I kept a neon dottyback as a lone specimen in a nano reef tank and it was one of my favorite fish I've ever kept because of its bold nature and bright colors. I eventually moved it into a large community tank with fish much larger than it (large Koran angel and a yellow tang) to avoid it being a bully. Definitely wouldn't keep it with anything close to it in size though!
I’ve literally just ordered my first marine tank! A Red Sea reefer XL! I’ve just found your channel and I’m absolutely hooked. You’re so informative to novice marine keepers like me! X
I have been doing this hobby for about 4 years and, I find your videos to be spot on with the time I have been doing this. with the tang and, some of the other fish and, they help me know more about the good fish I want in the future.
One of the most honest breakdowns of fish destined to die slowly and proper alternatives to try. Reef Dork is truly one of the hidden gems and a great added value to any list of youtube / Marine Biologists/ Hobbyists who are honest.
Absolutely love this info and have made me feel that I have definitely done my research to pick up what I should and shouldn’t have in my new 180 coming up soon.
Salim Parmar one fish he didn’t mention for schooling is flame fish. They are generally peaceful, although I would get 2 or 5. And they are ridiculous jumpers so a secure tank lid is a must. I do have a blue Tang, it was at Petco and suffering from tail rot. I got it for a give away price, quarantined for a month and now four months later it looks great. Now that is a pretty short time. I also have a Lavender Tang, I call it a girl. Her name is Trixie, and her colors are not bold, but she is beautiful, and she swims constantly when the lights are on. She adds a cool element to my 120 gallon tank.
For a chromis alternative, you could keep pyjama cardinalfish. They school and are around the same size but imo aren't as active and stick to the rock work more.
Nice video Alex. You choose all the lovely fish that's not reef safe lol. Your tank is looking good and a empire would look good! Keep going and what's next !
had a pair of flame angels for years that didnt touch anything , and a flame hawkfish aswell , ..however the copperband never worked out for me ,fun video and nice to show alternatives.
I think one of the best shoaling fish are Ghost cardinals, if kept with larger fish like tangs they really do keep in a decent shoal. Some interesting alternatives put forward, I think success with a copperband is selecting the right tank mates and having a well established tank.
The only damsel I would recommend people get is the blue sapphire damselfish, extremely hardy, and much more timid and less aggressive than my clownfish.
have to say the talbot's damsels aren't bad. after a few years they get a bit territorial but since they never grow much are easily persuaded to give up.
Brilliant video, wish I could have seen it a few years ago, because several of fish you mentioned, I have had in the past, and yes, I experienced exactly what you described, I had a bunch of Anthias all female, when one decided to turn into a male and boy did he rule the tank, sounds funny, but sad to see how it affected all the other fish.
Wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say Chromis kill each other off. I’ve had 7 in a 90 gallon tank for over a year and they do great haven’t lost a single one. They definitely have a pecking order and I’ve seen few cases of battery and assault but no murders.
5:00 There is TWO exception though for the zebrasoma tangs. The dejardini and sail fin tangs get bigger than the blue tang. But most of the others are good.
Just found your channel. Thanks for the knowledge. Im looking at switching a 100l tropical to marine so getting as much info as possible. Want a pair of clowns(shock) cardinal and watchman goby to see how i get on with marine
Kinda wish I had seen this vid before buying the sixline that I have subsequently nicknamed "The Wrassehole". Still probably the most colorful addition to my reef though :)
A schooling fish you might want to look at is the neon blue rainbow fish ( pseudomugil cyanodorsalis). It is small and reef safe. Inappropriate reefer has a video on them.
Daniel St-Jean yes, and they are very curious, always checking everything out. Mine did develop a taste for cleaner shrimp though so at present he lives alone.
I’ve had good luck with Dottybacks. I will have to say the Damsel fish is one to avoid. I had one and it was a ruthless bully that wouldn’t back down even with fish that fought back. They are good to establish an aquarium and then you get rid of them, if you can catch them.
I don't keep fish anymore, but I used tp some years ago. My one regret was introducing Angel fish to the tank with my other fish. Trust me, they look angelic but they don't live up to their name!! they started attacking and killing all my other fish. At first I couldn't track down who the culprit was, until one day I caught them at it!! If I ever decide to get fish again, I would stay well clear of Angles, unless they were on their own of course.
