Buying The Right Fish.

Before you look at buying any fish for your Marine tank there are a number of questions you must ask you’re self.

The First Question.
Is the tank going to be a reef tank or a fish tank? If one is going to be setting up reef tank there are specific fish. This is due to a wide range of fish feeding on coral. This is where building a relationship with your pet store is very important, as they should be able to advise correctly.

Second Question.
If the tank is fish only, there is only one thing to take into consideration and that is what fish to put first and want fish to put in last.

Let’s discuss fish for a reef tank first.

Clown Fish
I always recommend drawing up a list of fish that you would like in the tank, once you have done that do a bit of research on the fish and then go into your pet store and ask for advice.
I always recommend starting with clown fish first. Be careful with the clowns that one chooses as there are some clowns that are extremely aggressive. Also take into consideration the size of your tank as to the number of types of clowns one is going to put into the tank. I always recommend a fish tank with less than 400 L one should only have one specie off clown. This will prevent fighting when you introduce the anemone.

Goby’s and Blennies.
All your gobies and blennies are safe as a rule of thumb. Midas blenny, Bi-colour blenny are an excellent fish to start with. As far as the gobies are concerned I would look at fire gobies, the Concorde, barred goby. There is also a jaw fish, these must be put into the tank only once the tank is six months old. There are obviously many more types available; this is a great family or fish.

Wrasse.
The best wrasse to start with is your banana wrasse, rainbow wrasse then fairy wrasse. Six Line Wrasse are really nice but must be put in at the end, as they get quite aggressive. The sex line does a good job in the tank as they eat bristle worm. Once again do a bit of homework on the wrasse as you get some large species that will turn your tank upside down.

Tangs and Surgeons.
Also a great family, but to be more careful in choosing the right fish. All your tangs are generally safe other than the purple tang which is extremely aggressive. The Sail fin Tang and the Yellow Tang are probably you’re safest. As far as the surgeons are concerned make sure your tank is really established and running well as they are prone to Ìck [White Spot]. The surgeons are Clown Surgeon, Powder Blue Surgeon, Powder Brown Surgeon to give you an idea. These are recommended only for advanced fish keepers.

Angels
The only angel I would recommend would be the coral beauty and flame angel. These do well in a reef tank.

Cardinal Fish.
These fish are reef safe and do really well. They swim Mid-water and show no aggression towards other fish.

The six species of fish that I have mentioned should give you a good start to a happy reef safe tank.

Fish only System.
As far as a fish only tank is concerned there are a few rules of thumb to stick to.

Rule one.
Decide what you are going to put in the tank.
If one is going to keep butterflies make sure your water parameters are good as they do not like nitrates. Also be careful in fluctuating salinity [salt content]. This also applies to your big Angels. Once again ask your pet store to advice on the Hardy fish first. I would not recommend doing butterflies and angels if you haven’t had a Marine tank before as one has to monitor the water chemistry more carefully. And this requires a bit of understanding.

If one is going to have a mixed tank, start with wrasse then introduce surgeons, followed by angels, triggerfish and then parrotfish. You can also introduce eels and fish like the lionfish and other predatory fish provided the other fish are not small enough to fit in there mouths.

Conclusion.
I recommend doing at least a 15% water change once a month as a fish tank is far more unstable than a reef tank. The other thing recommended is using a UV filter.

Hope this helps ìn giving you a great start to the hobby.