Fish Guide

The following is a list of marine aquarium fish species commonly available in the aquarium trade. It is not a completely comprehensive list; certain rare specimens may sometimes be available commercially yet not be listed here. A brief section on each, with additional links is provided.

Contents 1 Angelfish 2 Anthias 3 Bass 4 Basslets 5 Batfish 6 Blennies 7 Boxfish 8 Butterflyfish 9 Cardinalfish 10 Chromis 11 Clownfish 12 Damsels 13 Dottybacks 14 Dragonets 15 Eels 16 Filefish 17 Foxface 18 Gobies 19 Groupers 20 Hawkfish 21 Hogfish 22 Jawfish 23 Lionfish 24 Pipefish 25 Pufferfish 26 Pseudochromis 27 Rabbitfish 28 Rays 29 Seahorse 30 Squirrelfish 31 Tangs 32 Tilefish 33 Triggerfish 34 Wrasse

Angelfish

(dwarf angels in a reef setting has been heavily debated)

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Bellus Angel		Moderate
Blue Angelfish		Difficult
Coral Beauty Angel		Easy to Moderate
Cortez Angelfish		Moderate
Eibli Angel		Easy to Moderate
Emperor Angelfish		Moderate
Flame Angel		Easy to Moderate
Flameback Angel		Moderate
French Angel		Difficult
Half-Black Angel		Difficult
Herald's Angel		Moderate
Koran Angel		Moderate
Lemonpeel Angel		Difficult
Majestic (Blue-Girdled) Angel		Difficult
Midnight Angel		Difficult
Potter's Angel		Easy to Moderate
Pygmy Angelfish		Moderate
Queen Angel		Moderate
Rusty Angel		Difficult
Swallowtail Angel		Moderate

Anthias

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Bartlett's Anthias		Difficult
Squareback Anthias		Difficult

Bass

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Chalk Bass		Easy to Moderate
Harlequin Bass		Easy to Moderate
Tobacco Bass		Easy to Moderate

Basslets

This category also includes the spiny basslets.

Black cap basslet		Moderate
Blue assessor or Blue devilfish		Easy to Moderate	(a spiny basslet)
Royal gramma		Easy to Moderate
Yellow flavissimus assessor or Yellow devilfish		Easy to Moderate	(a spiny basslet)

Batfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Orbiculate batfish	No	Difficult
Teira batfish	No	Difficult

Blennies

(excluding fang blennies, a few species will nip at polyps and giant clam mantles)

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Barnacle / Spineyhead Blenny		Moderate
Bicolor Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Black Lined Fang Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Bundoon Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Canary Fang Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Lawnmower Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Midas Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Red Lip Blenny		Easy to Moderate
Red Sea Mimic Blenny		Moderate
Sailfin Blenny		Moderate
Tail Spot Blenny		Moderate
Two-Spot Blenny		Moderate

Boxfish

Boxfish generally are very personable fish yet are poorly suited for the home aquaria. They are not thought of as an ordinary aquarium tank mate, but are quickly gaining popularity. They do pose a hazard in the community tank however. They are capable of releasing a very powerful toxin which can kill other fish and in some cases, the boxfish itself. They generally only use it when threatened or dying, but can become disturbed easily with aggressive tank mates or overcrowded aquarium. Generally boxfish are not reef safe.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Helmet cowfish	No	Expert
Longhorn cowfish	No	Expert
Cubicus boxfish	No	Expert

Butterflyfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Copperband Butterfly		Difficult
Heniochus Butterfly		Moderate
Longnose Butterfly		Moderate
Raccoon Butterfly		Moderate

Cardinalfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Bangaii / Kaudern's Cardinal		Moderate
Flame Cardinal		Difficult
Orange-Striped Cardinal		Difficult
Pajama / Spotted Cardinal		Moderate

Chromis

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Blackmouth bicolor chromis	Yes	Difficult	Aggressive
Black and white Chromis	Yes	Moderate	Peaceful; likes acropora coral
Black bar Chromis	Yes		Usually peaceful unless housed alone
Blue reef chromis	Yes	Difficult	Peaceful and schooling
Green reef Chromis	Yes	Easy	Peaceful and schooling
Limbaughi chromis	Yes	Easy	Peaceful
Orange line chromis	Yes	Easy	Peaceful
Sunshine chromis	Yes	Easy

