New Tankmate Ideas? McKosker Wrasse?

jshaw1980 · May 27, 2015

@3fordfamily - How are your pygmys around coral? liveaquaria.com has them listed as Reef Compatible: With Caution

4FordFamily · May 27, 2015

jshaw1980 said:
@3fordfamily - How are your pygmys around coral? liveaquaria.com has them listed as Reef Compatible: With Caution

Mine is in qt without coral present. They are said to be the "safest" of Pygmy Angels based on verbiage on live aquaria and some minor forum searching.

jshaw1980 · May 28, 2015

@3fordfamily - I've also read that the cherub is suppose to be more aggressive than the flameback. Think I'm going to get the cherub, just not too sure how my 2 territorial clowns (mostly the female) are going to handle it..

eatbreakfast · May 28, 2015

Cherubs are a little more aggressive, but its not terrible. The clowns and the angel should be fine.

jshaw1980 · May 28, 2015

@eatbreakfast - I've read pygmys tend to ignore all the other fish and just go about their own business, is this accurate? I don't want this new guy messing w/ my mandarin

eatbreakfast · May 28, 2015

He shouldn't mess with the mandarin. Cherub aggression is usually directed at fish that swim at a similar level in the water column and take refuge in the rocks. A mandarin stays at the bttom and has an extra thick mucus that other fish generally don't like to bite.

jshaw1980 · May 28, 2015

@eatbreakfast - Sounds awesome, thanks again for all your help!! I ordered one from my LFS and should have next week, I will post some updates once they're available!

jshaw1980 · Jun 8, 2015

**UPDATE TIME, WOOHOO!!** Well to say the least, complete disaster.. 2 minutes after releasing my 1inch long cherub angel into the tank, my 3-3.5 inch female clown was ticked off and chasing him around. The clown bit of half of his rear tail. I got the cherub angel out and its currently in my Deep Blue cube (only 7.5 gallons..). I'm thinking of returning the female clown and getting a new clown and introducing the new clown and the cherub into my Biocube 29 at the same time. Does this sound like a good idea? How long can I keep the cherub angel in my 7.5 gallon (tankmate: one small clown)?

SantaMonicaHelp · Jun 9, 2015

Hawk fish are super cool. Ours has a really awesome personality.

~CI

4FordFamily · Jun 9, 2015

jshaw1980 said:
**UPDATE TIME, WOOHOO!!** Well to say the least, complete disaster.. 2 minutes after releasing my 1inch long cherub angel into the tank, my 3-3.5 inch female clown was ****** off and chasing him around. The clown bit of half of his rear tail. I got the cherub angel out and its currently in my Deep Blue cube (only 7.5 gallons..). I'm thinking of returning the female clown and getting a new clown and introducing the new clown and the cherub into my Biocube 29 at the same time. Does this sound like a good idea? How long can I keep the cherub angel in my 7.5 gallon (tankmate: one small clown)?

I don't like clowns much, but that plan could work

jshaw1980 · Jun 9, 2015

@3FordFamily - I'm beginning to have the same feeling towards clowns!! Lol

Wills Gills · Sep 14, 2015

eatbreakfast said:
A hawkfish will not compete with a mandarin for pods. Stick with a smaller species if you decide to go with the helfrich firefish.

Zebra dartfish are an excellent aquarium choice, hardu and peaceful. They do well singly or in groups. They are jumpers.

A pygmy angel would be fine, but may pick at the helfrich if you get one. I had a pygmy cherub that had a group of cardinals balled up in the middle of the tank as if it were a sheepdog and they were sheep.

I agree about the Cherub Angel! They are a great showpiece.

Wrassesngobies · Sep 19, 2015

Clowns are all different. Some are docile and great tankmates. Others are complete ******s. I've experienced both ends of the spectrum, in ocellaris and percula. I have a platinum in my 90 Wrasse dominated tank and he is goofy as hell (he loves to sleep on top of the acclimation chamber when we introduce new wrasses), and I have a black ocellaris in my 55 and she has periodic bouts of attacking my hands when they even get close to the water, but not always. Sometimes she will cross the 4 feet just to bite me, just for spite.

On firefish, I have had helfrich's and normal firefish, and I disagree that firefish are just common fish. They might be, but they do add something to the tank that other fish don't. Tons of personality, weird twitches and great colors for the tank which can be hard to find elsewhere.

To the wrasse question, we had a Cryptic Six lined or Pink Streaked Wrasse (Pseudocheilinops ataenia) http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1378+2908&pcatid=2908 in nano sized tanks for over a year, and he was cryptic, but I did see it quite often. A model fish for a nano tank.

Zac