Help me pick my next (and last) fish

[Wade]

I think I have room for one or two more fish. Currently I have one each of a clown, two spot bristletooth tang, convict blenny, six line wrasse, blue chromis and i just received a mandarin that'll be in quarantine for a few weeks. I have two small green chromis in my QT as well that just hang out in there, but I think I'll leave them be. I had a firefish, but it disappeared a few months ago. I like the firefish so was thinking of getting one of those or maybe two if they're better in pairs. They're reef-safe, colorful and move around a lot which is what I'm looking for. What else would make a good addition to the horde I have now?

[+Grog]

I tend to stock low as far as fish go. I'd say add nothing. 72g you have a lot of fish in that tank... Let them grow larger and enjoy their space. You have more stuff in QT moving into your display soon. Let it settle out and let everyone find their place.

That is my official advice..

But if I were a wild man..... A nice dwarf angel would be my choice, keeping in mind that, angels are individuals and behave differently.

[Lorien]

Some kind of file fish. Very fun. Keep them well fed and they are reef safe. Mine have never even glanced twice at the shrimp in my tank.

[Wade]

The Zebra Barred Dartfish looks cool and I can add a pair or three if I like. I tend to agree with Grog though. I may just need to see how what I have does for awhile. The chromis can be aggressive which is why I move the other two smaller ones to the QT. The one in the DT is twice their size (the lone survivor of three I bought about a year ago) and picked at them constantly when I added them a few months ago. Maybe I just need to move him to the QT as well. I like the color and movement he brings though. Very busy fish. Yeah, I think Grog has the truth of it. Stand pat and for awhile. Killjoy.

[Wade]

I like the dwarf angels, but I thought they pick at coral?

[+JoseZ]

Helfrich firefish are pretty cool but they are kinda expensive

[+KimP]

I've noticed my dartfish spend almost all their time hiding, only coming out to eat. Might not be worth the bioload.

[+KimP]

Some kind of file fish. Very fun. Keep them well fed and they are reef safe. Mine have never even glanced twice at the shrimp in my tank.

I'd have to agree! My tassled filefish is the coolest fish I've ever had. So much personality, out all the time, and very interesting to look at.

[jestep]

Royal gramma is a good one that stays in the open if there's plenty of other active fish. Springer's damsel's are very peaceful and stay small.

[Sascha D.]

I like the dwarf angels, but I thought they pick at coral?

I've kept dwarf angels in every tank for 11 years and never had a problem with them picking on corals. I've kept Coral Beauty, Flame, Eibil, and Rusty angelfish. My current CB lives with LPS, Zoanthids, Palythoas, Mushrooms and some SPS and Leathers.

For firefish, I had six in my 200g for two years and never had a problem. They all slept in the same bolt hole! Somewhere after year two they started disappearing one by one every other month or so until I had three left. I kept the trio for an additional three years with no problem.

IMHO you should call it good and keep what you have as long as you're happy with them. If one more fish isn't going to raise your happiness that much more than I would leave it be.

[Jpowell490]

Just say no to Dwarf Angels. Good fish, but you can forget ever keeping a clam if you so desire.

The best fish I could recommend would be a Foxface. Super personable, will eat out of your hand, skittishness really reduces as they get used to their surroundings. Completely reef safe, never had mine bother anything.

[Wade]

I think my tank is too small for a foxface long term. I think I'm just going to sit tight for a while and see how goes. Thanks for all the great advice all.

[Timfish]

My vote would be for a trio of Royal Grammas. The are protogynous sequential hemaphrodites (female to male) and you will end up with a male in the 4" range total length and the females will stay under 3". I really like the way they swim sideways, verticaly or upside down keeping their belly oriented towards a surface unless they are in open water where they keep a typical orientation. With a pair or trio there will be constant interaction between the individuals to maintain the social hierarchy.

I like dwarf angels and foxfaces (rabbitfish) are a good choice also however there is a chance they will outgrow a 72 gallon. But I have to disagree with Jpowel420 regarding dwarfs angels and clams. This is the only problem I've encountered keeping drwarf angels with clams:

[Wade]

How many times do I have to tell you not to pick at my mantle!?!?!?

[Bpb]

For me, a royal gramma in the tank is just as necessary as a clownfish. Just makes the tank complete. There are a couple essential fish species I'll have in every tank. Those are two of them.

[Timfish]

How many times do I have to tell you not to pick at my mantle!?!?!?

I frequently see dwarf angels "nip" at the surface of corals and clams, this clam still has three other dwarf species, but on close observation no damage is done. Some corals and clams will react to this attention by retracting and that can certainly be confused as the fish actually having bitten the coral. This clam certainly has not shown any signs of being bitten, notably the short "tenticles" it has over the surface of the mantle and the frill around the intake syphon are not dissappearing. Another point as often as I've had clams close when my hand passes over them clams will react to shadows and this angel likely just spooked it.

On one occassion I was lucky enough to see a Coral Beauty just tear apart a Frogspawn polyp like it was a piece of shrimp and kept at it for several minutes until it had completely cleaned off the skeleton of that one polyp. Several aspects of this fascinated me. One was this fish had been in this tank for several years along with something like 60 or more frogspawn polyps on various colonies and had never been observed to bother any of them altough once or twice a year a polyp would disappear. Also, it focused only this one polyp and not only ignored but appeared to intentionally avoid the other polyps on this colony. My assumption is this one polyp was damaged somehow and the Coral Beauty was essentially taking care of the carcass and doing me a favor of

reducing the risk of the colony getting a "brown jelly" infection. Having seen now Thalasoma sp. wrasses and a Zebrasoma rostratum, Longnose Tang, eat several acan polyps that were damaged when a colony was nocked off and landed in the sand but ignored the undamaged polyps on this colony and the other dozen or so acan colonies in the tank my strong belief is that many of the reports of dwarf angels eating corals either is the first case of just picking food items off the surface of the coral or the second case where the fish is elliminated an unhealthy speciman. Obviously some of the reports may be of rogue fish actually developing a taste for healthy corals but I'm convinced these are much rarer than is commonly posted or spread word of mouth and in many cases where there actually is a coral or clam being eaten the clam or coral in question is unhealthy and the fish is taking advantage of it.

[mFrame]

Just say no to Dwarf Angels. Good fish, but you can forget ever keeping a clam if you so desire.

The best fish I could recommend would be a Foxface. Super personable, will eat out of your hand, skittishness really reduces as they get used to their surroundings. Completely reef safe, never had mine bother anything.

I've had several coral beauties over the course of the last five years and never had an issue with them bothering my clams.

[Neon Reefer]

The sixline will at least irritate a dartfish by constantly swimming at them, however i have always like the temperment as well as looks of the yellow two spot hog fish also called a candy wrasse. They are relatively inexpensive.