Flame hawk fish can be very aggressive towards other fish , I have one in my 40 gallon nuvo and can’t put any other fish with him or he will kill them in less then a day . Even tries to attack my snails and conchs . Could be just mine is just a nightmare also I guess but that’s my experience .
Phenomenal video. Great perspective. Do you know if you can mix a Bellus angel with a coral beauty? I have seen it done in other tanks. But I have not found any specific information on their compatibilities.
Thanks for this. Changed my mind on all the fish on my wish list 😆. Do you have a video about starter marine fish and clean up crew that can all be kept together? Thanks.
@@ReefDork thanks im a total newby. Never had a marine tank before. Are marines harder to keep than discus? (I was unsuccessful) but have successfully kept other cichlids with ease.
From what I hear, Discus are a nightmare. If you just want to keep saltwater fish, they're not much harder than freshwater tropicals. Corals can be tricky but there are plenty of easy to keep corals to try out.
I agree with you general statement about dottybacks being little terrorists. However, the Orchid Dottyback is an exception of the family. I have had several over the years that have fit well into community reefs.
This is a good, no bs list of fish to not keep. We all want those beautiful ones like the angels or the blue tangs but yeah, they just don't work in smaller tanks and reef tanks.
@@arsenioseslpodcast3143 Did you miss the "smaller tanks" part? Blue tangs get quite large and should not be kept long in small tanks as they outgrow them quickly. Sure lots of people don't care and have no issue torturing fish, but that's not me. It may not have been clear from my sentence structure but I meant small reef tanks as well. Was trying to distinguish both fish only and reef tanks of small size.
Hi Reef Dork, I love your channel! I'm living vicariously through it at the moment since I don't have a marine aquarium (two tropical aquaria, 90l high tech planted oligotrophic, 18l mansion for a very spoilt Betta). I am thinking of creating an invert-only nano tank. The ecosystems behind coral tanks fascinate me, and fish don't do well in nano tanks anyway. Have you tried anything like this?
I've thought a lot about setting up an invert dominated tank recently actually. I feel like at least one fish would be a good thing - some form of bioload is better for the ecosystem for me. But there are some fascinating critters - pom pom crabs, anemone crabs and shrimp, pistol shrimp, venus shrimp, sexy shrimp, rock flower anemones, conches etc etc. It's a great idea - go for it!
@@ReefDork Thanks for your reply. I had thought of maybe one yellow goby if absolutely neccessary, but I'm glad to see you don't think it's totally crazy. Give me a year to get really knowledge'd up and I'll give it a go!
I've had good luck with both the flame angel and blue tang. Agreed on damsel fish though, bullied the hell out of my royal gramma to the point it that it hid under the filter unless it was feeding time.
I don't know if I got lucky, but my orchid dottyback is the most peaceful fish in my system, and it's quite a small tank 25 gallons with 5 fish. He attracts the attention of all visits and eats bristleworms every once in a while. Not to say they're always peaceful, but IMO it's the only dottyback that's always worth a try.
@@enzoalmeidadasilva5513 I think they'd probably be OK in a reasonable sized tank (say 4 foot). They both have similar behaviour though - cave dwellers so in a small tank, I wouldn't risk it.
How come dragonets are not on the list? They starve easily without enough pods and even with a well established tank with pods hey can eat pods in the tank at a rate they will disappear from the display
They will eat frozen fish eggs!!! I’m not experienced enough to really know, but I think you will still need pods because they pick and eat all day so they probably aren’t set up for once a day feedings.
I bought pods after losing a couple. I bought them well before I bought him to let a stable population to grow. It wasn’t until later that I found out about the frozen fish eggs. Mine now eats fish food pellets.
They are actually quite easy to train on frozen food or pellets (my mandarin ate pellets), It requires only discipline and patience. Once they eat frozen or pellets they are set for life. Unless they suicide by anemone. RIP Queen Margaret.
