Best First Fish

[iamkellogg]

I have had my SW tank set up for a while and have added my crabs and snails and they are doing just fine. I have algae growing on my live rocks. My water levels are stable and near perfect. My PH was at 8.4 but I have read that is ok. Now I am ready to venture out and add my first fish to the mix. My question is what is the best first fish? This tank is a 44 Gallon Hex tank with live rock and no coral yet. I have kept FW Angel tanks for years so I know how fragile fish can be so I do not want to start out with something to hard. I also do not want a tank of Damsels (as beautiful as they are) because I have read they can be territorial in the long run. I would like a main larger fish and then some smaller fish to accompany it. People have suggested Seahorses, Snowflake eel,Yellow Tang and lionfish. Does anyone have any comments on which one would be better or do you have a totally different suggestion?

Thank you
Kelly

 

[fidojoe]

Going down your list here, I can't recommend any of them.

Seahorses are very touchy, require a lot of maintenance, and should only be kept by people with a good amount of experience. JMHO.

Snowflake eels are good for FO tanks. They will eat most inverts and small fish, also get big, so a 44g hex is gonna get kinda cramped.

Yellow tangs and tangs in general are a touchy subject. I say no tangs in a 50g or less tank. They require a MINIMUM of 48" of lateral swim room (they like to swim in spurts). They can be messy eaters, and poop a lot, meaning a big strain on your bio-filtration. A 44g hex is far from reaching the minimum requirements for a tang.

Dwarf lions can be kept with corals, but will eat any fish or invert that will fit into their mouths. They have REALLY big mouths. I'd say no on this one.

Damsels, as you've read, are very territorial, and often just flat out mean. Unless you want a tank of just damsels, don't get them. They'd all be tattered from fighting amongst each other if you did that too.

A couple suggestions for starter fish for a soon to be reef tank would be:
Clown fish
Goby (like watchman or clown gobies)
Firefish- but watch out, they will jump with minimal stress
Sixline wrasse- good to keep some of the coral pests away, great personalities, and hearty fish. Just watch out because they are known to jump too.
Royal gramma
If your tank has been stable for 2 months or more, a coral beauty angel is a pretty fish

I'm sure some other folks will chime in with other suggestions too...

HTH

 

[Cassette87]

I'm not the best resource of info on these forums.. but I'll give you my input on each one of these to try and help you out..

Seahorse - these little guys, although amazing creatures, are much more delicate and sensitive to their environments, As far as I know they're a bit more difficult to care for, require close attention to water parameters, and are limited as far as tank mates go. I would not recommend these guys as a first.

Snowflake Eel - I had one of these when I had my FOWLR tank set up. They're definitely nice additions to a tank, but they are carnivorous and again will not be compatible with anything out there. Also, eels are the houdini's of aquariums... I woke up many a morning to find my eel lying on the floor, somehow to make it. I would not recommend one from the get go.

Yellow Tangs - As for these guys, I'm not sure what a minimum tank size would be, but I would think that you could house a smaller one happily in your tank. Can't say much else, i know they tend to be peaceful, and pick off of LR for food. My only reason for not reccomending this would be... Why "experiment" with an expensive fish...?

Dwarf Lionfish - also had one of these.. a dwarf zebra to be exact, and boy was he awesome! Definitely would recommend for down the road, but not from the start. maybe a first "larger" fish sure, but as a real first fish id go the cheap safe route. Recommended later, based on goals of tank. Carnivorous and will eat smaller fish.

Damsel.. I like them and would say sure.. but I've heard too many bad things about them, as far as aggression and being territorial. I would say if you get a fish of this family, go with a some sort of chromis, my three seem to be very happy, theyre only 4.99, so no big investment lost if they die, and they wont get insanely mean. just my 2 cents, if anything here was wrong, someone please chime in, like i said i'm by no means an expert, but those are my impressions. Hope it helps!

 

[BigAl07]

The reason I say Damsel is due to the fact they are hardy and very cheap. Just in case something isn't just right in your SW tank they can handle more "errors" than any of the other choices you have. Yes they can be and usually ARE territorial especially depending on how many you have. If you add ONE damsel today and 2 weeks later add 3 more the one solo one wil lbe a total bully to the others because it was HIS tank for so long. I would get a couple of damsels and "test" yourself out. The fish will add a whole new "Dimension" to your cycle and it make be a learning curve. Once you've got the hang of it give them to someone and trade up to something you really "want". I have a scooter blemmy (sp?) that is SO cool to watch and he doesn't both a soul in the tank. That might be a good intro fish.

Good luck, keep us posted and show some pics

Sincerely,
Allen

 

[Woodstock]

Ditto to all the replies above!! I chose "other".

