- Assuming you don't want to spend a ton of money,
have a tank that's 40 gallons or under,
and you want a whole bunch of colorful fish,
that won't kill each other,
that's basically the goal, right?
(fun music)
Namaste, everybody, Matthew here, your BRS beginner guru,
coming at you with episode 31 in the beginner
how-to guide for salt water aquariums,
the ever popular top 10 beginner fish list.
We don't really mean beginner fish,
because there really aren't any beginner fish,
but we do mean the top 10 fish
that are probably best suited for a beginner.
If you're wondering how we came up with this list,
we imagined a typical beginner;
their skill set, the size of their tank,
and likely how much money they want to spend.
And we came up with a bunch of working assumptions.
The first assumption was that it was a brand new hobbyist
with limited to no experience with saltwater fish.
This beginner probably has a small tank,
40 gallons or under.
We assumed community, peaceful fish
are going to be better than aggressive fish.
And we made sure we went with fish
that aren't too expensive.
And of course we want fish that are safe for corals,
since most beginners will put corals in their tanks.
And lastly, we wanted fish
that will eat a diverse amount of food,
so it's relatively easy to feed them.
Before we jump in, be sure to stick around to the end,
because we're going to give you our recommended stock lists
for three different sized tanks.
That way you want it to figure out
how many of each fish to add,
but you can just follow a stock list, if you want,
and jump right in.
Let's start with a couple of broad categories
of generally good beginner fish,
and generally bad beginner fish.
Now, of course, there are going to be exceptions
to the rules and some of the good categories
should be in the bad and vice versa.
So go ahead and put a comment down below
and let us know what you would switch around.
Generally good beginner fish,
wait, I wrote this down, here we go.
gobies, cardinalfish, blennies, firefish, and clownfish.
A maximum of two.
Generally speaking, I think those five fish
are really good beginner fish.
Although there's going to be certain fish,
within each of those categories,
that might not be the best.
And then our generally bad beginner fish,
and I know there's a couple on here
that some people are going to disagree with,
but here's what I came up with.
Damsels,
anthias,
butterflyfish,
seahorses and pipe fish,
angelfish, and dragonetes.
And they're all bad for different reasons.
Damsels oftentimes are just way too aggressive,
and will go after other tank mates.
Now that being said, there are some great damsels out there
that will be fine in a beginner tank.
Then you have your anthias,
which do not acclimate well at all.
And they need to feed all day,
so unless you know how to feed them properly,
they're likely going to starve to death.
Butterflyfish, another one out there,
can be really picky eaters and like to graze all day.
So while the copperband butterfly's
probably the most beautiful fish out there
for an aquarium, don't buy it
because it will probably starve to death in a new tank.
Seahorses, pipe fish, those are just specialty fish.
They need different tanks.
I have a tank set up and going.
I have a chiller set up, the tank's set 72-73 degrees.
They're really prone to disease.
You can't have other aggressive fish in the tank.
They're just not a beginner fish at all.
Angelfish, while they are fantastic and gorgeous,
a lot of angelfish, if not, most or all angelfish,
will go after a lot of your corals.
So it's best just to avoid them
until you have a better sense of which angelfish
might be more or less reef safe.
And of course you have your Mandarin dragonetes.
If you were to get a captive-bred Mandarin dragonete,
you could probably have a lot more luck,
but dragonetes are finicky eaters,
and typically, especially the wild caught ones,
they only want to eat live copepod.
And if you've seen the size of a copepod,
they are so tiny, which means they need a ton of them
and they can wipe out a tank really quickly.
So generally a good idea to stay away from them.
Here we go, the top 10 beginner fish in alphabetical order,
more or less fish.
Number one is the Banggai or pajama cardinalfish.
Either the Banggai or the pajama cardinalfish
are fantastic, just slightly different colorations.
Their temperament is peaceful,
they are just great community fish.
They can get quite large up to three inches in size.
