Rare/special fish for a nano... anyones input appreciated

[jacksprat]

Just thought it would be nice as lots of us are new to nano reefing and experience shows alot about whther fish are ok in small tanks.

Anyone got any nice fish, be it colours or just rare. Everyone has the obvious clowns and gobies etc come on people you must know some special little guys.

TIA

[Elliott89]

Theres many rare and expensive small fish!

Helfrichi Firefish: Stunning but very expensive

Yashia Hasa Goby:Rare but beautifull,its even better if u can get when paired with a randalls pistol shrimp

Swissguard Basslet:Nice small fish,quite expensive and very secretive

Wetmorrella Wrasses:I love these fish,they are not often available but there very unusual and they look really cute

Black Cap Gramma:Not that rare but they are expensive and they add a real splash of colour to a small tank

HTH

Elliott

[zimreef]

Black Cap Gramma:Not that rare

Not that rare and not that small either - can grow to 5" so not a fish for your nano tank by any stretch.

However, any one of the several species of Stonogobiops are a very good choice IMO.

One of the 3 or 4 species of firefish OKish depending on size of tank but probably wouldn't keep them in anything smaller than say 30 gallons (mainly 'cause I have one in a 35 gallon and reckon that's small enough really).

There are lots of small fish appearing in the trade - Trimma sp gobies and Eviota sp at a couple of centimetres each are ideal.

Swissguard basslets and several of the same family e.g. Swales basslet, are not often seen so are unusual and often nicely coloured if a little secretive. They do appear a little more once they get their confidence in the tank.

Wetmorellas are occasionally available - unusual looking fish.

HTH

John

[Roshan]

I've got a 30g cube including small sump. I have a couple of nice fish in there at the moment:-

Black Cap Gramma
Swissguard basslet

Both the above are usually quite secretive fish - whicj is what I like but I'm finding they are both quite bold and regularly out in the open. The swissguard looks amazing - its coloured up so much since I got him (only 2weeks ago!) I'd been waiting for some time for the swissguard and just like buses all of sudden they all arrive close together - the black cap I mananged to get a few weeks earlier.

I too like the wet morella - but given a choice between the two I got and the wet morella - well for me the wet morella loses on impact. Nice little fish though and I may still get one in time - I see these quite regularly in my area. Oh, in addition to the two above fish I have a small yellow coral goby and an electric blue damsel.

Roshan

[KeithM]

Trimma gobies... stunning. not regularly available here but STM had some at the meet.

[ThomJ]

Trimma gobies... stunning. not regularly available here but STM had some at the meet.

Must agree lovely little fish, perfect for nano's. I used to have a pair of dwarf blue stripped pipefish in my old 12gallon nano set-up. Nice and easy to feed, they greedily accepted any frozen food.

Tomhttp://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

[KeithM]

its a shame they don't live that long! same with eviota gobies

[fras]

My LFS had a swissguard basslet in the other week, I was quite unimpressed it didn't look any nicer than alot of fish that were less than 1/4 the price. I get the feeling they cost alot due to availibility rather than beauty. Helfrichi firefish are lovely looking but not that much nicer than the purple (not considering the price difference anyway).

I know nothing is meant by it but I don't really like the fascination with rare animals, they're probably rare in alot of cases because they're rare in the wild. It's not even like rare corals where you might use propagation as an excuse - there are plenty of commonly avail fish that are stunning.

Anyway that's not aimed at anyone in particular, just a rant. My vote would go with one of the small gobies.