Most beneficial inhabitants.

Would like to hear what others have found to be benefitial addition.

I'll start this off with two:
#1 Porcupine puffer. Bought this guy at 6" a few month ago. Feed him a raw cocktail shrimp or fish daily. He chomps the peices to all sorts of sizes. A cloud of tiny to small particles of food blast through the tank feeding corals and other fish. Eliminates the need to target feed but on rare occasions.

#2 by a short margin is the diamond goby. This guy will process huge amounts of sand throughout the day. Forget crabs and starfish. This guy is a one stop source for clean sandbeds. As a note, don't expect a beautifully smooth base, he makes it his own. + one over the yellow headed sleeper gobby, the diamond goby stays low and won't cover the coral.

 

I'm a fan of adding in a small tang (like a Kole Tang) to help with the grazing in the tanks. They always seem to be the best at controlling any algae and the leader of my groups of fish. I have my dwarf angels, foxface, and wrasse all following my Kole Tang in the tank where ever he goes. I have a Tomini in another tank that does something similar too.

 

I think my snails rate #1 with me. I would hate to see what my tank would look like without them.

 

Wrasses i love them and they are good for eating pests in our tanks

Gobies for sifting sand

Tangs eating nuisance algea

My goldflake angel cause he looks awesome lol

 

Second on Wrasses. Fun to watch and eat pests.

Also besides what has been mentioned, I like my pair of fire shrimp. Cool to watch them clean my fish (or my fingers).

 

Diamond Goby, wrasses, and tangs.

 

What is the long term success of Diamond Gobies in say a 75 gallon? I don't know that my tank is nutrient rich enough to sustain one but I would like the sand sifting going on. I tried one months ago, he ate some of the frozen food I fed the other fish as well, but he slowly got thin and died after about 3 months. I don't know if it was just that goby having an issue or if target feeding them isn't going to keep them around if your tank lacks the sand critters to sustain them.

 

I have good success but I have lots of fish that keep him well fed. I also don't have bit 5 snails and crabs each. So I lack competition for the cleaning.

 

What size of a tank would be recommended to being able to keep 2 fire shrimp?

 

My diamond gobi comes running for mysis along with everyone else on the tank

 

What size of a tank would be recommended to being able to keep 2 fire shrimp?[/QUOTE]

I have them in a 90g. They stay on opposite sides of the tank. They literally have their spot and only move out to feed or clean a passing fish.