I think one to three in most beginner tanks under 40 gallons
is a good option, but in larger systems,
you can get a school of them,
which are really fun to watch.
Location, they're definitely water column base.
They don't move a whole lot,
they kind of stay there stationary,
so you can get a really good view of them.
Personality, I don't know what to call it,
other than they're just kind of lazy.
They just don't do a whole lot.
They're not going to interact with you a whole bunch,
but they'll move around during feeding.
Food, they're pretty much going to eat anything.
They are carnivores, so pellets, flakes, or frozen food.
Because they don't move around a lot,
feeding them twice a day is probably going to be just fine.
Then the lifespan, somewhere around three to five years,
and there are captive-bred options available,
and it's always a good idea to go with captive-bred fish.
Fish number two are chromis, and honestly,
I don't know why I put them on the list.
I bought so many rounds of chromis,
and until recently,
I didn't realize that I was feeding them incorrectly.
So they would come in,
and then they would just wind up dead one morning.
I would see them dead, or I'd buy a group of five and slowly
one would die, then the other would die.
So I just haven't had a whole bunch of luck with them.
But the main reason that are on the list
is because they're super colorful,
and if you get a good batch,
and you know how to feed them,
they can live for a really long time.
And they're crazy cheap.
I think my most recent batch of chromis,
right back here, I got for $6 a piece
and you just can't beat that price.
You're going to hear different names;
you're going to hear blue or green chromis,
they're basically the same thing.
They are a peaceful fish, although during feedings,
sometimes I'll see them chase each other.
They can get quite large in an established aquarium,
up to four inches in size.
They're also a really good schooling fish.
So in a small tank, 40 gallons or under,
somewhere around three to five would be a good number.
They are free swimmers
that like to hang out in the water column
and their personality,
I would call their personality skiddish or rather frantic.
They are darting all over the place at all times,
which means that they use a lot of energy.
So it's important to feed them foods
that are really high in fat.
Food-wise, they're carnivores,
and they're going to accept pellet food,
frozen food, or flake food.
You do need to make sure you feed them a lot.
Just a twice a day feeding's probably not going
to be good enough, so you're going to have to supplement
throughout the day with smaller foods,
especially when they're small,
that are really high in fat content.
And if you want to feed them some really small pellets,
it's probably a good idea to add some sort of fatty acids
to that, which we'll talk about in a later video.
Lifespan wise, well, it can be two weeks
or literally they can live eight to 15 years,
in an aquarium, if you know how to take care of them well.
And honestly, I haven't seen any captive-bred options
available, but there could be some out there,
so keep your eye open.
Beginner fish number three is the ever popular clownfish.
You're going to see him by all sorts of names,
and there's all sorts of species out there,
but we're talking about your ocellaris, your false percula,
which is an ocellaris and a percula clownfish.
When it comes to ocellaris clownfish,
they have been bred captively, successfully, for many years,
and there are all sorts of designer breeds out there.
So just don't be confused when you see all these fancy
names, they're still just ocellaris clownfish.
Temperament, they are semi aggressive.
Typically what I see, they are peaceful
towards other tank mates that aren't clownfish,
but they will go after each other.
So you can only keep them in one or two,
and sometimes when you put two in a tank,
they just don't get along
and you're going to have to move one.
They can get up to three inches in size,
so when you buy those little babies
at your local fish store, they can get a lot bigger.
Numbers wise, definitely one to two.
If you do get two, it's best if they're a mated in pair.
And if they're not a mated pair,
if you get to that one is larger and one is smaller.
Typically the larger one either is a female,
or will become a female,
and the smaller one will be the male.
Location wise, they're going to pick a spot in your tank,
and it can be something really random.
Maybe they'll pick an anemone,
maybe they'll pick a wave maker.
More often than not, they choose a corner of the tank
and then they protect it two feet in any direction.
Personality wise, they're fantastic.
Clownfish have really fun personalities,
and do a lot of interesting things in the tank.
Especially when interacting with each other.
