Empty 12 gallon reef tank. Need ideas for fish

[razor vampire]

I have a 12 gallon reef tank that's empty. There's lots of blue and purple coral. Mushroom, zoo's, candy cane, ect.
So what kind of fish could I get. Maybe a fish that's red? Or at least warm color.
How many fish could I get?

 

[mie]

Start with a lawnmower blenny

 

[mike22cha]

Lawnmower blennys need an established tank with lots of lr. It would not be a great choice for a 12g.
If you got good filtration, I'd say 2 fish.
I'd go with a pair or percula or false percula clownfish(becuase they stay small) OR a clown and a royal gramma.

 

[mie]

Well than lets post the question, how old is the tank when you say empty does that mean a reef with softies and inverts, or does that mean a dry tank in the garage you were getting ready to set up?

 

[razor vampire]

It's about 2 months old. Just some snails for a clean up crew.

 

[mie]

Wait about two months for the blenny just make sure that any fish you do get can survive in a 12 gall tank, some hawkfish,or carninals , or damsels, or a lantern basslet. the only bad side of damsels they are very bold and may need to be removed after a while and this is very hard, but i have one and the only thing he attacks is me. anyways the damsel fish i think have some very cool lokking speicies

 

[texasmetal]

Ever seen a full grown Damsel? They aren't very small. It would be like keeping a German Shepherd in a walk-in closet. Not very fair to the animal.
Firefish, OR a Royal Gramma, OR a Clown Goby. There are some Blenny's that stay small enough, but not a Lawnmower... you're pretty limited in a 12 gallon.

 

[mie]

Min tank size for the lawnmower is 10 gal and there are different speices of damsel that will be fine in a 12 gall

 

[thereefer9]

I'd say lmbs min tank size is 30 gallons these things get 5'' and like to graze on a lot of algae. I'd say 2 clowns or a clown and a firefish

 

[mike22cha]

Ya lawnmowers need large tank with lots of lr to graze on, IMO. I'd go with any 2 of these fish: Clownfish(percula or false percula, cardinalfish(bangii), firefish. You can have a pair of one kind of mix or match. Also a royal gramma would be cool.

 

[crt81]

This is what I have in my 12 gallon aquapod- 1 occ. clown, one yellowtail damsel, and one midas blenny.
No just remember to add the fish slowly. If yuo go with an aggressive or a fish that can become aggressive add them last. I added the damsel last and the clown first b/c there would be a good change the clown would have gotten picked on!
I added these 3 fish over a span of 3 to 3 1/2 months apart. So as the bioload wouldn't be too bad. Some may say that you don't have to add the fish that far apart but I did b/c I didn't want to do harm to my tank. Better to be safe than sorry!!!