine, a couple of fairy or flashers would definitely be colorful and out in the open.

Was very happy to find that my local saltwater store stocks feeder mollies already acclimated for saltwater so I picked up a pair to help move the cycle along for the next couple weeks.

as for fish here's where I am at the moment

Definite:
Clownfish
Pajama Cardinals

Possibles:
Fairy and Flasher Wrasses
Butterflys
Basslets (Gramma and Chalk)
Mandarin
Pipefish
Anthias
Firefish
Gobies

Banned:
Chromis
Angels
Triggers
Puffers
Triggers
Tangs
Rabbitfish
 
Jawfish really do have a lot of personality. I didn't think I'd enjoy mine as much as I did and would love to keep another one!
 
I would add several others
Lined wrasses do well. 6 lines being fairly common, I would hold out and find the much prettier 4 line. A standard fish for all of my tanks.

Tasselated File Fish if your tank is big enough 75g+

No sand bed? For a macro tank? Theres a lot of grasslike macro that would appreciate a sand bed. The phosphate thing is a moot point since this is a macro tank. Once going the tank will have better readings of everything than the cleanest reef tank. I never ran a skimmer in mine.

Boxfish in a non-aggressive set up. I had quite a few of them at one point. Cute little buggers bouncing around in there.

Pipefish only if that is what your tank is designed around. Pipefish will excel in a large sea grass macro tank with a sand bed and plenty of rubble to hide in after it has been thoroughly aged to have an extremely large critter population. Throw in any wrasse or mandarin-type and that goes out the window. I let my tank age for only several months with no podivores to the point they were clearly visible running around in there at any time of the day even at a brief glance. I added 4 pipefish into the 75 and within several weeks there wasn't a pod to be found and only one would touch frozen :(
 
Starting to finalize the list

Yellow headed Jawfish
single perc clown
2-3 pajama cardinals
1-2 flasher/fairy wrasses
2-3 saltwater mollies (already in, plan to be permanent residents)
Royal Gramma
Mandarin

Seems to be a pretty easy fishload to deal with so far, gonna try and keep nothing but smaller fish in this tank
 
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