You have a nack at busting my chops! Some of the obvious ones I knew, like the angels, and the dory (that I'm going to try small, with my 140, but plan on selling when it gets too big), but the damsels were a surprise. And what do you have against tangs?! 🤨 I've heard that the order you load your tank helps with shy or territorial fish. Awesome, helpful video!
Yea, it does but tangs are slightly different when it comes to that, they will ‘attac’ the fish in the tank if they are smaller then the tang to show that the tang is the leader (we had that with our blue eye bristletooth tang)
Your videos are amazing and thank you! Yellow tang was one of the main reasons which made me transfer from planted tanks to reef tanks. I am planning on a 75 gallon with a sump, lengthening 120cms x 50 cms x 50 with lots of rock work. Is he going to be happy enough? He will ofcourse be my only tang along with some other small fish (clown , gobies etc ) The main king in the tank :) Literature is a little bit confused with some say that 55 gallons are fine and others talking about 100 gallons.
Ideally all tangs would have big tanks, but in my opinion you'll be absolutely fine. Worth adding last to avoid aggression to new fish, and feed nori regularly. Then you're good to go. You might need to move him on in the long term if he gets too big/aggressive. I think people are less 'Tang Police-y these days'
@@ReefDork I will may tell to the guy who is going to build the tank to increase the width by 10cm , making it 120 x 60 x 50 in order to increase capacity by 60 liters and give a little more depth. Truth is that I do not want a huge tank to make my life easier with water changes and general maintenance but if that is better and closer to the appropriate size then why not .. To be honest though , nothing is appropriate for a fish that lives in such depths in its natural environment:)
Hey Reef Dork, I love your videos! I have one question though, how is the compatibility between your wrasses and your flame hawk? I have heard that the flame hawk can be aggressive towards wrasses. I have a 75 gallon tank and I am looking into getting a melenarus wrasse and a flame hawkfish, but I was just wondering your thoughts. Thanks!
I have a dotty back orchid and there not aggressive to other tank mates at all and reef friendly. They love playing in the rocks and always curious of everything.
I’ve had 4 flame angels and my 4th is alive and it’s doing perfect with my potters, they do pick at eachother a bit but they aren’t dominant so it’s not a issue, I also have had a yellow tang for 4 years, and a fox face for 2
I know the horrid reputation of the copper and butterfly should have made me not want one, but I still got one and I have to admit, I think I’m part of the 10% because he’s been living great for two years! He eats mysis and brine readily and is absolutely beautiful, however I am aware that most shouldn’t be kept and I am but a small minority. Great video though!
This is a great informative video,but if you could make a video on comple stockings ideas of diffrent capacity of tanks ,i mean which fish i could keep together in a red sea maxs 400/500/650 ,etc,please make a video on this topic ,it will help so Many first timers,thanks in advance.
Mandarin Dragonet has to be one of those fishes to avoid (unless tank bred/raised)! They are challenging and I mean really challenging to get them eating unless you feed them live food such as copepods/brine but even so, they rarely eat until 'satisfied'. They usually lose their body fats & and die after a few months. I tried a couple but failed to get them eating. I even tried using the Paul Baldassano feeder method but the fish just refused to eat.
I had a purple dottyback and took over attacking everyone for two weeks. Mysteriously disappeared, i guess the others fish couldn't take it anymore and eat the dottyback on the night
Hello! You are creeping up to be my new favorite fishtuber! I have a question for you if you don’t mind responding. What is a good wrasse to put into my 40 gallon breeder tank?Preferably passive. I know you are going to suggest Naoko, but they are expensive where I am, great fish tho but not in my pricepoint. Thanks for your great, and educating video!
You just can't beat a yellow wrasse or a silver belly. Bright colours, they develop awesome facial markings later in life, always out and about and they eat nudis and flatworms. What's not to love?
How big do they get? I want a fish that I wouldn’t have to move out of the tank due to it getting to big. The yellow corris wrasse was on my list as well as a McCosckers flasher wrasse and the Lubbock fairy wrasse.
Have a look at live aquaria - they've got a great page on wrasses that tells you max size, aggression etc. It's a great start point when you choose a fish 🙂
My 6 line is pretty calm. The most aggressive fish in my tank are the blue/green Chromis and sleeper goby who just has to take from from the mandarin when feed her
