Fish Ideas for the kids to pick from

[TJustice86]

I just acquired a 90 gallon tank with a large rock wall, one clown, one blue tang, and a four stripe damsel. What would be some good additions to this tank? I want to give the kids some choices so that they can each pick a fish. I would also like to have several fish and an active tank. I am fairly new to marine aquariums but have had freshwater in the past. I know a lot of times clowns come in pairs, this clown has been solo for ~5 years. Would he accept another clown?

I will add I've had this tank for over a month and water is stable, fish are happy.

 

[Dbichler]

Are you planning on corals or just fish. A small angel is a good colorful option. Lawnmower blenny diamond goby foxface could be another good larger fish option a wrasse could be another option

 

[i cant think]

I just acquired a 90 gallon tank with a large rock wall, one clown, one blue tang, and a four stripe damsel. What would be some good additions to this tank? I want to give the kids some choices so that they can each pick a fish. I would also like to have several fish and an active tank. I am fairly new to marine aquariums but have had freshwater in the past. I know a lot of times clowns come in pairs, this clown has been solo for ~5 years. Would he accept another clown?

I will add I've had this tank for over a month and water is stable, fish are happy.

In the long run that blue tang won’t be 100% happy and will need a larger tank however I assume you know that.
In terms of other fish, here’s what I would pick out of;

Lyretail Hawkfish
Forsters Hawkfish
Longnose Hawkfish

Radiant Wrasse
Silver Belly Wrasse
Timor Wrasse
Earmuff Wrasse
Babi Wrasse

Lineatus Fairy Wrasse
Naokoae Fairy Wrasse
Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse
Roseyscale Fairy Wrasse (C. finifenmaa)
Monsoon Fairy Wrasse
Hooded Fairy Wrasse
Exquisite Fairy Wrasse (Vanuatu Var)
Pintail Fairy Wrasse

The next groups of wrasses may need to be added once the pod population rises and will need to be researched in more .

Blue Star Leopard Wrasse
Black Leopard Wrasse
Blue Spotted Leopard Wrasse
Kuiters Leopard Wrasse
Moyers Leopard Wrasse
Viviens Leopard Wrasse

Atavai Pencil Wrasse
Royal Pencil Wrasse
Small Tail Pencil Wrasse

China Tamarin Wrasse
Yellow Tail Tamarin Wrasse
Linear Tamarin Wrasse

Yasha Shrimp Goby
Dracula Shrimp Goby
Black Ray Shrimp Goby

Masked Goby

Redspotted Trimma Goby
Cana Trimma Goby
Striated Trimma Goby

Black Belly Eviota Goby
Two Stripe Eviota Goby

Binoe Sleeper Goby
Banded Sleeper Goby

Randalls Shrimp Goby
Sunset Shrimp Goby
Wheelers Shrimp Goby
Diagonal Shrimp Goby

Yellow Clown Goby
Black Clown Goby
Green Clown Goby
Warpaint Clown Goby
Red Clown Goby

White Tiger Goby

Red Firefish
Purple Firefish
Helfrichi Firefish
Exquisite Firefish

Zebra Dartfish
Scissortail Dartfish
Blue Dartfish
Pearly Dartfish
Grammic Dartfish

Flame Angelfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Cherub Angelfish
Flame Back Angelfish
Golden Angelfish
Rusty Angelfish
Lemonpeel Angelfish
Heralds Angelfish
Half Black Angelfish

Black Velvet Angelfish
Blue Spot Angelfish
Singapore Angelfish

Bellus Swallowtail Angelfish
Japanese Masked Swallowtail Angelfish
Swallowtail Angelfish
Zebra Swallowtail Angelfish
Lamark Swallowtail Angelfish
Watanabei Swallowtail Angelfish

Red Sea Cream Angelfish
Yellow Ear Angelfish
Flag fin Angelfish
Goldflake Angelfish

The next group of angelfish will need more research if they pick out of them;

