Need help selecting a good non-aggresive fish that will get along

[jason416]

Hello, I have a 75 gallon saltwater tank with live rock and coral. Currently I have 2 clown fish, 1 six line warasee, and 1 large damsel(maybe 5/6 years old that I got with the tank) and some crabs and 1 coral banded shrimp. The tank has been setup for over a year and is stable. I had 5 green chromies but they have died over the year time frame. I think the reason they died is because I have a larger blue legged crab that also came with the tank and I think he is getting ahould of the fish at night. The crab has also killed most of my snails so I plan on donating him the the local saltwater store. So now I am ready to put more fish in since the crab is gone. I like the green chromis because of they swin at the top and stay in a group. However I see saltwater.com is selling a group of 5 of the yellowtail blue damsel and the 3 stripe damsel.

So my question is would it be recommended to purchase 1 of the 5 pack or maybe even buy a 5 pack of each fish?? My problem is I have 3 kids so I dont have a lot of money to buy expensive cool fish, so looking for cheap fish to fill the tank. Or do I just stick with buying 5 to 8 green chromies?? or buy 1 5 pack of the above otions and get 3 or 4 green chromies to add in??

How long do green chromies live?? and damsels??

Any help or recommendations would be greatly appriciated
thank you

 

[jason416]

sorry tank has live rock but NO corals,

 

[lmforbis]

Since you have one established damsel you may have a problem adding any more fish of any type. Certainly not more damsels. Damsels are very aggressive fish and will kill other fish and others of their own kind. The chromies probably killed each other (they are also damsels), that is what typically happens.
Personally I am a huge fan of damsels but they are hard to keep in a community tank because they are territorial/aggressive. My suggestion would be to re home the damsel you have then you can look at getting a couple less aggressive lower cost fish like a watchman goby, a dwarf angel, maybe a royal gramma or orchid dotty back. Once they are established you could get one or two colorful damsels that are different species from each other and have different body types and colors. There are some to avoid, the domino is one I can think of off the top of my head, because they are on the most aggressive side.
Don't ever buy more than one of any kind of damsel. End result will be one damsel anyway.

 

[jay0705]

Dwarf lion fish. I have mine w a maroon clown and yellow tail damsel. I agree with the above , I too like them tank mates just can't be docile