Clownfish

Clownfish are a marine aquarium species noted for their ability to host in anemones. They have been recently popularized by the movie, Finding Nemo.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Cinnamon or Coral Sea clown	Yes	Easy to moderate	?
Clark's anemonefish	Yes	Easy to moderate	?
False percula clown	Yes	Easy	Commonly available. Also sold in a black color variation.
Maroon clown	Questionable	Easy to moderate	Can grow quite large and become aggressive towards smaller tankmates
Percula clown	Yes	Easy to moderate	Almost indistinguishable from A. ocellaris. Most Percula clowns sold are actually A. ocellaris.
Pink skunk clown	Yes	Moderate	?
Tomato clown	Yes	Easy	commonly available

Damsels

(sometimes excluding larger, more aggressive Dascyllus varieties)

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Azure Damsel		Easy
Blue Damsel		Easy	Also has an orange tail variant
Blue and gold damsel
Blue velvet damsel
BlueFin Damsel		Easy
Domino Damsel		Easy
Fiji Blue Devil Damsel		Easy
Four stripe Damsel
Garibaldi Damsel		Easy to Moderate
Honey head damsel
Jewel Damsel		Easy
Lemon / Yellow Damsel		Easy
Marginated Damsel
Neon Damsel
Orangetail Damsel		Easy
Pink Smith Damsel		Easy
Sergeant major damsel		Easy
Springer's Damsel		Easy
Stark's Damsel		Easy
Talbots damsel
Three Stripe Damsel		Easy
Tuxedo Damsel
Two Stripe Damsel
Yellow Damsel
Yellowtail Dascyllus
Yellowtail Damsel		Easy

Dottybacks

See Pseudochromis

Dragonets

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Mandarinfish	Yes	Difficult	A brightly colored member of the dragonet family. Eats only copepods and will die in captivity without an adequate supply, which can only be had in very large, well established reef tanks
Red scooter blenny	Yes	Moderate	Not a true blenny
Scooter blenny	Yes	Moderate	Not a true blenny

Eels

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Golden Moray Eel		Difficult
Snowflake Eel		Easy to Moderate

Filefish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Fantail orange filefish	No	Easy
Colored filefish	Caution	Easy
Tassle filefish	Caution	Easy
Clown filefish	Caution	Easy

Foxface

See Rabbitfish

Gobies

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Black clown goby	Mostly	Moderate	Similar to Yellow clown goby, but black
Citron clown goby	Mostly	Moderate	Can grow to up tp 3 inches in length
Engineer goby	Yes	Easy to Moderate	small burrowing goby
Green banded goby	Yes	Moderate	small burrowing goby with green vertical stripes
Red headed goby	Yes	Moderate	?
Watchman goby	Yes	Moderate	A perching goby that can form a symbiotic relationship with pistol shrimp
Yashia goby	Yes	?	?
Yellow clown goby	Yes	Moderate	small yellow fish that likes branching corals

Groupers

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Panther grouper or Spotted grouper	No	Difficult	Will grow to 20 inches in length. Requires a fish only tank of about 300 gallons.
Blue dot grouper		Moderate
Blue line grouper		Moderate
Golden stripe soapfish		Moderate
Leaflip grouper		Moderate
Miniatus grouper		Moderate
Red flag grouper		Moderate
Red louti grouper		Moderate
Spotted grouper		Moderate

Hawkfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Arc Eye Hawkfish		Moderate
Flame Hawkfish		Easy to Moderate
Longnose Hawkfish		Moderate
Spotted Hawkfish		Easy to Moderate

Hogfish

Jawfish

Jawfish are burrowers and require a sandy substrate of sufficient depth.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Black cap jawfish	Caution	Moderate	Requires a 30 gallon tank and 3 inch substrate. Tank should remain tightly lidded. May eat small shrimp.
Dusky jawfish	Caution	Moderate	Requires a 30 gallon tank and 3 inch sand substrate. Tank should remain tightly lidded.
Yellowhead jawfish	Caution	Moderate	Requires a 30 gallon tank and 5 to 7 inch soft substrate. Tank should remain tightly lidded.