Multibar Angelfish
Venusta Angelfish
Collin’s Angelfish

Magnificent Foxface
Bicolour Foxface
Common Foxface
One Spot Foxface

Some of these species need more research than others may so I’d recommend researching them all and seeing which ones you can accommodate for. I picked mostly easy species but the Leopard, Tamarin, Pencil wrasses all need more research than the ones above them. The last three angelfish need more research done, also another comment on the angelfish, only the swallowtail angelfish are meant to be totally reefsafe. Even some of the ones found near coral (In not so deep water) can be risky in a reef setting. Also the foxfaces will get rather large however, they don’t swim as much as a tang will. The biggest thing to watch out for is if you corner them or put pressure down on their spines, you will most likely be stung by venom. Dart fish, Gobies, Foxfaces, and Wrasses all NEED a lid otherwise they will jump.
Eviota, Trimma Gobies and SOME Clown gobies can be in groups. Trimma and Eviota prefer smaller groups of 3-5 in small tanks. In a 4’ tank you could potentially have several groups of different species. I have an article about Gobiidae and where they live in the wild compared to captivity so you may want to read through that.

 

[cdw79]

Every time people come visit me, they love my jawfish / my shrimp goby and pistol shrimp pair. There's something so cool, especially to kids, seeing fish (or in the later's case, shrimp) dig into the sand and create little homes in there. I was mesmerized as a kid watching jawfish do their thing, and glad I can finally keep them!

Pearly jawfish are very nice looking yet cheap, so are many of the shrimp gobies with their pistol shrimp. The only thing is that especially for the former, they need a deep sand bed (3 inches as an absolute minimum imo). Anyone who tells you otherwise has not kept these fish longterm- they "can" do ok with less, but it puts them in a perpetual state of stress that isn't what I want to do to a fish. Personally, I designed my scape with these guys in mind- 3.5 inch sanded across the whole tank, rock places on the bottom before the sand goes in (critical!), etc.

If you don't have that deep a sanded, a shrimp+goby pair would probably be better- they're a little less demanding. Rocks being on the bottom glass are still a minimum though- you don't want any collapses, broken tank glass, etc. As long as you're very careful, a slow push downwards on the scape until you feel the glass should do the trick.

They're both great little fish, I can't imagine a tank of mine without one. So many options for shrimp gobies too (Yasha, yellow watchman, orange spotted, the list goes on), take a look!

 

[i cant think]

Every time people come visit me, they love my jawfish / my shrimp goby and pistol shrimp pair. There's something so cool, especially to kids, seeing fish (or in the later's case, shrimp) dig into the sand and create little homes in there. I was mesmerized as a kid watching jawfish do their thing, and glad I can finally keep them!

Pearly jawfish are very nice looking yet cheap, so are many of the shrimp gobies with their pistol shrimp. The only thing is that especially for the former, they need a deep sand bed (3 inches as an absolute minimum imo). Anyone who tells you otherwise has not kept these fish longterm- they "can" do ok with less, but it puts them in a perpetual state of stress that isn't what I want to do to a fish. Personally, I designed my scape with these guys in mind- 3.5 inch sanded across the whole tank, rock places on the bottom before the sand goes in (critical!), etc.

If you don't have that deep a sanded, a shrimp+goby pair would probably be better- they're a little less demanding. Rocks being on the bottom glass are still a minimum though- you don't want any collapses, broken tank glass, etc. As long as you're very careful, a slow push downwards on the scape until you feel the glass should do the trick.

They're both great little fish, I can't imagine a tank of mine without one. So many options for shrimp gobies too (Sasha, yellow watchman, orange spotted, the list goes on), take a look!

+1 to this, both recommendations are excellent reef candidates (Kind of). Just make sure corals on the sand bed don’t care about sand on them. Such as Scolymia, Trachyphillia, Wellsoni, Fymbriaphyllia ect..

 

[cdw79]

Very true! My blue spotted jawfish has lived in two different places, one against a rock with some zoas and the other against a rock with some Florida ric's. The zoas tended to get a little annoyed when he would splash some sand on them every now and again, but they were on a separate rock high enough to where they almost never got bothered. Rics seem to slime off any sand so they've not been affected. Basically, as long as he's got a few inches of space around him on all sides coral are fine, in my experience. The shrimp and goby pair are even more benign, the shrimps tend to be pretty "conservative" in their sand excavation process haha

 

[JaaxReef]

That 4 stripe damsel will possibly be a problem with more peaceful fish like fairy wrasses, or dartfish/firefish.

