Time to Start Thinking About Fish for 24g

[LateNightReefer]

Hi all!

While my partner and I are taking it pretty slow, it’ll soon be time to start thinking about fish. Our tank is cycled and we added our first corals today (yippie!). We want to keep an eye on parameters and achieve stabilization before moving to fish. And, while some sort of clean-up crew will likely be next, we would like to start putting fish in the back of our mind.

Our tank is essentially an 18x18x18 24g cube with a 7g sump. 20lbs of live rock or so. A few corals so far that will undoubtably turn into more (softie/lps, if that matters). We know we’d like to do a pair of clownfish -after all, who doesn’t like the idea of clowns in their first reef tank ha! We loved the dwarf angels, but hear they like a larger tank. We also toyed with firefish and/or royal gramma... But, now being apart of this helpful, knowledgeable, and experienced community, we want to reach out to the experts and ask: Any recommendations to start researching? Any we haven’t thought of -or thoughts on firefish or grammas- or any that have “wowed” you in your experience that can go in a tank our size? And, finally, just how many fish we looking at (coming from the overstocked cichlid world, we know that, with saltwater, it’s probably going to be around 3 maybe 4, right)? Any specific recommendations or thoughts for us to look into over the next few weeks?

Thanks in advance for your guidance!!!

 

[welsher7]

I’d do the pair of clowns, a firefish and then maybe a shrimp/goby pair, assuming you have sand and some kind of lid/cover for the tank.

 

[ngoodermuth]

I like royal grammas, I had one in my first tank and the colors really pop. Only downfall was he was pretty shy at first, so I didn’t see it much besides feeding time. But, he got more brave as time went on...

A clown, a gramma, a yellow-lined cardinal, and a yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp were my first nano tank-mates

 

[ngoodermuth]

Some other options you may not have thought of: yellow assessor basslet, swales basslet, chalk bass, pygmy wrasse, and rainsford goby.

 

[Teemingtank]

Neon gobies are kinda neat! They stay relatively small and might even clean your other fish, I don’t think they will pair with shrimp though.

 

[Jesterrace]

Personally I feel that basslets need more horizontal swimming room than an 18 inch cube can provide. Add in clowns staking out a portion of that space and it doesn't give a ton of room.

Firefish can work but they are easily bullied/skittish.

Among my recommendations outside of clownfish:

PJ Cardinal
Possum or Pinkstreaked Wrasse
Small Gobies
Small Blennies

Possibly a Geometric pygmy hawkfish but you want avoid really small fish and shrimp withit in the tank.