Choosing the right fish for your tank

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

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.