Is this a terrible fish combo?

[BadPhish]

What do you think of this in a BC14: 1 small perc, 1 firefish, 1 royal gramma

I've got no fish yet and am planning out my "wish list" I'd love to have all these but I'm assuming it's too much. What is your opinion/experience? ...If the general consensus is that it's a bad idea I will probably just go with one perc and one RG...or a pair of percs and a gobi.

[hillbillyreefer]

I had the same combo in a 24 gal at one time. Worked not too bad. If your going to try the firefish put a top on the tank. They love to carpet surf.

In a 14 I'd only go with 2 out of the 3.

My royal gramma is a real bully now. He was by himself for a while and when I introduced a new goby he beat it up to the point the goby had to be moved. I don't think they are all this aggressive though.

[justinl]

2 at the most. I would not do the three. imo, introduce the firefish first, then the clown. royal gramma might get too aggressive in small quarters. not all of them are aggressive, but it seems that most are or become so.

[Myka]

Ya, 14 gallons is too small for three of those fish. Orchid Dottybacks are similar to Royal Grammas, and tend to be much less aggressive. That's another thought. Or a bigger tank. ;)

[BadPhish]

The tank is completely covered so nothing can escape :) ...too bad to hear that about royal grammas, that's the one I wanted the most lol. I love the intense colour.

[BadPhish]

Haha I wish I could have a bigger tank! Unfortunately that wont be an option for a long time. I really like orchid dottybacks too but they are too aggresive. It's just something about that purple/yellow that gets me.

[ElGuappo]

my gramma was in my 45 for 4 hours before i had to take back as it bullied EVERYTHING that wasnt much larger than him. and agreed my firefish now only one are lino surfing champs.

[Snaz]

Two at the most. I have an Orchid Dotty and Perc in my 12 gallon. The tank is definitely fish full. I would go with the Orchid Dotty over the RG, awesome fish with great personality. See my sig for a pic of Inara our P. fridmani aka Orchid Dotty.

[Skimmerking]

Hey if i could have my time back the royal gramma would be out of my tank. real bully. i hate him actually

[BadPhish]

Man... now I'm sad lol. OK no royal gramma. The orchid dotty is a good suggestion. Does anyone have any other suggestions for super colourful fish that would suit my aquarium? Since I'm limited to only two fish I want them to be as colourful and interesting as possible without being too dificult to keep.

I may just end up doing a pair of clowns with different colours or patterns...but clowns are so cliche

[Snaz]

I may just end up doing a pair of clowns with different colours or patterns...but clowns are so cliche

Cliche and sorta boring. Mine is just a mouth and not doing too much unless someone walks by the tank and then he is all "feed me, feed me". Also he nips me to no end if I have my hand in the tank.
http://snaz.com/clown_teeth.jpg

He is starting to pork up so when he gets to 1.75 inches I'll donate him to LFS and look at another open column fish, not a clown.

[MCC]

What kind of skimmer are you using? Are you using one at all???

How much live rock? What else you plan to put in your tank??

The fishes you recommend aren't that demanding on the bio load... I am sure you can get by with a clown, firefish, and dotty.... if you have a good skimmer and lots of live rock or even a refugium mod....

If you are down to two fish only... go with the clownfish and a purple firefish ... so you can have the best of both worlds.. seems like you like firefishes and PURPLE....

[BadPhish]

I'm not using a skimmer. Just plan on keeping a good eye on my parameters and doing weekly water changes. I have 13 pounds of extremely porous live rock right now and will be adding another 3-4 pounds when I find the right pieces. Might do a refugium mod down the road.

Other than the fish I will be keeping a variety of soft corals, and of course a CUC. I might put a cleaner shrimp in there as well.

I do like purple...but for the most part I just really like super colourful fish. Since I'm so limited by the size of my tank I want it to be as colourful and eye catching as possible.

[gbeef]

A dotty or a gramma maybe terrorial. 3 Med size fishes i find is too much in a 14Gal. (thats what i had before) I would pick your favorite 2 and roll from there.

[Pier Pressure]

Dump the firefish. I had one and it hid in the rocks all day. The only time he would come out would be to eat - and then back into the rock work until it is time for the next feeding. Maybe they are not all like this but most I have seen are shy and like to hide in the rocks. If you are only going with two fish the other two (clown and dotty) would be out more would be my guess. I have a magenta dotty in a 28 and she is very peaceful.

