What are/is your favorite fish?

[kwirky]

What are some of your favorite fish you keep/have kept and why? Any oldie but goodies? Any "exotic" fish you own/have owned that you absolutely love? Any impulse purchases that didn't have a lot of thought which turned out to be favorites?

I'll talk about two of my favorites... The lawnmower blenny and the cinnamon clown.

I had done a fair bit of research about lawnmower blennies and absolutely HAD to have one. I love the way they look and their behavior. I bought one from somone on the forums and was so excited to see it's behavior in my tank. Unfortunately it jumped out of my open tank 2 days later . I SO want another but I know it'll happen again in my current open topped tank...

My other favorite was the cinnamon clowns. They looked nice and all but the reason I liked them was because of how aggressive they were towards me. I think the "relationship" I built with them was strong. I'd be working in the tank and they'd draw blood... I repeatedly had my mom (and some of the people who bought livestock off me) chase them off with the algae wand as I had my hands in the tank. Nasty little buggers but I honestly missed them when the 120g was taken down . I forget the name of the person who bought them off me (you bought things off me a few times). Let me know how they're doing...

So what are some of the favorite fish you've kept, and why?

[Delphinus]

Hard to nail down to a specific one or two, but here's a few of my favourites:

Fairy wrasses - I've had 4. I love these fish. Stay small, gorgeous colours, nice disposition, totally reef friendly. A little shy and long time to get unshy I found. My first was a C. rubriventralis (see pic below), common name "red fairy wrasse". Had the nicest red colour and these blue irridescent dots that would come and go depending on his mood. Plus, he had these really neat fins. I lost him when I moved houses. It turns out I've lost fish every time I've had to move my ritteri (it releases something as some kind of defence mechanism).



I had a lubbock's wrasse. Very pretty fish. Unfortunately I don't seem to have any pictures. Lost this fish to the anemone as well.

My potter's angel is a darling... Just a great personality. She mimics the behaviours of the fish around her .. it's really neat to see. Actually I had another potter's that would do the same sorts of thing. I thought it was pretty clever. I unfortunately lost the first potters in another anemone moving incident.
Here's the one I currently have.


My Z. desjardini sailfin tang .. I dunno, I just love this guy. He's been with me 5 years now.



Oh and I'm totally with you on the lawnmower blenny. I had "Rygel" (Farscape fans? Catch the reference?) entertaining many a visitor with his antics, what a personality. If I cleaned the outside of the glass he would chase the cloth away and wouldn't give up trying to bully it until the "invader" left. He lived for me for just over 4 years. I'm not sure what their livespan is but I think he may actually have succumed to old age. It was a lot like old age towards the end.

[kwirky]

was your tank open or closed topped when you had the lawnmower blenny? If open how tall was it, and where did the blenny hang out usually?

[Delphinus]

Close topped/canopy. Mostly he hung out perched on or in the rockwork somewhere ... he'd swim but as soon as he'd stop, he'd sink to the bottom.

[Salmon King]

I like the Flame hawk.Very neet personality

[Aquattro]

Niger Trigger is my all time fave. My Yellow Tang was a great fish, she was with me almost 9 years

[cav~firez22]

Mine would have to be a Male Blonde Naso.

Havent had one yet, but will get one as soon as a LFS has one.

Another is a clown trigger, but again, havent had one due to a reef setup.

[goby1]

Valentini puffer. Very cool fish. Great "personality" and he got along well in his fish community. Loved his eye movements. My tank has an open top though and he jumped during the last power outage. I was aerating the tank with a whisk and it must have freaked him out. I want to replace him but I've heard they are known jumpers ...

[Finaddict]

powerblue tang-i love these tangs - but will never keep one again

[Joe Reefer]

I have so many favorite fish.