Lionfish

Lionfish have poisonous spines and should be treated with caution.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Colored volitan lionfish		Easy to Moderate
Fuzzy dwarf lion		Very Difficult
Volitan lionfish	Caution	Easy to Moderate	Semi-aggressive; carnivore; Can grow up to 38cm in length in captivity

Pipefish

(can be killed by stinging corals and anemones)

Pufferfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Dogface Puffer		Moderate
Green Spotted Puffer		?
Porcupine Puffer	corals:yes inverts:no	Moderate
Black-spotted Porcupinefish		Moderate
Sharpnose Puffer		Difficult
Valentine Puffer		Moderate

Pseudochromis

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Australian multicolor pseudochromis		Moderate
Blue flavivertex pseudochromis		Moderate
Neon pseudochromis, Arabian dottyback or Neon dottyback		Moderate
Bicolor pseudochromis		Easy to Moderate	resembles Royal gramma in coloration
Purple stripe pseudochromis or Diadema basslet		Easy to Moderate
Indigo dottyback		Moderate
Fridmani pseudochromis or Orchid dottyback		Easy to Moderate
Sailfin pseudochromis		Moderate
Splendid pseudochromis		Moderate
Springeri pseudochromis		Moderate
Strawberry pseudochromis or Purple psuedochromis		Easy to Moderate

Rabbitfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Foxface		Easy to Moderate
Magnificent Foxface		Easy to Moderate
Rabbitfish		Easy to Moderate

Rays

All rays have a poisonous spine near the base of the tail. Care must be taken to avoid this animal when performing tank maintenance and during capture.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Fiddler stingray	No	Expert	Requires a minimum 360 gallon aquarium with a 1 meter width and a fine grained substrate. Coarse substrates may damage the underside of this animal, causing infection.
Round stingray	No	Expert	Requires a minimum 180 gallon aquarium and a fine grained substrate. Coarse substrates may damage the underside of this animal, causing infection.
Spotted Caribbean stingray	No	Expert	Requires a minimum 180 gallon aquarium and a fine grained substrate. Coarse substrates may damage the underside of this animal, causing infection.
Thornback stingray	No	Expert	Requires a minimum 360 gallon aquarium with a 1 meter width

Seahorse

Seahorses are delicate animals with specialized care requirements. They require branching corals or other decorations in which to roost, and they are slow eaters, starving in the presence of more voracious tankmates. Additionally, wild caught seahorses do not always adapt well to captivity, so captive bred specimens are preferred.

Seahorses can be killed by stinging corals and anemones.

 

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Black seahorse	Caution	Difficult
Colored seahorse	Caution	Difficult
Black seahorse	Caution	Difficult

Squirrelfish

Tangs

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Achilles Tang		Difficult
Atlantic Blue Tang		Moderate
Blonde Naso Tang		Easy to Moderate
Bristletooth Tang		Easy to Moderate
Chocolate Tang		Easy to Moderate
Desjardini Tang		Moderate
Eibli Mimic Tang		Moderate
Hippo Tang		Moderate
Kole Tang		Easy to Moderate
Mimic Tang		Easy to Moderate
Naso Tang		Easy to Moderate
Powder Blue Tang		Moderate
Purple Tang		Easy to Moderate
Sailfin Tang		Easy to Moderate
Scopas Tang		Easy to Moderate
Yellow Tang		Easy to Moderate

Tilefish

Though often categorized as Gobies, Tilefish are a separate species.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Blue-Headed Tilefish		Easy to Moderate
Purple Tilefish		Easy to Moderate
Skunk Tilefish		Easy to Moderate

Triggerfish

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Blue Jaw Trigger		Moderate
Blue Line Trigger		Moderate
Clown Trigger		Easy to Moderate
Hawaiian Black Trigger		Moderate
Niger Trigger		Easy to Moderate
Picasso Trigger		Easy to Moderate
Pinktail Sargassum Trigger		Moderate

Wrasse

Some wrasse species are agressive towards small fish and invertebrates.

Common name	Reef safe	Care Level	Description
Carpenter's Fairy Wrasse		Difficult
Eight Line Wrasse		Easy to Moderate
Exquisite Fairy Wrasse		Difficult
Fine-Spotted Fairy Wrasse		Difficult
Four Line Wrasse		Easy to Moderate
Greenback Fairy Wrasse		Difficult
Harlequin Tusk		Moderate
Multicolor Velvet Wrasse		Moderate
Potter's Wrasse		Difficult
Red-Head Fairy Wrasse		Difficult
Six Line Wrasse	Yes	Easy to Moderate	small purple fish with six dark horizontal lines