The lure of keeping marine animals is largely down to the huge variety of species available, their unusual looks and their completely alien behaviors - all of us in this hobby like stuff that's frankly, a bit weird!
Such diversity presents some challenges though, how do you care for fish or invertebrates that have differing requirements? and how do you know if you can keep that Flame angelfish with that Springeri damselfish for example?
Let's start with the first question, how we care for different species. To make this easier people with experience keeping marines have a broad knowledge of many different species and are able to group them together, each group usually has many similarities so that deciding on what types of food they will eat or what kind of aquascape will benefit them becomes more simple, over time, as your knowledge increases you too will be able to easily decide if your set up is suitable for a certain marine fish based on what fish from that group require.
Examples of these groupings include but aren't limited to,
Fish groupings: Anthias, Blennies, Cardinals, Dragonets, Wrasse, etc.
Invert groupings: Crabs, Cucumbers, Shrimps, Starfish, etc.
Coral Groupings: Soft corals, Hard corals, LPS Corals, SPS Corals, Non-photosynthetic.
A local fish shop (LFS) is your best port of call for a more detailed breakdown and knowledge of individual species, find a good one you can trust and as well as doing your own research ask them for their advice on care requirements, they will usually have lots of experience and can tell you what works best for them.
Next, lets consider compatibility, how do we know what fish and inverts will get on with each other? Answering this question starts with some cold hard truth, cards on the table time, so here goes, No one can give you 100% answers with regards to compatibility 😲
Let's dive into that statement a little deeper, these animals live on the reef together which proves they can coexist, they all also live on the reef becuase that's where they find food. Another reality on the reef is that the animals have complicated social hierarchy structures that have developed over generations. Recreating those social structures with limited time and space means our aquariums face unusual and specific challenges.
Those with experience, whether in the hobby or trade manage this by understanding that there are certain combinations that are more likely to be succesful than others and that there are things you can do to increase the liklihood of new additions to the reef tank being accepted, or at least not being targeted as an intruder and therefore attacked relentlessly.
Stores will often dish out general advice that errs on the side of caution such as you can't keep two angelfish together or you can't keep two basslets together, which is better than saying do as you please. The truth though in our experience, is that two angelfish introduced at the same time will be quite happy together providing the aquarium is of a suitable size, the size would depend on whether we was talking aboout dwarf angelfish or the larger species of angels but still, they can live together and they look awesome! Notice that we said they should be introduced at the same time and that the tank should be a suitable size, these are things that experienced marine keepers understand will improve the chances of compatibility.
Here's a few other things that pro's understand will improve the chances of compatibility and of succesfully introducing new animals to a marine tank,
- Tank space, bigger tanks have an obvious advantage.
- Introducing more than one fish at a time, two or three means any aggession is shared / divided.
- Introduce fish that have different profiles / body shapes.
- Introduce fish from a different family / genus / species.
- When you introduce new fish, change some of the rock scape. Particularly to force dominant fish to re-establish their territory.
- If introducing fish that are similar or the same, introduce them at the same time.
- Remember, fish are living creatures and each one is individual, it won't always go how you expect, it can be better or worse than you anticipated.
- Remember, a little agression is pretty unavoidable in this hobby, a little chasing won't usually do any damage but if it's prolonged over more than 24 hours or if the new fish(es) are actually being damaged you may have to step in and make a grown-up decision.
A reliable and honest LFS will be happy to help you get the best success with your marine tank as is possible, like us, any good store will have lots of experience and know the most likely outcomes of any combination of animals you are considering, it's what we do.
If you want to read more, a great further resource for species care, compatibility and tank set up is OATA (The Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association), there you will find more information on tank set up, equipment needed and the care guides for marine fish. Click here to visit their website
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