Looking for a smaller colorful fish that has a lot of movement

[badstorm48]

Just like the title says I'm looking for a smaller colorful fish that has a lot of movement in my reef tank. I also want to have them in a group of say 3 to 5. My tank is a 70 gallon tank with a Christmas wrasse, tribal blenny, ocellaris clown, mystery wrasse, and a hi hat goby, oh and I have a declivis butterfly on the way. Just want a small group of fish that can provide movement in the tank. I looked at green chromis, but read that they kill each other off and you end up with like 2. Anthias I tried a few, but they ended up dying off from I think not getting enough food unfortunately. I feed once daily, though could feed 2 times daily a few times a week. Chromis and damsels I really want to avoid because I have seen and heard about them being very aggressive and I have a peaceful tank.

 

[vic5hands]

Stay away from Dotty Backs

 

[badstorm48]

I learned my lesson with them lol will never own one again after what he did

 

[BoneXriffic]

Fire fish? Some pretty colors...they stay stationary at night but move during day...as i found after my shark ate 3 of the 4 i have

 

[Zack K]

Blue reef chromis are okay if kept in 4+ numbers.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Springeri, talbots, and azures are all pretty mellow damsels.

Zebra and scissortail dartfish are peaceful and appropriate for that size tank.

 

[Flatlandreefer]

Divers den has groupes of glass cardinals fairly regularly. I think they would be neat but some people say they can be hard to keep so they would require a little bit of research. I have heard a lot of the issue was due to collection methods but I'm not toatally sure.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Divers den has groupes of glass cardinals fairly regularly. I think they would be neat but some people say they can be hard to keep so they would require a little bit of research. I have heard a lot of the issue was due to collection methods but I'm not toatally sure.

View attachment 497884

The issuea with these is that they need to be fed frequently. If they aren't they die off pretty quickly.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

Pajama/ bangaii/ orange line cardinals tend to school up, I also like scissortail gobies as @eatbreakfast reccomended.
You could always get another similar clown and try to get them to pair up (get one slightly smaller in size than the rest of the bunch wherever your getting them from to avoid getting a female)

Chromis don't tend to kill each other off unless they're not being fed well... damsels are generally more aggressive so I'd stay with chromis, but you can certainly do a small group of those guys!
You could also look into getting a solo tang: yellow/scopas/ kole/ bristletooth... those guys swim around quite a bit!

 

[badstorm48]

I'm sort of thinking of doing either 5 green chromis or a Whitetail bristletooth tang. What do y'all think?

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

The white tails are one of the largest bristletooths... I'd go with a kole/ 2 spot/ square tail/ yellow/
tomini <-- fav

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Just like the title says I'm looking for a smaller colorful fish that has a lot of movement in my reef tank. I also want to have them in a group of say 3 to 5. My tank is a 70 gallon tank with a Christmas wrasse, tribal blenny, ocellaris clown, mystery wrasse, and a hi hat goby, oh and I have a declivis butterfly on the way. Just want a small group of fish that can provide movement in the tank. I looked at green chromis, but read that they kill each other off and you end up with like 2. Anthias I tried a few, but they ended up dying off from I think not getting enough food unfortunately. I feed once daily, though could feed 2 times daily a few times a week. Chromis and damsels I really want to avoid because I have seen and heard about them being very aggressive and I have a peaceful tank.

Hey badstorm48,

What about yellow tang?
What ideas do you have?

Zhenya

 

[Larry L]

Springeri, talbots, and azures are all pretty mellow damsels.

Agree - I have Talbots damsels (Chrysiptera talboti), azure damsels (Chrysiptera hemicyanea aka Kupang damsels), and black bar Chromis (Chromis retrofasciata). As long as you have a few and take some care when you introduce them, they keep themselves busy and provide a lot of movement and color in the tank.

 

[Baldguy]

I recently got five Springeri damsels. No aggression at all. For a nice blue I'd go with them over Chromis.

 

[badstorm48]

That's good to know about the white tail bristle tooth. Only reason I mentioned it is because live aquaria says 70 gallons is good enough and they only get to 6.5in. Everything I heard with damsels and chromis is that they are either aggressive or if you try to keep a group they kill eachother off until there is only like 2 left. I'm going to get the blue/green chromis. After what many of y'all are saying I'll give it a try. I really like the blue/green chromis just because I like the subtle blue and green color they have its really nice to me. How many do y'all think I should get? I was think 5 or 6 maybe?

 

[Zack K]

That's good to know about the white tail bristle tooth. Only reason I mentioned it is because live aquaria says 70 gallons is good enough and they only get to 6.5in. Everything I heard with damsels and chromis is that they are either aggressive or if you try to keep a group they kill eachother off until there is only like 2 left. I'm going to get the blue/green chromis. After what many of y'all are saying I'll give it a try. I really like the blue/green chromis just because I like the subtle blue and green color they have its really nice to me. How many do y'all think I should get? I was think 5 or 6 maybe?

Minimum 4 but the more the merrier [emoji1360]

 

[reefwiser]

One of my favorite small fishes is the diadema dottyback[ pseudochromis diadema]
They are always out in the water column and are very hardy fish.

 

[Larry L]

Everything I heard with damsels and chromis is that they are either aggressive or if you try to keep a group they kill eachother off

Have to be careful about generalizations, it totally depends on which damsels or chromis you're talking about. My Kupang damsels are such wimps everybody in the tank chases them from time to time.