"Last fish" ideas?

Delphinus · #1 11-17-2009, 06:12 AM

PS. Another obvious choice for red in a tank that size would be a flame hawk. I debated on mentioning it though because you said you'd prefer an open water swimmer and hawks are, well, .. not.

But you can't beat them for a splash of a red and a hilarious personality.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #2 11-17-2009, 06:49 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. Some good ideas.

I really want a flame hawk but I think it may be better to get something that actually swims around a bit more. Right now the fish I have are beautiful but not the most active. The firefish to swim around but its kind of more slow hovering

xtreme · #3 11-17-2009, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

I really want a flame hawk but I think it may be better to get something that actually swims around a bit more.

My flame hawk moves about quite a bit. He will disappear into the rockwork, then reappear at the other end of the tank. He is always swimming around and he always seems to be watching me. Very cool fish with a great personality.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #4 11-17-2009, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtreme

My flame hawk moves about quite a bit. He will disappear into the rockwork, then reappear at the other end of the tank. He is always swimming around and he always seems to be watching me. Very cool fish with a great personality.

Does he bother other passive fish at all?

Delphinus · #5 11-17-2009, 06:48 PM

Mine never bothered anyone. The ONLY incident I ever noticed with my flame hawk was with my sixline. The sixline was a total jerk to him the first couple of days and the flame had torn fins and whatnot. Somewhere around day 3, the flame hawk said "Enough of this", beat the living SNOT out of the sixline (bruises and everything), from that day on there was peace between the two. So, definitely a fish who can hold his own if need be, but would prefer peace first. Definitely the coolest little fish. Man I really miss mine.

lastlight · #6 11-17-2009, 06:53 PM

Keep this banter up guys. I'm essentially pretend-populating my tank off this thread lol.

Delphinus · #7 11-17-2009, 06:59 PM

Ok, I was going to stop talking but Brett's making me keep going. I'm completely innocent here.

FWIW, J&L also has orchid dottybacks in right now. They fit the bill for a splash of colour (not red or yellow but damn they are a sexy colour), open water swimmers (although like to have caves in rocks for a place to hang their hat), and generally regarded as the least aggressive dottyback. I'm not terribly certain how he would do with your other tankmates. Possibly OK, but ... I don't know for certain.

Mine is in a 115 cube and although the smallest fish, doesn't really fear anyone (but I see no issues of aggression). He did get a little cheesed when I added my eel, I guess as a fellow save dweller he didn't appreciate having to share all the rock holes. So he would swim very angrily around the eel when the eel was out. "Swim! Dart! Swim! Dart! Look at me! I'm small but I'm fast. Swim some more! Dart some more! Hey, come back here! I'm not done swimming towards you. Yeah I'm swimming to YOU buddy!" That's all it ever amounted to, the eel is mostly blind and took no notice, and they seem to accept each other now anyhow.

xtreme · #8 11-17-2009, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Does he bother other passive fish at all?

I've never seen him bother any of my other fish. He is one of the smaller fish in the tank though so its a different environment than what your tank would be.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #9 11-17-2009, 07:38 PM

So Flame hawks seem quite "gentle"

Still not really what I am looking for but a possibility.

Gramma loreto I had not considered but I might now goo look at them next time J&L has them in. Could be a nice way to add some color to the tank as well as movement.

gobytron · #10 11-17-2009, 06:46 PM

You wouldn't get a super active fish with the assessor though IMO, they seem to really like a spot with overhead cover and turbulent flow(like right under a tunze or sure flow ph). Mine will venture out pretty regularly but nowhere near as much as my grammas...

Have you thought about them at all if you really want movement and a docile nature above all else?

You could easily get a very small and a med. size gramma loreto and let them do their thing...I only say 2 because 2 of them will be significantly more active in the water column than 1.
JL often gets nice shipments of them in and no joke after a year and a half of them my harem of 4 still crack me up here and there.

With 2 of them sized as stated you'd more than likely wind up with a male/female pair and would encounter 0 aggression unless they're spawning but with you're docile selection of tankmates I don't think you would have any issue even then.

They WILL fight with their reflection though, but fighting for this fish is just a who can open their mouth bigger competition.

Try that with your reflection sometime...lol