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You are here: Home / Company News / Supporting Marine Education / Top Ten Best Community Fish

Top Ten Best Community Fish

by greg.chernoff

Keeping a reef aquarium full of community fish in school is a great project.  Like any project you get into, a little research goes along way.  We have 5 reef tanks in our classroom and we are thinking about adding a sixth tank.  I have compiled 10 community fish to add to a reef tank that will be easy to establish to your tank.  This is Romans top 10 favorites for a reef tank.

  1. The Firefish Loves to be a Community Fish

    these are such a great addition to your tank one of the most docile community fish you can own. The way the white transfers to red and blends is absolutely beautiful. These fish are so non-aggressive its unreal, when I put more snails and hermit crabs into my tank and he went and hid for at least two days. This may worry you however when adding fish to your tank they get scared and hide for sometimes up to a couple weeks don’t worry they are just hiding and should come back out, mine did it too!

  1. Watchman Goby

    The watchman goby is a very colorful community fish many of them have small intricate dots that are beautiful when looking closely. Some of them are plain as well there are many different colors that can vary upon your choice. The coolest part about this fish is its symbiosis with the pistol shrimp. The pistol shrimp has bad eyesight and depends on the goby for protection, in return the pistol shrimp digs intricate holes dens even for the goby to rest in since the dwell in the sand. The pistol shrimp are beautiful as well with red and white stripes.

  1. Tangs

    Tangs are a great fish for any saltwater tank, most of them are pretty docile. And they are great maintenance fish they LOVE algae they will eat the algae off of your rocks and will clear your coral of any pests or micro organisms. They come in various colors so many its insane you may know one as Casper he is a white tang belonging to World Wide Corals, my favorites are the powder brown and powder blue tangs.

[CFish]

  1. Clown Goby: A great Community Fish                              

 All though these fish are calm and peaceful they still carry some great colors! The yellow clown goby could be a solid bright yellow while the other could perhaps be a citrus green and red striped clown goby. However when being that size there are some problems they can hide in small places where you can’t see them for sometime. But they will add great diversity to your tank.

  1. Wrasse                                                      

 Many wrasse start out small and grow large, but some grow to the size of your tank. These fish have many patterns with very bright colors. This is the best part about them they tend to have very small shapes in large groups with bright colors when focused on fully show their beauty. Fun Fact is majority of these wrasse tend to hide in the sand to escape predators at night so do be afraid if you don’t see them sometimes.

  1. Clownfish                                                             

   Now this is probably one of the most well known fish being from the movie Finding Nemo, they come in so many shapes and sizes you wouldn’t even imagine the colors that can be produced. But these clowns are semi aggressive fish with the maroons being more aggressive than the rest. Clowns actually believe it or not can change gender based on dominance, which entitles them as a semi aggressive fish. Between each other the clowns may lip lock or pick at each other often until a size difference is obvious. That will be the more dominant clown which will be the female the male will become the smaller one. Now there should be no need to remove a fish unless there is ripping of the fins or high aggression to other tank mates. In my tank my clowns only pick at each other and have never touched my fire fish or my watchman goby even once.

  1. Cardinal fish                               

 While being not very colorful with browns blacks and whites these fish are very docile and personable species. They come in two very known types the banggai and the pajama cardinal. The pajama cardinal are known to have a brown dotted back half of the body with white fins while the front half has a dull yellow with a big red eye, but my favorite the banggai cardinal has black and white stripes with white dots absolutely stunning.

  1. Blennies                                                              

The blennies are sort of like a goby bottom dwelling and kind of swim then relax community fish. However most of them aren’t that bright. Don’t get me wrong they love grass and algae and are great companions to your tank. Most of them have weird shaped fins and patterns made to look like things in their environment such as the sailfin blenny. But some out of no where are absolutely beautiful with large and small dorsal fins, spotted dots, or dark and light array of bright colors such as the tessellated blennies and the gulf signal blenny.

  1. Dwarf angelfish

      These fish are very beautiful fish the most known of these is the flame angel. These are a deep orange fish with blue backfins and black stripes. However this species tend to be very expensive though with the flame angel being about 75$. However some can be as low as 15 dollars. Think of them as a small tang however some of them may find a taste for coral and may eat some of it or go on a frenzy. If so you will have to remove your fish when you start to realize it. But I believe it’s worth the risk.

  1.  Dottybacks as Community Fish

Dottybacks are amazing fish.  They come in all different colors.   They possess a strong attitude and strong personality.  Dottybacks tend to be a more dominant fish and should be one of the last fish added to your reef.  They have been known to dominate fish twice their size. They will cost you from $20 – $50.
[CFish]

By Roman Panarello
A student in Garnet Valley  (in their aquarium program)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. ktompkins says

    October 25, 2019 at 4:37 am

    I always wanted to be a marine biologist. I was told I wouldn’t be able to get a job. I wish someone had not squashed my dreams.

