Advise on second fish to add

GoldenBoys · Jun 22, 2016

I'm looking for some suggestions on a pretty fish I can add with my Coral Beauty. I have a 35g AIO Red Sea tank & I plan on adding corals in the near future.
Currently I have The Beauty, a cleaner Shrimp & Feather Duster along with some snails, crabs & and an Urchin.
The Coral Beauty is kind of aggressive as I added a Hi fin Cardinal, and he was forced to sit in a corner for a week before I lost him.
Any advise would be appreciated.

donnievaz · Jun 22, 2016

You might want to try a wrasse, blenny, or goby type. How long has the CB been in there.?

Baby Ray · Jun 22, 2016

CB can sometimes be a aggressive as can all other angles. It would be easier to maybe take your CB to your LFS and let him live there for a while. Then you can add the more timid fish you want to get first and then add the CB back into the system once all the timid fish have been established into the system. It would also be better for the corals because IMO, if you add corals after an angle it is less likely to be successful. There are no facts to prove this, this is just my opinion.

GoldenBoys · Jun 22, 2016

donnievaz said:
You might want to try a wrasse, blenny, or goby type. How long has the CB been in there.?

About 2 months now. She's doing great too.

Rattooth · Jun 22, 2016

For Coral Beauty in 35 gallon tank, I like:

Flame Hawk
Long nose Hawk
Royal Gramma
Arc Eye Hawk
Clownfish
( Don't everyone go crazy saying Hawkfish will eat cleaner shrimp. It won't if shrimp is in tank first.)

Rattooth · Jun 22, 2016

One of those . Not all together.

GoldenBoys · Jun 22, 2016

Rattooth said:
For Coral Beauty in 35 gallon tank, I like:

Flame Hawk
Long nose Hawk
Royal Gramma
Arc Eye Hawk
Clownfish
( Don't everyone go crazy saying Hawkfish will eat cleaner shrimp. It won't if shrimp is in tank first.)

The Hawks are all reef safe? I'm pretty new to this, but I was under the impression they re not

Rattooth · Jun 22, 2016

Safe. Some people say they will attack hermit crabs and snails. I have kept hawk fish with clean up crew for thirty years and never seen them eat the snails and crabs. Specifically the Flame , Arc Eye and Longnose.
The Freckled Hawk is a small risk to attack clean up crew, it is more aggressive.

Rattooth · Jun 22, 2016

None eat corals.

GoldenBoys · Jun 22, 2016

Oh that's nice to hear, I like the Hawks alot

Zoom_ · Jun 22, 2016

ORA Yellow Basslet or Royal Gramma.

eatbreakfast · Jun 23, 2016

The suggestions of hawkfish were good ones, particularly the flame and longnose.

If the coral beauty was so aggressive as to attack a cardinal, then you will be pretty limited with what you can add.

I would look into a trio of zebra or scissortail dartfish, a starry or midas blenny, maybe a Canthigaster species of puffer.

GoldenBoys · Jun 23, 2016

Yea I've been looking at those 2 hawkish in particular and I think I'm going to go with one of those. I'm just gonna check into that puffer idea tho, always wanted some kind of puffer.
Also, is there a chance the CB will settle down some after a hawk has been added, and except other fish mates too?

eatbreakfast · Jun 23, 2016

GoldenBoys said:
Yea I've been looking at those 2 hawkish in particular and I think I'm going to go with one of those. I'm just gonna check into that puffer idea tho, always wanted some kind of puffer.
Also, is there a chance the CB will settle down some after a hawk has been added, and except other fish mates too?

There is a chance it will get better, but in most cases aggression gets worse, not better.

GoldenBoys · Jun 23, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
The suggestions of hawkfish were good ones, particularly the flame and longnose.

If the coral beauty was so aggressive as to attack a cardinal, then you will be pretty limited with what you can add.

I would look into a trio of zebra or scissortail dartfish, a starry or midas blenny, maybe a Canthigaster species of puffer.

When I look up canthigaster puffer on liveaquaria, it recommends a min 50g fish only tank.

donnievaz · Jun 23, 2016

One thing you may be able to do is if you have a spare tank, you could set it up as a QT, put the CB in it, rearrange your rock in the display and add all the new fish you want to get. Then put the CB back in last. No guarantee that it will work but it might be worth a try.