What is the ultimate reef fish?

wrasses

wrasses

Wow, I am surprised this thread is not full of wrasses!?

My favorite is
Rosy Fin Fairy Wrasse
Japanese Pygmy Angel
Purple firefish
yellow candy hogfish
 
Wow, I am surprised this thread is not full of wrasses!?

It should be. I love big angels and some of them can be successful in a reef but they are not reef safe fish for the most part. Triggers, tangs, a lot of blennies, angels, and a host of other common reef fish have issues in a reef aquarium ranging from coral sampling, waste production, size limitations, and aggression. Fairy and flasher wrasses may just be the perfect reef fish whan all factors are looked at, they are often stunningly beautiful, hardy, non aggressive, and they rarely get very large. They are easy to feed and nearly always reef safe. I'm looking at a group of Carpenter's for my 180 reef.
 
A couple of you have mentioned copperband butterfly fish. I didn't think that they were reef safe either (at all!) or I would cast a vote for them as well. I love my manderin and starry blenny. A mated pair of clowns in an anemone is hard to beat too!
 
what are you guys judging on?

for me you have to consider hardiness, color, shape of the fish, how common, are we talking temperment too?

str8 reef fish or are aggressive to be included too?

for instance mandarins are colorful and hardy but hard to feed and pretty common, so it loses some points.
lionfish black morph are really nice to me - they should do a contest for them like they do for bettas

or panther groupers when they are flared out and the colors are sparkling but they arent community fish so they lose points

tangs and triggers have really nice colors, but I cant get into them cuz I dont like the actual shape of the fish.

something that I think is like a ferrari of fish is the supermale version Flame Wrasse like the pic on marinecenter - same colors as a ferrari red /yellow, high price tag fits most of the criteria up top
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7537336#post7537336 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jelwyoming
A couple of you have mentioned copperband butterfly fish. I didn't think that they were reef safe either (at all!) or I would cast a vote for them as well. I love my manderin and starry blenny. A mated pair of clowns in an anemone is hard to beat too!


I had a Copper Band Butterfly in my 90 gallon reef. He did not touch any of my corals. But he did eat my little feather dusters that I got on my live rock. If you can live without feather dusters this is a great fish!
 
I like the naso tang and powder blue tang, but you have all mentioned angelfish. e.g. Blue faced, and emperor, are they reef safe, I would love to put them in my 150.
 
The PERFECT reef fish is IMHO hands-down the Neon Goby (Elastinius (formerly Gobiosoma) species) why?

1) They are colorful (Jet black, cream, electric blue, vivid yellow, and bright white).

2) They barely affect your bio-load because they are so small.

3) They will clean other fish.

4) They are extremely easy to breed.

5) Very hardy, have a short lifespan (2-ish years) but are hard to kill.

6) Very personable, perching on various corals or "sticking" to the glass.

7) Can be kept in pairs or groups in larger tanks.
 
where have you seen the color morphs of a neon goby? ive only seen yellow stripe and blue.

they are pretty mean to eachother --petco usually puts them all in the same tank and there was def aggression in there
 
Fully male (supermale for you wrasse fans) bartlett anthia with some females to keep him active and pretty. The ones at the Long Beach Aquarium blew me away! With a male squarespot a close second...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7543095#post7543095 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ironsheikh
where have you seen the color morphs of a neon goby? ive only seen yellow stripe and blue.

they are pretty mean to eachother --petco usually puts them all in the same tank and there was def aggression in there

There are blue, yellow, white, and combo striped Neons, all of them have cream lower bodies and black upper bodies. Usually they are pretty easy to pair up. In *larger tanks groups can coexist. Shoulda specified that, oh well.
 
The prettiest trigger is by far the Clown Trigger but obviously those aren't reef safe eh Bluecarpet?

My top three ultimate reef safe fish:

1. Mandarin
2. Purple/Yellow Tang
3. Clownfish

There is no other fish that comes close to how hard to keep and how interesting a Mandarin is. With striking colors, reasonable price and interesting behavior earns it a #1.

The Purple Tang and Yellow are a tie in my book. They look so sweet.

And of course, the clownfish. No other fish like a clown can host an anemone like they do. DON'T EVEN MENTION DAMSELS. LOL.


A tusk isn't reef safe BTW. Maybe you got lucky. Personality is everything.
 
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