Obviously, they're probably best known
for interacting with anemones.
They don't need anemones to survive and to thrive,
but it's really cool, if you can pick up some anemones,
and they finally host.
I've had clownfish that have refused to host an anemone
for a year and then all of a sudden start to.
Clownfish are also known to set up a hosting relationship
with other corals as well.
Food wise, they're carnivores. They are not picky eaters.
You can feed them pretty much anything.
And as long as it's small enough, they'll eat it.
Lifespan, honestly, I have seen these survive five years
to 25 years. There are people who have had
their clownfish for two decades, which is crazy.
So if you take good care of them,
they can live for a really long time.
Are there captive-bred options? Absolutely.
And honestly, I wouldn't even buy a live caught option.
There are so many good captive-bred options out there,
in so many cool colorations,
that you can just go crazy and get a clownfish
that looks super cool for your tank.
Beginner fish number four is the clown goby.
And you can go with a yellow, a gold, or a brown clown goby.
You'll see these by different names, yellow gobies,
green gobies, the citron goby, or the citrinus goby.
They're all from the same family.
Clown gobies are given that name
because they look like clownfish,
but they're definitely gobies.
They're super peaceful fish.
They can grow up to two inches in size
and I would probably only get one of them per tank,
but you could pick up two, if they're a mated pair.
Location, they are perchers.
They like to perch on your rock work,
and you'll often find them perched on your zoas
or your soft corals as well.
Food wise, they're not picky eaters.
They're carnivores, they're going to go with frozen foods,
flake foods, pellet foods,
whatever you're going to put in the tank.
Lifespan. Honestly, there's just not a lot good intel
out there, but we guess they live somewhere between
five and 10 years in captivity.
Captive-bred? I've never seen them captive-bred.
If somebody is captive breeding them,
put comment down below and let me know where they are,
because I'd love to see it.
Beginner fish number five are actually two.
We're going to call it the flame hawkfish,
and the longnose hawkfish.
You'll also see that flame hawkfish
oftentimes called the brilliant hawkfish.
Temperament wise, they're generally peaceful fish.
And I have both the flame and the longnose hawkfish,
and I've never seen them go after another fish,
but they will go after certain snails and crabs.
So you just have to watch that
and make sure they're well fed.
And if they do go after those things,
you either have to remove them
or you're just going to have to restock your tank
with clean-up crew members.
Size wise, they're very different shapes.
The flame being much more round
and the longnose being skinny.
They can get quite big though,
I'd say four to five inches in length.
How many of these should you have in the tank? Just one.
Now, honestly, in my harem tank back here,
I do have a flame and a longnose,
and they seem to get along fine.
So you could possibly mix and match between the species,
but definitely only one of each type.
Location. Well, hawkfish don't have swim ladders,
so they swim up for the food and then they just slowly sink.
They are some of the most personable fish out there.
They are fun to watch,
they'll just stare at you all the time. They're not shy.
They like to perch on the rock work, on the sand bed.
Really, they'll perch on anything.
And they probably have some of the best personalities
of any fish out there. Food, they're carnivores.
If they go after your shrimp and your snails,
or your hermit crabs, they're definitely carnivores.
Mine are not picky eaters,
they will eat anything I put in front of them.
Lifespan. Typically the flame hawkfish lives longer,
I'd say five to 10 years. With a longnose hawkfish
being a little less, maybe five to seven years.
Captive-bred? Again, I haven't seen it.
If you know of any captive-bred,
put a comment down below. I'd love to see them.
Well, everybody, I don't know what my problem is,
but we are already approaching minute 11 in this video,
which is way too long. (laughs)
So we're going to have to break this up into two,
so stick around for episode 31 B, we'll call it.
Where we're going to do the remaining five
in the top 10 list, but also the recommended stock guides
for the 20, the 30, and the 40 gallon.
As always, everybody, thank you for watching.
Happy reefing, be well. We'll see you next time.
(jaunty music)