    Reply
    • Timothy Shaner says

      October 29, 2019 at 2:24 pm

      it’s definitely a hard field to get into 🙁

      Reply
      • omarsdp says

        November 3, 2019 at 4:29 am

        Love the info

        Reply
  2. Christopher Burns says

    October 25, 2019 at 6:15 am

    Nice list

    Reply
    • Paul Worley says

      October 25, 2019 at 6:00 pm

      I have all of these fish in my aquarium

      Reply
    • milesrichardpatterson says

      October 28, 2019 at 7:20 pm

      I agree nice list I would add that some wrasse don’t play nice sometimes like a 6 line

      Reply
  3. SwiftNova . says

    October 25, 2019 at 7:36 am

    Very Interesting!

    Reply
  4. Brett says

    October 25, 2019 at 7:56 am

    solid info!

    Reply
  5. Jose says

    October 25, 2019 at 9:18 am

    Love dottybacks but learned my lesson, I added it as one of first fish which turned out to be a big mistake. I lost several fish due to aggression.

    Reply
  6. Bob Banrie says

    October 25, 2019 at 9:21 am

    Very nice!

    Reply
  7. Bob Banrie says

    October 25, 2019 at 9:22 am

    So cool!!

    Reply
    • Jizu Puentes says

      October 28, 2019 at 11:46 am

      I’d remove the clown goby from the list honestly because of their high death rate. So many people fail but keep trying because of a few people succeeding. Definitely don’t get one if you care about your acros or montis

      Reply
  8. barniebob says

    October 25, 2019 at 9:41 am

    Very nice to see the young working on this!

    Reply
  9. polygonreef says

    October 25, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    Super duper cool!

    Reply
  10. polygonreef says

    October 25, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    Super duper cool!

    Reply
  11. LIZ DAVID says

    October 25, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    Really neat!

    Reply
  12. Synna says

    October 25, 2019 at 4:36 pm

    Good job!

    Reply
  13. Liesle says

    October 25, 2019 at 4:42 pm

    Good information!

    Reply
  14. Jason Beguhn says

    October 25, 2019 at 4:58 pm

    Great fish choices

    Reply
  15. Jeffrey Lutz says

    October 25, 2019 at 6:41 pm

    Love the info

    Reply
  16. Curtis says

    October 26, 2019 at 1:50 am

    Well done

    Reply
  17. casey moffett says

    October 26, 2019 at 8:50 am

    Thanks for creating this list

    Reply
  18. ignoandfrigi says

    October 26, 2019 at 9:19 am

    Great list, I want to eventually get some more of these great fish to add to my own community set up.

    Reply
  19. Laurie Gilley says

    October 26, 2019 at 10:12 am

    That’s a very nice list! I disagree about dottybacks though. They are highly aggressive in my experience and do not belong in a community.

    Reply
  20. seitzjh says

    October 26, 2019 at 12:41 pm

    This is excellent. The organization that I’m apart of, does this in South Florida. Reef Institute

    Reply
  21. Jordan Hernandez says

    October 27, 2019 at 12:27 am

    Good post to learn from

    Reply
  22. Jennifer Lutz says

    October 28, 2019 at 2:52 am

    Very awesome idea

    Reply
  23. Cody Gruber says

    October 28, 2019 at 2:48 pm

    Commented

    Reply
  24. Phamousreef says

    October 28, 2019 at 2:58 pm

    Well describes

    Reply
    • Tian Sorg says

      October 28, 2019 at 6:57 pm

      Nice!

      Reply
  25. Paul Kachirsky says

    October 28, 2019 at 3:15 pm

    awesome selection

    Reply
  26. Daniel Shyer says

    October 28, 2019 at 4:30 pm

    awesome!

    Reply
  27. Liz Lynn says

    October 28, 2019 at 4:48 pm

    Informative blog

    Reply
  28. Liz lynn says

    October 28, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    Nice blog

    Reply
  29. Liz lynn says

    October 28, 2019 at 4:50 pm

    Enjoyed this blog

    Reply
  30. Jonathan says

    October 28, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    Awesome!

    Reply
  31. Jonathan says

    October 28, 2019 at 5:12 pm

    Awesome! Thanks!

    Reply
  32. Synna says

    October 28, 2019 at 5:13 pm

    Very good!

    Reply
  33. Chuck miller says

    October 28, 2019 at 6:24 pm

    Great idea to do and have in school

    Reply
  34. Kyle says

    October 28, 2019 at 7:41 pm

    Nice list!

