Top 10 Saltwater Fish for Beginners with Extra Awesome Advice
Top 10 saltwater fish for beginners. The incredible diversity of species making their way into retailers’ tanks can be overwhelming at times for a beginner. Here is a list of the easiest saltwater fish to keep:
Ocellaris clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
Maximum Length: 8.9 cm – 3.5 in.
Native Range: Indo-West Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 38 L – 10 gal.
Overview: Very well-known for its role in the movie “Finding Nemo”, this endearing little fish is a welcome addition to more peaceful community settings for small and large tanks.
Feeding: Omnivore. Feed meaty and algae-based foods at least twice a day. Color-enhancing foods can help it maintain its bright colors.
Compatibility: One of the more passive clownfishes. Best to keep in pairs. They rarely bother other clownfish. Harmless towards non-related fishes and invertebrates.
Safe for all corals.
Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni)
Maximum Length: 7.6 cm – 3 in.
Native Range: Indonesia
Minimum Aquarium Size: 114 L – 30 gal.
Overview: A remarkable fish that has decorative finnage, and a striking color pattern. They are more easily raised in the home aquarium. They may also live in certain sea anemones in the aquarium.
Feeding: Carnivore. Feed meaty foods at least twice a day.
Compatibility: They are rarely quarrelsome towards fish tankmates and invertebrates. However, adults will fight with each other, sometimes to the death. If you add a group, two individuals will usually pair up and begin picking on others in the group. Try to select only captive-raised ones.
Completely reef safe.
Firefish Goby (Nemateleotris magnifica)
Maximum Length: 7.9 cm – 3.1 in.
Native Range: Indo-Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 38 L – 10 gal.
Overview: Although timid in the presence of large and aggressive tankmates, they are durable, attractive fish that can be kept in smaller aquariums, and are perfect for a peaceful reef tank.
Feeding: Carnivore. Feed meaty foods, such as enriched brine shrimp and mysid shrimp, at least once a day.
Compatibility: They will quarrel with members of their own kind but passive toward most other species. Therefore, only keep one or a pair in the same tank. Firefishes are skilled jumpers, therefore only keep in a covered aquarium.
Completely reef safe.
Yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens)
Maximum Length: 20 cm – 7.9 in.
Native Range: Central and South Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 285 L – 75 gal.
Overview: A marine aquarium classic, brilliant yellow and stunning. They help to keep certain types of troublesome algae in check.
Feeding: Herbivore. Feed algae-based foods at least three times a day, as well as freeze-dried algae flakes or nori.
Compatibility: They can be cranky toward other herbivores in crowded confines. Only keep one in a tank unless the aquarium is large.
Rarely a threat to clams and corals.
Yellow clown goby (Gobiodon okinawae)
Maximum Length: 3.6 cm – 1.4 in.
Native Range: West Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 38 L – 10 gal.
Overview: They always live and breed within branching stony coral colonies.
Feeding: Carnivore. Feed meaty foods at least once a day.
Compatibility: A mellow fish that will ignore other species with the exception of other gobies that try to invade its coral home. You can keep more than one in the same tank if there are enough suitable hiding places.
Generally considered to be reef safe. They may clear some polyps from a stony branch to use as a site to lay their eggs.
Bicolor Blenny (Ecsenius bicolor)
Maximum Length: 10 cm – 4 in.
Native Range: Indo-Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 76 L – 20 gal.
Overview: A comical fish that has lots of character. An excellent, easy-to-keep community species.
Feeding: Herbivore. Feed frozen and flake foods containing marine algae and spirulina at least once a day.
Compatibility: Rarely aggressive towards other fishes, with the exception of other blennies. Keep single unless the tank is large.
Generally safe in a reef tank, but may nip at clam mantles and coral polyps.
Royal gramma (Gramma loreto) Saltwater Fish
Maximum Length: 7.9 cm – 3.1 in.
Native Range: Tropical West Atlantic, Caribbean
Minimum Aquarium Size: 57 L – 15 gal.
Overview: Easy-to-keep, fun-to-watch, cave-dwelling species that is much loved for its brilliant colors and relative passive disposition.
Feeding: Carnivore. Feed meaty foods at least once a day.
Compatibility: Not usually aggressive toward other species, it may fight with its own kind or other Gramma species.
Completely reef safe.
Chalk bass (Serranus tortugarum) Saltwater Fish
Maximum Length: 8 cm – 3.1 in.
Native Range: Florida and the Caribbean
Minimum Aquarium Size: 76 L – 20 gal.
Overview: A pretty little bass with brilliant color highlights is a passive plankton feeder.
Feeding: Carnivore. Feed meaty foods such as enriched adult brine shrimp or mysid shrimp twice a day.
Compatibility: It is best kept in small groups in the aquarium.
Generally considered to be reef safe.
Golden wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus)
Maximum Length: 12 cm – 4.7 in.
Native Range: Indo-West Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 114 L – 30 gal.
Overview: A brilliant garbed wrasse that remains relatively small and readily acclimates to captivity. It can be kept in groups.
Feeding: Carnivore. Feed meaty foods, twice a day.
Compatibility: A very mellow species that rarely, if ever, behave aggressively towards tankmates. They are not a threat to most invertebrates with the exception of shrimps.
Completely reef safe.
Blue-green Chromis (Chromis viridis)
Maximum Length: 10 cm – 3.9 in.
Native Range: Indo-West Pacific
Minimum Aquarium Size: 114 L – 30 gal.
Overview: A shoal of these attractive, unaggressive fishes can add color and movement to the aquarium.
Feeding: Omnivore. Feed a variety of meaty and algae-based foods at least twice a day.
Compatibility: Should be housed in groups.
May help corals by swimming among their branches, encouraging circulation within the coral colony.
All photos courtesy: of Wikipedia
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