NEED INPUT on NEW FISH SELECTION!!!

[txmaverickmh]

Hello everyone,

I need your insight as I am picking a new inhabitant(s) for my 40gal reef tank. Today, Jarob and I took everything completely out of my tank, rock, fish and all, and re-aquascaped my tank to make more room and just to make a change of scenery. THANK YOU JAROB, enjoy your Green ACAN for all the hard work! In the process, we were able to catch my FAT FLAME ANGEL (nipping at my clam too much) and my quartet of pajama cardinals (I loved the idea of schooling fish, but they are not enough action or personality for me). I took these guys up to GC Reef where they are now for sale and in pristine condition.

I currently have in my tank:

1 SM Naso Tang
2 Clownfish
1 tailspot blenny
1 FAT mandarin
3 firefish
1 MD Velvet Wrasse
2 Cleaner shrimp

From my boy at GC Reef, Brad's advice, I am going to remove the Naso tang since I will not be setting up my 200G DD for another 6+ months after we move to Houston and buy a house, so scratch him from the list.

Here are the fish I am thinking about, and I would love your input/experiences with them:


Purple Tilefish (my top choice so far)
Golden Head Sleeper Goby
(3) Green/Blue/Purple chromis (havent decided which color)
Midas Blenny
Group of Lyretail Anthias (1M and 3 FMs)
Pinktail Trigger
Thank you so much in advance for your advice and input!

Best,

Michael

[saabtech]

Hello everyone,

my quartet of pajama cardinals (I loved the idea of schooling fish, but they are not enough action or personality for me).
yea i contemplated cardinalfish but from my knowledge all of them are really boring fish (no activity) by i like the threadfin cardinalfish most.




Purple Filefish (my top choice so far)

Golden Head Sleeper Goby
(3) Green/Blue/Purple chromis (havent decided which color)
Midas Blenny
Group of Lyretail Anthias (1M and 3 FMs)
Pinktail Trigger
l
i like the chromis because they are reef safe. i wish i could get away with a Splendid Pseudochromis
looks like a good list to me. but i dont know much about triggers in reef tanks.

[Jarob]

I am a HUGE fan of Anthias!! I LOOOOVE my tri-color male

[danvan75]

I have a school of 5 blue chromis and they are very cool to watch, they some times take turns riding the current coming out of the return.

[justahobby]

Firefish: A lot of people say firefish won't coexist for very long in a smaller system. I started with 2 and 1 disappeared after a couple months (coincidence? idk).

Goby: I don't see why not

Chromis: That's alot of fish in a 40...

Midas: They get big and I've never been a fan of mixing fish with the potential to constantly spar

Anthias: See chromis

Trigger: Why? Aren't you getting rid of the tang?

[Third Coast Tropical]

Most triggers I have dealt with get mean, very aggressive...and they love to eat....any invert in the tank is fair game to them, as well as some fish....

[dmweise]

Chromis are nice. I love Blue Green Chromis. Blue Reef Chromis are nice too.

[txmaverickmh]

We have had a pink-tail triggerfish up at the GC Reef before, they have many reef safe qualities, not typical trigger attitudes, I could go into many specifics here, but dont have the time...

Has anyone ever had a purple TILEFISH? If so, anyfeed back?

[Jarob]

Ugh I want a Midas Blenny now.... Do they have one at GCR?

Ive been contemplating on getting a Juvi Blue-Lined Trigger for awhile now, everyone always says triggers are NOT reef safe but I beg to differ, ive seen plenty kept in a reef, just gotta get em young and feed them plenty

[Mr Cob]

I love purple firefish. I have had mine for over a year. If I add any aggressive fish he'll hide. So...keep it peaceful and the firefish will thrive and stay out in the open.

[saabtech]

Ugh I want a Midas Blenny now....

ugh me tooooo.... never really looked into the Midas but he seem to be a nice addition to a reef tank.

[txmaverickmh]

Jarob, no we dont have any Midas Blennies at the store, but I am itching to make an order for those and other things too!

Folks, with all due respect, I can easily see where people are reading fast over my post, I have 3 FIREfish in my tank that I love, I am trying to see if anyone has had a

PURPLE TILEfish as in TILE you lay on the floor, not FIRE in your FIREPLACE. TILEFISH, I saw them, have been reading a bit and they look awesome. The only negative, big negative considering I lost my favorite fish blue-spot jawfish to a deadly jump, is that TILEfish are jumpers!

thanks,

Michael

[corruption]

TILEfish and FIREfish are from the same subspecies -- thus the comparisons...

-Corruption

[txmaverickmh]

oh ok, so if I have 3 firefish, will they mess with the purple tilefish if I get one? I guess I am leaning closer to the Golden headed sleeper goby or the Midas Blenny

[corruption]

Theres a high possibility in a smaller volume of water that they'd fight -- they tend to like 10-15 gal to 'themselves', so you're right at about the limit of what I'd say is feasable in your current tank with firefish/tilefish... Once you've got your 200G running, its a different story :)

-Corruption

[txmaverickmh]

Corruption, thanks for the insight man, say, when are you guys coming down to Corpus again? 2 Weeks?

[corruption]

Yeah, Dec. 17th to Dec. 19th is when we're booked for :)

-Corruption

[Jarob]

Mike can you put in an order for a Midas Blenny for me please!

[hobogato]

tilefish are usually considered fish for advanced aquarist only for a couple of reasons:

1. can be very difficult to get them to eat
2. high proclivity to jumping

[Squiers007]

TILEfish and FIREfish are from the same subspecies -- thus the comparisons...

-Corruption

Ok, Sory to threadjack Michael but I just wanted to clarify a few important points so people dont get confused, Sorry Corruption, but you were a bit off on this one.

1) These fish are not closely related and...
2) They are not from the same subspecies

Ok, now for a little info on taxonomy for those with limited knowledge of biology. The major classification levels are as follows and in decending order:

Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species - then subspecies but only in very limited instances

Now in between each of these major divisions are other levels such as subphylum, subclass, subfamily and so on. The further up the classification scheme you move the less closely related two fish are. Most bony "fish" are in the Phylum-Chordata, Subphylum - Vertebrata, and Superclass - Osteichthyes. The two fish we are discussing here come from the Class-Actinopterygii, and Order - Perciformes, but they are in different Suborders.

The Firefish is from the suborder Gobioidei which includes all of the gobies and dartfish. The Purple Tilefish is from the suborder Percoidei which includes a large number of different fish including cardinalfish, butterfly fish, and perch to name a few. I hope this post has been informative.

[Jarob]

Awesome Logan, I can tell you've been studying up here at A&M. Ill be learning a lot of those next semester argh

[Squiers007]

Yeah, most of the fish stuff I picked up from my Wife who is graduating with her MS in Biology this semester. She does a lot of stuff with fish so I end up picking details up here and there and I also helped her study for her oral exams which included fish taxonomy so that helped too. Most of my expertise is with Coral reef ecology and genetics.