 

[BigReepher]

I voted other as well. Chromis or a pair of clowns get my vote.

 

[rDr4g0n]

cardinals. theyre relatively inexpensive, practically invincible, dont swim around too much, eat anything and are very passive. plus they school really well.

 

[justsunnie]

Other!

I am a big fan of the six line wrasse, the blennies, and the clown goby.

Most of the choices on that list are too difficult to take care of as first fish, and damsels are nasty little critters.

 

[Warnberg]

Yeah I had to go other on this one as well.... problem is damsels get way to agressive and so do tangs when they go in first...

Maybe you could start with a couple of blue/green chromis, I dunno. Personally I would put my entire fish wish list together first then select order. Now I know you will not be able to write down every fish you want right now, but a wish list is a good start.

 

[BigAl07]

Yeah I had to go other on this one as well.... problem is damsels get way to agressive and so do tangs when they go in first...

Maybe you could start with a couple of blue/green chromis, I dunno. Personally I would put my entire fish wish list together first then select order. Now I know you will not be able to write down every fish you want right now, but a wish list is a good start.

Thanks excellent advice indeed. Make a list of what you would LIKE your tank to include when it's complete. Then research each one and make an informed time-line and schedule of who goes in and when. Of course the list may change but it's better to have a plan that's changed slightly than no plan at all.

Allen

 

[philfish]

This was actually a very odd list of "first fish" and not what most people would choose. Apart from the damsel, which, as said above , is cheap and hardy. A little shoal of 5 humbug damsels is lovely, but you need to be able to part exchange them with your local fish shop, as they get big and aggressive.

Chromis would be good. If it's a fish only, then a Niger Trigger is really interesting, as are the Canthigaster puffers.

Certainly not seahorses.

You can't put anything smaller than a lionfish in with a lionfish, ot it will eat it. PLUS, for a first fish, they are pretty boring. They wait around all day for food to pass by.

A Moray will try to escape, and will likely succeed unless you can seal the tank!

If I had to choose one, and it looks like you are into aggressive fish, i would choose a Trigger every time.

 

[axlroh]

Green chromis are cheap, hardy, peaceful, can be obtained very small, their schooling motions at the top of the tank are very pleasant. A great first fish, 3 or more and they school.

Damsels are also often touted as the "first fish", but in my experience, they get to be more of a pain over a period of time due to territorial/aggressive behavior in a smaller tank, among others. My blue damsel was a gorgeous color, but he would not stop digging 6" wide pits in my DSB.

 

[lcstorc]

I agree with the chromis recommendation. They are relatively hardy and peaceful fish. A good place to start that is not too expensive or difficult.
A scooter blenney is not a good starter fish. They are in the same family as mandarins and live primarily off of pods that live in your system. A new tank is not going to have enough of their natural food source.

 

[iamkellogg]

I am still not sure what direction to go in. I do know that I will do more :read: to decide. Thank you so much for your help and keep the suggestions coming.

Kelly

 

[axlroh]

You can try checking a few reputable online livestock dealers - liveaquaria.com and marinedepotlive.com are pretty well known and have good descriptions of the fish behavior, size, and difficulty level, etc. (Okay, I'd put in a plug for a RS sponsor here, but the majority are coral/invert or equipment specialists). I've found LFS less than helpful at times in choosing fish, and so resorted to much digging at a great many sites :updown:

If you go to liveaquaria.com, marine fish, they even have a fish for beginners section (which is a bit misleading, since some of those in that section I would not consider "beginner"). Most of the gobies listed there would be a good fit. I have a small 1" clown goby that likes to sit on top of my corals and just hang out. I've had ocellaris clowns and a six line wrasse that were quite happy in a 30G. The six line wrasse was extremely entertaining as well.

One other resource is a fish compatibility chart. I hunted around for these when I was looking for tankmates for my clowns. Here's a link to a general fish compatibility and one for clownfish tankmates:

http://www.marinedepot.com/education_center/md_SpeciesCompatibility.asp
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/hcs3/index.php

 

[down and outman]

I've got a Pygmy Angelfish that's an awesome little guy. I'd recommend one of those for a smaller tank. Likes to eat algae. My Bicolor Pseudochromis is a bully. He made my first clownfish jump out of the tank. A Yellow Tang is a cool fish, but does need room to roam. He also tempers the Pseudochromis and gives him a run for his money. I've got my rock scaped so there's lot's of caves and arches, which gives the Tang and the others a lot of room to roam. They did well in my old 55 with the same type of rock scape. Just added a little clownfish who's getting broke in. I feed them well when I added him so it kept everyone occupied.