[Snaz]

A dotty or a gramma maybe terrorial. 3 Med size fishes i find is too much in a 14Gal. (thats what i had before) I would pick your favorite 2 and roll from there.

Orchid Dotty aka Pseudochromis fridmani is pretty calm, costs a little more but worth it. Look for the eye stripe.

[Whatigot]

used to keep 2 clowns, 1 clown goby and an rg in my old aquapod.
No aggression from anyone in the year I had it.
Used to do weekly 10% changes though, as I was new to reefing and found maintenance fun back then.

RG is my FAVOURITE fish (got a harem of 3 right now), I would think that it's worth a try if you think you can keep up with water changes as that IS a lot of fish for a little tank.

FYI, a dsb will do WONDERS on a smaller, heavily loaded system, not to mention help in the natural food supple (i.e. less feedings of nitrate rich foods from you).

[MCC]

Dump the firefish. I had one and it hid in the rocks all day. The only time he would come out would be to eat - and then back into the rock work until it is time for the next feeding. Maybe they are not all like this but most I have seen are shy and like to hide in the rocks. If you are only going with two fish the other two (clown and dotty) would be out more would be my guess. I have a magenta dotty in a 28 and she is very peaceful.


It all depends on the kind of fish he has in there... I had a purple firefish... yes it was scared of the yellow tang... but before addition of the tang... the firefish would come out a lot...

In his case he wants clownfish ... so i m sure the purple firefish will be fine with it....

So just stick with two fish for now... clownfish and purple firefish or the purple dotty back... i personally will go with the purple firefish..since you like firefish and purple..."best of both worlds"

Ditch the gramma... I wouldn't "bother" to do test runs to see if he is aggressive... because usually will take him/her months to get territorial...and by then you might have a nice healthy coral/fish environment..to catch a fish in that size of a tank.. .you probably going to knock over things or stress out everyone with your 'net' waving exercises :( So plan ahead... try to minimize your hand time in the tank and disturbing the peace....

And then slowly stock up your tank... I wouldn't advice getting way too over board yet..until you can get yourself a good skimmer.... and do a refugium mod....

What people are warning you about here is the nitrate levels...with a good skimmer and a refugium packed with cheato... that can help with the nitrate levels.... along with good water changes....

Also try nano-reef.com..... its a site perfect for you... you think BC 14 is too small??? You haven't seen what you can do .... go look at their tanks... and it will make you think you are in middle of a reef ocean inside a BC14....they have good information on which skimmer / refugium mods to use and which works and which are total waste of money/time.....

Don't let your limited size discourage you ... I just got back into reefing ..and set up a nano reef.... did lots of research first...since nanos are a different beast in maintance and stocking ...

[BadPhish]

I feel kind of dumb asking but what's a dsb? Also curious, Whatigot, what size aquapod were you keeping all those fish in?

[BadPhish]

Man there has been a lot of activity on here since I went on vaccation :) it was soo hard not to attempt to sneak carribean fish and corals through customs haha.

MCC thanks for the advice. I've been snooping around nano-reef for quite some time now already, it's a great site. I just prefer to post on a local site and thought I'd see what you all had to say.

I'd really prefer to stay skimmerless in such a small aquarium, but I'm sure one day I'll get tired of doing frequent water changes and end up with one.

I'm trying to restrain myself from stocking too quickly... aside from a screamin' deal I got on a few things ;) I'm now officially one month in and my cycle is complete. Algae is getting under control THANK GOD...and hermit crabs. CUC and corals are happy and thriving... I'll probably add the first fish in one-two weeks.

[BadPhish]

oh ps, not that it matters but I'm a girl.

[BlueAbyss]

Hmm considered doing a build thread? WE WANT PICS! :lol:

And you know what you should consider? Going ahead and getting a Royal Gramma, and a colorful damsel of some sort, and letting them fight it out! (I have a special place for RGs in my heart, they are the fish that made me want to start a marine tank to begin with) Clownfish are sort of... well, overdone a la Finding Nemo, IMHO (unless they host something). But letting a RG and a Damsel (put into the tank at the same time, of course) stake out a territory and co-exist would be really cool... Hmm actually, don't do that. I'm gonna try a 35 gallon aggressive tank after I'm done building my Pipefish tank, I'll let you know how it goes :mrgreen:

[BadPhish]

LOL boo damsels! I love RG's I'm freaking sad I cant have one.

