I can’t decide !

[Westoncase]

yeah not the ideal choice for a peaceful tank but good in a larger tank with a few bigger fish to keep em in check. I’ve never had one purely for that reason but every fish is different I guess!

Oops, i never saw the peaceful part. Ime I dont think they are too aggressive

 

[Aussiemarine]

Oops, i never saw the peaceful part. Ime I dont think they are too aggressive

Oh the poster never mentioned peaceful I just assumed as they wanted a bunch of small fish and most small fish are peaceful

 

[Sashaka]

I like to think levels when stocking a tank too. One or two bottom dwellers, a few fish who prefer picking a spot and hanging out in that spot most of the time, and free swimming, so that's how I'll make suggestions.

Bottom dweller: If you are adding a fine grained sandy bottom- definitely a diamond watchman goby. What it lacks in color, it more than makes up for in being a useful sand cleaner and an interesting fish to observe. The yellow watchman goby is also a good choice though it will not clean the sand anywhere near as well as the diamond watchman. If you like the looks of an eel but don't want the worries, the engineer goby is a great, peaceful choice. If you don't add a sandy substrate, then many of the non sand sifting gobies would work well.

Fish that like to pick a territory and generally hang out in that spot: The ever popular clown fish... just pick a color morph you like the looks of but stay away from the larger species such as the maroon clowns if you want a community tank as they can get very territorial. The Flame hawkfish is a good choice. It's kooky eye movements, bright color, and rock perching habits make it an interesting fish to watch. The royal gramma is also a colorful choice that likes to dart in and out of the rock work. Finally, the midas blenny is a cool fish to watch with their eel like swimming movements.These fish add a variety of shapes and colors to the tank

IMO, you can't beat a Kole tang for an active free swimming fish that is also a great algae eater. I would say a 50 gal would be the absolute smallest tank I would stock a small tang in. If you prefer the looks of angels though, some of the dwarf angels are beautiful and can do well in a 50 gallon tank too such as the flame and coral beauty. I would just stick to one tang and/or one angel to avoid fighting.

Fairy wrasses are often good top to mid level swimmers and the color varieties are near limitless.

In the end, it really depends on what you like to look at. If variety is not big on your list, a tank full of cardinals is cool too. I have a hope of someday setting up a tank with one sand sifter, one semi aggressive to encourage schooling and then getting a large number of red spot or blue eye cardinals for a schooling effect. I don't personally have experience with this type of tank, but I've read the trick to getting cardinals to school is to add the "threat" or semi aggressive fish to encourage the fish to group together for protection. I've also read that the more you can stock in the school, the better the schooling behaviors will be. If you go this way, please share pictures and experiences. I'd love to know how well the strategy really works to encourage schooling behaviors in the home aquarium. .

Good luck with your fish selection. There are so many choices!

 

[brad shawn]

For Blennies if you want more than one, stick to the smaller ones IMHO. tailspot, 2 spot, bicolor these should be mixable, at least singly . Others like Canary and midas.. Midas can get some size if I recall properly. Avoid the larger ones like sailfin, lawnmower etc. as they don't mix and tend to be ummm.. spastic.

Dottybacks singly (and see agressivness above), basslets, Small shrimp gobies are cool but no shrimp with the basslets or hawkfish.

Fairy wrasses and Flashers are nice but be sure the tank is well covered.

I have a 30 gallon AIO with a Tailspot, a BG chromis, a Katherines Fairy and a Solor Fairy wrasse and think I am going to add either a Hector's or a Rainford's goby. with a possible bicolor Blennie. Similar mix that you are looking at but with less room..

Good options thank you! Dotty back and hawkish I like but I’m thinking of a shrimp/goby pair so they may be out of the question....

 

[brad shawn]

Candy hogfish are cool but ive heard they could get kinda mean as they mature. Stays around 3 inches. Reef safe

They are beautiful fish though!

 

[brad shawn]

I like to think levels when stocking a tank too. One or two bottom dwellers, a few fish who prefer picking a spot and hanging out in that spot most of the time, and free swimming, so that's how I'll make suggestions.

Bottom dweller: If you are adding a fine grained sandy bottom- definitely a diamond watchman goby. What it lacks in color, it more than makes up for in being a useful sand cleaner and an interesting fish to observe. The yellow watchman goby is also a good choice though it will not clean the sand anywhere near as well as the diamond watchman. If you like the looks of an eel but don't want the worries, the engineer goby is a great, peaceful choice. If you don't add a sandy substrate, then many of the non sand sifting gobies would work well.

Fish that like to pick a territory and generally hang out in that spot: The ever popular clown fish... just pick a color morph you like the looks of but stay away from the larger species such as the maroon clowns if you want a community tank as they can get very territorial. The Flame hawkfish is a good choice. It's kooky eye movements, bright color, and rock perching habits make it an interesting fish to watch. The royal gramma is also a colorful choice that likes to dart in and out of the rock work. Finally, the midas blenny is a cool fish to watch with their eel like swimming movements.These fish add a variety of shapes and colors to the tank

IMO, you can't beat a Kole tang for an active free swimming fish that is also a great algae eater. I would say a 50 gal would be the absolute smallest tank I would stock a small tang in. If you prefer the looks of angels though, some of the dwarf angels are beautiful and can do well in a 50 gallon tank too such as the flame and coral beauty. I would just stick to one tang and/or one angel to avoid fighting.

Fairy wrasses are often good top to mid level swimmers and the color varieties are near limitless.

In the end, it really depends on what you like to look at. If variety is not big on your list, a tank full of cardinals is cool too. I have a hope of someday setting up a tank with one sand sifter, one semi aggressive to encourage schooling and then getting a large number of red spot or blue eye cardinals for a schooling effect. I don't personally have experience with this type of tank, but I've read the trick to getting cardinals to school is to add the "threat" or semi aggressive fish to encourage the fish to group together for protection. I've also read that the more you can stock in the school, the better the schooling behaviors will be. If you go this way, please share pictures and experiences. I'd love to know how well the strategy really works to encourage schooling behaviors in the home aquarium. .

Good luck with your fish selection. There are so many choices!

Great reply this will help bigly! Thank you for taking the time to write all that. I like the options you have suggested thank you ! One thing I’m not sold on is a pair of clownfish though. Seem to be hit or miss with some people. I know what happens when fish pair up and spawn. I’ve done enough of that if my cichlid days! Lol. Thanks again

 

[wcroft987]

I love a group of fire fish (purple or red) that hang out usually in the middle of the tank. We also like our springer damsels, they are pretty tame as far as damsels for and they also hang out around the tank and dart in and out of the rocks. They are all always fun to watch.

 

[brad shawn]

Thanks your guys a lot of good options here much appreciated! So far I settled on one fish went through QT was a yellow rose goby. He’s about a inch and half long and disappeared into the rock work I see him every few days. Ordered a randals shrimp goby. Still deciding what blenny to go with. And that’s as far as I got.

 

[brad shawn]

I passed up a coral beauty today at my LFS. I’m liking the looks of a geometric Pygmy hawkfish. May or may not go with a pair of perculas.

 

[saltyhog]

Get yourself a candy cane pistol shrimp for your goby...you won't regret it. For wrasses, any of the flasher wrasses would work except an eight line (P. octotaenia). For fairy wrasses C. isoscoles(pintail), C. lubbocki(Lubbocks) would be good choices. A couple of zebra barred gobies are very attractive and active swimmers.

One choice not mentioned would be a small group of barnacle blennies (panamic barnacle blennies are my favorite). They are incredibly fun to watch at feeding time and they have loads of personality. I have a video of mine in a pico tank I'll try to find.