That being said, some of the most fun fish personalities for kids to enjoy and watch are the larger sand sifting gobies (cons already mentioned here about burying things), Hawkfish (especially long nose or flame hawk), Jawfish, or maybe a Lawnmower or Midas Blenny.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I can’t think gave a great list above. You could also consider Chalk Bass, Lantern Bass, and other small basslets. You could also look at adding things like Barnacle Blennies (they stay in their hides most of the day, but they’re a lot of fun darting in and out at feeding time), Cardinalfish (Bangaii Cardinals are cool looking, as are some of the striped ones, but kids might really like Pajama Cardinals - Cardinalfish are nocturnal as I understand it, though, so you might not see them terribly often).

 

[NoahLikesFish]

In the long run that blue tang won’t be 100% happy and will need a larger tank however I assume you know that.
In terms of other fish, here’s what I would pick out of;

Lyretail Hawkfish
Forsters Hawkfish
Longnose Hawkfish

Radiant Wrasse
Silver Belly Wrasse
Timor Wrasse
Earmuff Wrasse
Babi Wrasse

Lineatus Fairy Wrasse
Naokoae Fairy Wrasse
Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse
Roseyscale Fairy Wrasse (C. finifenmaa)
Monsoon Fairy Wrasse
Hooded Fairy Wrasse
Exquisite Fairy Wrasse (Vanuatu Var)
Pintail Fairy Wrasse

The next groups of wrasses may need to be added once the pod population rises and will need to be researched in more .

Blue Star Leopard Wrasse
Black Leopard Wrasse
Blue Spotted Leopard Wrasse
Kuiters Leopard Wrasse
Moyers Leopard Wrasse
Viviens Leopard Wrasse

Atavai Pencil Wrasse
Royal Pencil Wrasse
Small Tail Pencil Wrasse

China Tamarin Wrasse
Yellow Tail Tamarin Wrasse
Linear Tamarin Wrasse

Yasha Shrimp Goby
Dracula Shrimp Goby
Black Ray Shrimp Goby

Masked Goby

Redspotted Trimma Goby
Cana Trimma Goby
Striated Trimma Goby

Black Belly Eviota Goby
Two Stripe Eviota Goby

Binoe Sleeper Goby
Banded Sleeper Goby

Randalls Shrimp Goby
Sunset Shrimp Goby
Wheelers Shrimp Goby
Diagonal Shrimp Goby

Yellow Clown Goby
Black Clown Goby
Green Clown Goby
Warpaint Clown Goby
Red Clown Goby

White Tiger Goby

Red Firefish
Purple Firefish
Helfrichi Firefish
Exquisite Firefish

Zebra Dartfish
Scissortail Dartfish
Blue Dartfish
Pearly Dartfish
Grammic Dartfish

Flame Angelfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Cherub Angelfish
Flame Back Angelfish
Golden Angelfish
Rusty Angelfish
Lemonpeel Angelfish
Heralds Angelfish
Half Black Angelfish

Black Velvet Angelfish
Blue Spot Angelfish
Singapore Angelfish

Bellus Swallowtail Angelfish
Japanese Masked Swallowtail Angelfish
Swallowtail Angelfish
Zebra Swallowtail Angelfish
Lamark Swallowtail Angelfish
Watanabei Swallowtail Angelfish

Red Sea Cream Angelfish
Yellow Ear Angelfish
Flag fin Angelfish
Goldflake Angelfish

The next group of angelfish will need more research if they pick out of them;

Multibar Angelfish
Venusta Angelfish
Collin’s Angelfish

Magnificent Foxface
Bicolour Foxface
Common Foxface
One Spot Foxface

Some of these species need more research than others may so I’d recommend researching them all and seeing which ones you can accommodate for. I picked mostly easy species but the Leopard, Tamarin, Pencil wrasses all need more research than the ones above them. The last three angelfish need more research done, also another comment on the angelfish, only the swallowtail angelfish are meant to be totally reefsafe. Even some of the ones found near coral (In not so deep water) can be risky in a reef setting. Also the foxfaces will get rather large however, they don’t swim as much as a tang will. The biggest thing to watch out for is if you corner them or put pressure down on their spines, you will most likely be stung by venom. Dart fish, Gobies, Foxfaces, and Wrasses all NEED a lid otherwise they will jump.
Eviota, Trimma Gobies and SOME Clown gobies can be in groups. Trimma and Eviota prefer smaller groups of 3-5 in small tanks. In a 4’ tank you could potentially have several groups of different species. I have an article about Gobiidae and where they live in the wild compared to captivity so you may want to read through that.

i cant think, your username is so true, you have all this memorized you dont gotta think lol

 

[i cant think]

i cant think, your username is so true, you have all this memorized you dont gotta think lol

You have no idea about how much time I spend memorising scientific and common names of certain fish haha.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

You have no idea about how much time I spend memorising scientific and common names of certain fish haha.

i try to do it but i suck at it

 

[nereefpat]

I would get rid of the blue tang for size reasons, and the 4 stripe damsel for aggression reasons. I would try adding a small clown, although it may not work.