    Reply
  35. VP says

    October 28, 2019 at 7:43 pm

    Nice list!

    Reply
  36. Valerie says

    October 28, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    Nice list!!

    Reply
  37. robert vice says

    October 28, 2019 at 8:42 pm

    I agree especially the biota dwarf goby

    Reply
  38. robert vice says

    October 28, 2019 at 8:42 pm

    love the biota dwarf goby

    Reply
  39. robert vice says

    October 28, 2019 at 8:42 pm

    good info to have

    Reply
  40. Nicholas Nevins says

    October 28, 2019 at 9:16 pm

    Im excited to get my tank done cyling

    Reply
  41. Wilfredo Robles says

    October 29, 2019 at 7:14 am

    Love all your constant updates on face and what you do for the marine ecosystems it keeps me informed

    Reply
  42. chris13 says

    October 29, 2019 at 7:23 am

    The dwarf angels are beautiful but every single one I have ever had has been a relentless bully to every other fish in the tank. Maybe bad luck, but catching them for removal is a real pain.

    Reply
  43. sabbath2 says

    October 29, 2019 at 10:38 am

    Very nice list!

    Reply
  44. heatherz95 says

    October 29, 2019 at 11:16 am

    Firefish wear lipstick! 🙂

    Reply
  45. Nick says

    October 29, 2019 at 1:57 pm

    Hahaha these people don’t read they do it for giveaway

    Reply
    • greg.chernoff says

      October 29, 2019 at 1:59 pm

      Actually that is not entirely true, many of the people from the contest do put up pretty reasonable responses. I know some people will just do it for the points, but either way we help our blog grow!

      Reply
  46. Mike Howell says

    October 29, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    Good info!

    Reply
  47. Rachelle says

    October 29, 2019 at 4:56 pm

    Clowns are great but so feisty

    Reply
  48. krautzm says

    October 29, 2019 at 8:06 pm

    Love the article, we have a great program going on here…

    Reply
  49. Elliot says

    October 30, 2019 at 4:44 am

    Pretty colors

    Reply
  50. Jordan says

    October 30, 2019 at 10:14 am

    A lot of nice fish on this list.

    Reply
  51. Mark Valentino says

    October 30, 2019 at 11:29 am

    Wish My school had this back in the day.

    Reply
  52. Ro Vance says

    October 30, 2019 at 2:11 pm

    What a great program! I’ve currently got a nano reef, and I’m planning to get a pair of exquisite firefish if I can find a bonded pair!

    Reply
  53. Joe says

    October 30, 2019 at 8:40 pm

    Great info, especially for a newbie.

    Reply
  54. Rose Romero says

    October 31, 2019 at 9:30 am

    This is great information. Thanks.

    Reply
  55. Erica Rich says

    October 31, 2019 at 2:05 pm

    Interesting Read, thank you

    Reply
  56. Neal says

    October 31, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    Got me very interested

    Reply
  57. art anderson says

    October 31, 2019 at 5:03 pm

    nice

    Reply
  58. Ashton says

    October 31, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    As somebody who works with fish and the environment as job I think it is fantastic that you get to have such a learning experience as part of your curriculum. A great way to learn about not just responsibility but also the intricacies of different environments found on Earth and how they function on all sorts of different levels.

    Reply
  59. superiorislandservices says

    October 31, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Great info

    Reply
  60. Jerry Pearson says

    October 31, 2019 at 7:33 pm

    Very informative.

    Reply
  61. superiorislandservices says

    October 31, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    I have nearly all of these. Midas Blenny is one of the coolest in my tank. Dottyback is the Devil!

    Reply
  62. Aaron moran says

    November 1, 2019 at 6:20 am

    awesome I fo

    Reply
  63. Jay Gray says

    November 1, 2019 at 9:12 am

    Excellent Read

    Reply
  64. sdiaziii says

    November 1, 2019 at 2:14 pm

    Great way to stay informed.

    Reply
  65. Charles says

    November 1, 2019 at 9:36 pm

    WOW!!

    Reply
  66. robert vice says

    November 2, 2019 at 10:57 am

    I’ve learned a lot off of this sites blogs great Info

    Reply
  67. omarsdp says

    November 3, 2019 at 4:29 am

    Love to learn about marine fish. Thanks for the information!

    Reply
  68. btmedic04 says

    November 3, 2019 at 8:58 am

    Very well written Roman! I have a flame angel and so far he has behaved in my reef tank

    Reply
  69. Esther says

    November 3, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Yes!

    Reply
  70. Brandon Bell says

    November 3, 2019 at 9:37 pm

    Fun read!

    Reply
  71. wisco2jz says

    November 3, 2019 at 10:49 pm

    Great info bud

    Reply

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