Stocking 75g reef - need ideas for something different!

[axia55]

My new 75g has been setup for almost three weeks now and all the corals/inverts are doing awesome. I am going to start stocking fish at around the 8 week mark (middle of August) and I am wanting to get some fish that are different than the usual reef suspects. My ideas so far were:
-Small groups of the more peaceful damsels

-Goby/Blenny dominated tank with a bunch of different types of each (would they fight??)

-"Predator" tank with a hamlet, Marine Betta, etc.....

The only fish I have ruled out are angels since I tried a Flameback and Potters and both nipped at everything.

Any thought on these ideas or even your own ideas are welcome!

[reef3r]

Maybe a snowflake eel. They are pretty neat. They might eat cleaner shrimp, but they should leave snails and hermits alone.

[engine]

how about anthias and wrasses

[axia55]

Any one with experience keeping a hamlet or harlequin tusk in their reef? Could I put in those two along with a kole tang in my 75?

[BWine]

There are reef safe angels. I have a female Watanabei angel in my reef. It's a member of the Genicanthus genus. I think that they are the only reef-safe angels.

[happyface888]

royal gramma's are nice

[cplklegg]

I didn't know there were "peaceful" damsels; are they easy to catch too???

[LisaD]

Here's a suggestion for aggressives that will do well in a reef. I have the following in my 55 - they would be better in a 75:

wolf eel blenny
pair Hawaiian leaf fish (supposedly venomous, live food only)
small Inimicus devilfish (venomous)
pair waspfish (venomous)
LaMarck angel (one of the reef safe Genicanthus)
large mandarin goby (hold off until tank established at least 6-12 months with a large pod population)

This tank is mature (>3 years) and well filtered (with skimmer, refugium and a lot of live rock). It's pretty packed, but is healthy. I love these fish, and IMO, this is a good stock list of slow aggressives for your 75. You could replace one or two of my fish with a marine betta.

The tank is lit with 4 x 65-watt PCs and has hardy, low-to-moderate light corals:

Turbinaria
Fox coral
many leathers
many shrooms
many polyps

I have to admit, the fish are a higher priority for me.

[axia55]

LisaD, I agree with you, fish are my favorite!

Wouldn't one of the Genicanthus Angel get too large for my 75g?

[SDguy]

If you don't mind not having shrimp, I think marine bettas make a stunning addition to a tank.

[zippopunk1]

i have a marine betta in my 60 gallon and its one of the most intresting fish ive seen, and it wasnt as hard as i thought it would be to get him to eat prepared food as long as there was good flow. im trying to get a blackfoot lionfish (bluefin lion to go with it but so far im finding it really hard to find one in stock.