Then something like:
clowns
yellow tail damsel to replace blue tang
melanurus wrasse
longnose hawk
bangaii cardinal
pink spot watchman
flame angel

 

[jaso]

In my 24 years of on again, off again marine/reef keeping: IMO damsels get too bad a wrap. Especially in a 90 gallon. My 4 line has been in my 32 biocube (with way too many fish, like way too many) and has been great. As well as a domino in a previous tank. And yellow tailed blue damsels. They take their spot in the rock, and will defend it. And that’s about it.
As far as clowns, in my experience add a small one and they will work it out.
Kids….one loves the Diamond watchman gobies (she calls them “blah”), one loves watching the cleaner shrimp. And “dory” is always a favorite.
I would also recommend a coral beauty. And a mccroskers or carpenters wrasse. Dart fish are easy enough and keep pretty visible. Lawnmower Blenny for its algae eating. My kids call it the camouflage fish.
All these fish would be ok with future corals or inverts, too.
My 2 cents.

 

[cancun]

Hi! Great ideas from everyone! I love Midas Blennies personally. Great color and more active than a lot of blennies imo. I would personally hold off on leopards and Anampses wrasses until you have had your tank longer and gain a bit more experience, they can be tough. Just my opinion of course.

There are a ton of fish already listed to pick from to get you going. I won't comment on the tang...what one dose with his/her tank isn't my business.....

I think it is great that you are including your kids. Next teach them how to clean skimmers and do water changes! LOL!!!

 

[TJustice86]

Wow guys, lots of great ideas and info. I’ve got a little more research to do.

I’m not sure how the kids will take it if I tell them we have to re-home Dory. Hopefully not too bad if I allow them to pick a fish at the same time.

After all of these suggestions, I think I need to get some sand. Right now it appears to be kind of a sand/gravel mixture that is around one inch thick. Is it possible to just add sand on top of that to create a proper sand bed?
Also, I’m not sure if I want to get corals right away, but maybe down the road, so I’ll keep that in mind when selecting fish.

 

[i cant think]

Hi! Great ideas from everyone! I love Midas Blennies personally. Great color and more active than a lot of blennies imo. I would personally hold off on leopards and Anampses wrasses until you have had your tank longer and gain a bit more experience, they can be tough. Just my opinion of course.

There are a ton of fish already listed to pick from to get you going. I won't comment on the tang...what one dose with his/her tank isn't my business.....

I think it is great that you are including your kids. Next teach them how to clean skimmers and do water changes! LOL!!!

+1 to holding off from leopards till you get more experience. Although (This is just my experience) they do seem to be a lot easier than people say so I would say in 6-7 months you’d probably be able to start with a Blue Star or a Black.

Wow guys, lots of great ideas and info. I’ve got a little more research to do.

I’m not sure how the kids will take it if I tell them we have to re-home Dory. Hopefully not too bad if I allow them to pick a fish at the same time.

After all of these suggestions, I think I need to get some sand. Right now it appears to be kind of a sand/gravel mixture that is around one inch thick. Is it possible to just add sand on top of that to create a proper sand bed?
Also, I’m not sure if I want to get corals right away, but maybe down the road, so I’ll keep that in mind when selecting fish.

Also, be weary of if you want a sensitive invert down the line. Some fish may nip at certain inverts such as clams or smaller shrimp (the genus Lystmata and the Coral Banded shrimp seem to be best with fish that may peck shrimp). I say this as, 12-16 years ago I wouldn’t have even thought of owning a clam, now I own Tridacna deresa.
As for the Sandbed, I remove my sand bit by bit and every so often I will add to the depth of the new sand. I’m unsure if you can just put a deeper fine sand above that but I wouldn’t risk it personally and instead would take it out bit by bit over the course of 5-7 weeks. Then if I wanted more depth I’d make the new sand deeper.