I have considered doing a build thread but unfortunately I just busted the only camera in the house while on vaccation last week... My GF thought it would be super funny to bust in on me in the tiny cruse ship bathroom and take a few pictures while I screamed at her and dove for the door. I smacked the camera out of her hand and it smashed on the floor. I still claim it wasnt my fault :/

If anyone is interested in what I have so far:
-A pulsing Xenia which is now about to be 4. I had it "climb" onto some small rocks and
will be cutting the cords soon.
-5 Colts
-2 colonies and 2 frags of some awesomely pink zoas, they glow in the dark
-3 blue hermits
-5 assorted snails
-1 stupid effing rock crab hitch hiker I never see and will probably never catch
-13lbs cured live rock
-9lbs sand

[BadPhish]

A couple craptacular pics I took when all I had was a snail
http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh372/BadPhish85/017.jpg

http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh372/BadPhish85/018.jpg

[BlueAbyss]

Aww cmon, there are some attractive damsels out there. But I relent, Pseudochromis are nice too, and less aggressive.

Hmm ever thought about only having one fish in the tank? Then you could have your RG :biggrin: The more I read about them, the more I want one myself.

Sorry to hear about the camera... hope the rest of the trip went well, and your tank looks good for being so young.

[BadPhish]

I have thought about just having the one fish, but I think I'd find it more entertaining to have more going on in there.

haha the rest of the trip was awesome! I wish I could say "you should see my tank now" ...but you can't see my tank now :( I'm already thinking I need to get rid of some colt to make room for more stuff... It's way bigger when fully expanded than I thought it would be. I doubt anyone would look at it and think it was only a month old.

[BlueAbyss]

So you know what you need to do now, frag your colt and keep a chunk, sell the rest and use the money to buy your clownfish!:razz:

[Whatigot]

I feel kind of dumb asking but what's a dsb? Also curious, Whatigot, what size aquapod were you keeping all those fish in?

DSB deep sand bed...

and it was a 12 gallon aquapod.

[Whatigot]

LOL boo damsels! I love RG's I'm freaking sad I cant have one.

I have considered doing a build thread but unfortunately I just busted the only camera in the house while on vaccation last week... My GF thought it would be super funny to bust in on me in the tiny cruse ship bathroom and take a few pictures while I screamed at her and dove for the door. I smacked the camera out of her hand and it smashed on the floor. I still claim it wasnt my fault :/

If anyone is interested in what I have so far:
-A pulsing Xenia which is now about to be 4. I had it "climb" onto some small rocks and
will be cutting the cords soon.
-5 Colts
-2 colonies and 2 frags of some awesomely pink zoas, they glow in the dark
-3 blue hermits
-5 assorted snails
-1 stupid effing rock crab hitch hiker I never see and will probably never catch
-13lbs cured live rock
-9lbs sand

why not forget everything else, and get a couple grammas?
they are about as fun to watch as fish get.
Take one very small on one and noticeably larger than the small one and add them at the same time...

You might even be able to try 3, one large and two much smaller ones.
I have a 72 gallon, and as stated, have a little harem of 3 grammas and they are the pride of my tank.

[BlueAbyss]

Could you put 3 grammas in a 14 gallon tank? I mean, wouldn't that be a bit... cramped?

Yeah just did some reading... maybe 2 but one would dominate.

[Whatigot]

sure.
though certainly I've seen successful "cramped" tanks before...
again, this is assuming diligence with weekly maintenance and adding all fish of the appropriate size at the same time, but if you look at the first post I made, I had kept a 12 gallon aquapod for a year and it was even more "cramped".

Your aquascape will be key, as long as each female has AT LEAST one separate place to call home (like an overhanging rock, a cave or some good macro growth) you will really enjoy watching the larger male "tend" to them both. doubt you would see any significant aggression unless one of them actually spawned, and even then, once a harem is formed, they tend to tolerate one another very readily and have even been reported to share in the husbandry new fry.
"cramped" yes, impossible?
no.

[BlueAbyss]

I agree :biggrin: and well put. These fish are quite small (max 4") so 2 or 3 in a 14 gallon (I'd assume 24x12 floor space) would probably be just fine. I was just worried about them not getting along and am probably thinking they are more aggressive than they actually are.

[BadPhish]

Hmmm 3 Royal Grammas you say... hmmm :D
AA is getting in a load of fish on wednesday night so I'm going to check out what they have on thursday. I'm sure I'll be coming home with something...
speaking of which, add a green ric and purple/green mushroom to my list