Stocking Options for a 10 Gallon Reef

[Dtropic]

I’m starting up a 10 gallon mixed reef with a diy aio chamber in the back. I was wondering what would be some peaceful beginner fish that I could put in the tank? 

[Tired]

For a tank that size, expect to be able to keep two small (2-3" max size) fish. You might be able to stock three once the tank has matured. 

 

Ocellaris or percula clownfish are a popular choice, typically kept in pairs.

Shrimpgobies/watchman gobies are also popular, and there are a variety of species to choose from. You can pair one up with a candycane pistol shrimp to see a fascinating symbiotic relationship. Any watchman or shrimpgoby that you like should work, provided it doesn't get much over 3" long. I'm partial to antenna gobies.

Clown gobies can be difficult to get healthy, so you'll want to make sure yours is eating well before buying it, but they're wonderful little fish. They have a bad-tasting slime coat that makes them resistant to any attempts at bullying them. 

Yellowtail blue damsels should probably be added last, as they can be a little territorial, but will generally behave themselves once they pick out their cave. 

Tailspot blennies are excellent little fish, as are barnacle blennies. 

Firefish can be shy, but come in several attractive species and have cute flicking dorsal fins.

Rooster waspfish are rare to see for sale, and are (non-dangerously) venomous, but they're worth mentioning if you're willing to potentially feed it frozen foods. Very cool little animals.

Some other options are bangaii or pyjama cardinalfish, any of the eviota or trimma gobies (you can stock 2-3 in place of one nano-sized fish, they're tiny), neon gobies, or, if you can find them for sale, assessors. This is not an exhaustive list, there are a lot of options. 

For something unusual, check out the KP Aquatics site, particularly their blenny section. They have some rarely-seen fish pretty frequently in stock.

 

You should be able to pretty well mix and match your choice of any of these with few to no problems. Just be sure that, whatever you stock, you keep them in; get yourself a good lid with no gaps, and I do mean no gaps. 

[demonclownfish]

IMO, a pair of clowns is far too large once grown for a 10 gallon. 

You'd be best off with maybe a shrimp goby/pistol shrimp pair, a firefish, and maybe a small blenny(tailspot for example) and you'd be maxed out with a solid blend of personalities. 

[geekreef_05]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:20 PM, demonclownfish said:

IMO, a pair of clowns is far too large once grown for a 10 gallon. 

You'd be best off with maybe a shrimp goby/pistol shrimp pair, a firefish, and maybe a small blenny(tailspot for example) and you'd be maxed out with a solid blend of personalities. 

 

Nice. I like this. Probably an unpopular opinion on clowns. That said, i agree, to keep clowns permanently, a 10 gallon is too small. 

 

But for 1-2 years a baby pair can be raised in a 10 gallon.

 

Other good friendly tiny fish choices are clown gobies and rainsford gobies. 

 

Hope that helps! 

[Crys]

Get them as small and friendly as possible because there isn’t a lot of room for territory. Tailspot blenny is a great choice. Firecracker gobies are only 1-1.5 inches full grown. Think about some interesting inverts as well. I also think the clowns are too big once they are grown. I’m not a clown fan though. They can be mean, I’ve even been bitten!! Good thing is it didn’t hurt.