 

[Buckster]

In the long run that blue tang won’t be 100% happy and will need a larger tank however I assume you know that.
In terms of other fish, here’s what I would pick out of;

Lyretail Hawkfish
Forsters Hawkfish
Longnose Hawkfish

Radiant Wrasse
Silver Belly Wrasse
Timor Wrasse
Earmuff Wrasse
Babi Wrasse

Lineatus Fairy Wrasse
Naokoae Fairy Wrasse
Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse
Roseyscale Fairy Wrasse (C. finifenmaa)
Monsoon Fairy Wrasse
Hooded Fairy Wrasse
Exquisite Fairy Wrasse (Vanuatu Var)
Pintail Fairy Wrasse

The next groups of wrasses may need to be added once the pod population rises and will need to be researched in more .

Blue Star Leopard Wrasse
Black Leopard Wrasse
Blue Spotted Leopard Wrasse
Kuiters Leopard Wrasse
Moyers Leopard Wrasse
Viviens Leopard Wrasse

Atavai Pencil Wrasse
Royal Pencil Wrasse
Small Tail Pencil Wrasse

China Tamarin Wrasse
Yellow Tail Tamarin Wrasse
Linear Tamarin Wrasse

Yasha Shrimp Goby
Dracula Shrimp Goby
Black Ray Shrimp Goby

Masked Goby

Redspotted Trimma Goby
Cana Trimma Goby
Striated Trimma Goby

Black Belly Eviota Goby
Two Stripe Eviota Goby

Binoe Sleeper Goby
Banded Sleeper Goby

Randalls Shrimp Goby
Sunset Shrimp Goby
Wheelers Shrimp Goby
Diagonal Shrimp Goby

Yellow Clown Goby
Black Clown Goby
Green Clown Goby
Warpaint Clown Goby
Red Clown Goby

White Tiger Goby

Red Firefish
Purple Firefish
Helfrichi Firefish
Exquisite Firefish

Zebra Dartfish
Scissortail Dartfish
Blue Dartfish
Pearly Dartfish
Grammic Dartfish

Flame Angelfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Cherub Angelfish
Flame Back Angelfish
Golden Angelfish
Rusty Angelfish
Lemonpeel Angelfish
Heralds Angelfish
Half Black Angelfish

Black Velvet Angelfish
Blue Spot Angelfish
Singapore Angelfish

Bellus Swallowtail Angelfish
Japanese Masked Swallowtail Angelfish
Swallowtail Angelfish
Zebra Swallowtail Angelfish
Lamark Swallowtail Angelfish
Watanabei Swallowtail Angelfish

Red Sea Cream Angelfish
Yellow Ear Angelfish
Flag fin Angelfish
Goldflake Angelfish

The next group of angelfish will need more research if they pick out of them;

Multibar Angelfish
Venusta Angelfish
Collin’s Angelfish

Magnificent Foxface
Bicolour Foxface
Common Foxface
One Spot Foxface

Some of these species need more research than others may so I’d recommend researching them all and seeing which ones you can accommodate for. I picked mostly easy species but the Leopard, Tamarin, Pencil wrasses all need more research than the ones above them. The last three angelfish need more research done, also another comment on the angelfish, only the swallowtail angelfish are meant to be totally reefsafe. Even some of the ones found near coral (In not so deep water) can be risky in a reef setting. Also the foxfaces will get rather large however, they don’t swim as much as a tang will. The biggest thing to watch out for is if you corner them or put pressure down on their spines, you will most likely be stung by venom. Dart fish, Gobies, Foxfaces, and Wrasses all NEED a lid otherwise they will jump.
Eviota, Trimma Gobies and SOME Clown gobies can be in groups. Trimma and Eviota prefer smaller groups of 3-5 in small tanks. In a 4’ tank you could potentially have several groups of different species. I have an article about Gobiidae and where they live in the wild compared to captivity so you may want to read through that.

I Don't need to respond since "I Don't Think" covered it all!

 

[i cant think]

I Don't need to respond since "I Don't Think" covered it all!

I love this haha

 

[Fasted]

All my kids and grandkids loved my puffer and cowfish. Cowfish is not a good choice for a newbie. A porcupine puffer is a great choice but it will get large and live over 20 years.