Pico Fish

[morecoffee]

I'm curious if there are the saltwater equivalent to the freshwater schooling nano fish (neon tetra, celestial pearl danio, endler's, smaller rasbora's).   These are often put in planted tanks to add interest, but usually secondary to the plants.  Why don't I see the equivalent of these in reef tanks?

 

My theory's are:

1.  They don't really exist.  The tropical ocean is too cruel for these types of fish.

1a.  They are food for corals

2.  Such saltwater fish are not reef dwellers,  but filter feeders and school in open waters so not good for a home aquarium and hard to feed.

2a.  They are in non-reef areas (kelp beds, brackish water, tidal pools).

3.  They exist, but there is no demand for them due to lack of personality and not as brightly colored compared to clowns/golby's/etc.

 

I saw some cyanodorsalis in a youtube video that look interesting , but the listed specific gravity mentioned was 1.01 though I assume they might be able to adjust.

 

Let me me know your thoughts.

[mbarton2010]

Maybe some chromis but I can’t think of anything that would be small enough to keep in a shoal. 

[Boggers]

There are not any nano fish that really behave in this way that I have been able to locate. Some of the best approximations would be barnacle blennies and Banggai Cardinalfish

[Flexin]

Pajama Cardinals also.. I saw some very tiny ones at my LFS, maybe 10 and they looked great together.  But if they behave like Banggai’s, they may get aggressive with maturity towards the same sex.

[1.0reef]

There's a few species of tiny gobies that act like dartfish and are kept in groups, but they aren't common, and they're very delicate. Same goes for red spot cardinalfish, they just seen the feasible in the long run. Other smaller cardinalfish like threadfin cardinals are good, along with dartfish. 

[RayWhisperer]

I believe the fish 1.0 is eluding to is the mini dart goby. Not an easy fish to find, much less, keep alive.

 

Another would be the Philippine dartfish. Though supposedly hardy, I would guess even less common in the trade. I've only read about them, never seen them.

 

One other fish that comes to mind. While not a true marine fish, they are SOMETIMES kept in marine conditions. I thought they were brackish to fresh, until someone here brought up the possibility. It's the pacific blue eye rainbowfish. Though, supposedly, only certain geographic morphs tolerate full marine conditions.

 

This N-R image loading is funky. Everything just comes up at the bottom. So, you'll have to figure out which is which, for yourself.

 

Edit; While I don't know what size tank you are planning. Size alone doesn't determine if a fish is suitable. If you are indeed looking for a fish for a pico aquarium, none of these will work. These fish are pico in their size, only. If that made any sense at all.... in short, no, you can't keep these in a pico.

 

[RayWhisperer]

As an aside, the pic of the mini dart gobys is from Dave Fason, of nanobox fame. He'd be better to give you the scoop on those fish.

[morecoffee]

8 hours ago, RayWhisperer said:

While I don't know what size tank you are planning. Size alone doesn't determine if a fish is suitable. If you are indeed looking for a fish for a pico aquarium, none of these will work

I'm not necessarily looking to stock a tank with these, but brought it up as a general discussion. I justed seemed that fish in the size and behavior of a basic fw hobby fish were not represented in the SW hobby and I was curious if I was over looking something obvious. 

 

Since it seems more SW fish are likely to require live foods it makes since that very small bodied active fish would be very hard to maintain.  (Realized after reading about difficulty of care for the mini dart goby mentioned)