Guide category
Saltwater Fish Guides
Explore marine fish guides covering aquarium requirements, feeding, compatibility, and care. Use them to compare species needs and plan stocking for a saltwater system.
Saltwater Fish reference library
Fish
Azure Damselfish
A hardy, electric-blue and yellow damselfish that offers bright color in a compact body. It is among the more manageable Chrysiptera damsels, but it still establishes and defends territory and should not be treated as completely peaceful.
Fish
Banggai Cardinalfish
A striking, slow-moving cardinalfish recognized by bold black bars, white spots, and long, elegant fins. It adapts readily to peaceful reef aquariums but has important same-species aggression and conservation considerations.
Fish
Common Firefish
A slender, peaceful dartfish known for its striking red-orange tail, pale body, yellowish head, and tall pennant-like first dorsal fin. It spends much of the day hovering above a secure retreat.
Fish
Lawnmower Blenny
A robust, expressive combtooth blenny famous for scraping algal film from rock. It is useful in mature aquariums but should be chosen as a pet with specialized feeding needs, not purchased as a guaranteed cure for nuisance algae.
Fish
Ocellaris Clownfish
A small, hardy anemonefish and one of the most recognizable marine aquarium species. Captive-bred Ocellaris Clownfish are widely available, adapt readily to aquarium life, and usually accept prepared foods.
Fish
Pajama Cardinalfish
A small, hardy, slow-moving cardinalfish with an unusual patchwork of colors and a calm disposition. It is active mainly at dusk and night but adapts well to daytime aquarium feeding.
Fish
Royal Gramma
A small, hardy Caribbean basslet prized for its vivid purple-and-yellow coloration, peaceful community behavior, and excellent reef compatibility.
Fish
Six-Line Wrasse
A vivid, active reef wrasse with six orange stripes over a blue-purple body. It is hardy, compact, and an energetic rockwork hunter, but its reputation as a simple pest-control fish often overlooks serious territorial aggression.
Fish
Tailspot Blenny
A tiny, personable combtooth blenny that alternates between grazing rock surfaces, perching in the open, and peeking from crevices. Its modest size and generally peaceful nature make it well suited to smaller established reef aquariums.
Fish
Yellow Watchman Goby
A hardy, burrow-dwelling marine goby known for standing guard at the entrance of a shared burrow. Its manageable size, reef compatibility, and fascinating partnership with pistol shrimp make it popular in home aquariums.
Fish
Blue Tang
The Blue Tang is a large, active Indo-Pacific surgeonfish recognized by its royal-blue body, black palette-shaped marking, and yellow tail. It is reef compatible but needs a mature, highly stable aquarium with extensive swimming room.
Fish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
A colorful dwarf angelfish with a deep purple-blue body, orange to yellow flanks, and electric-blue fin edging. It is hardy after acclimation, but territorial behavior and unpredictable coral nipping require planning.
Fish
Flame Angelfish
A brilliant orange-red dwarf angelfish marked with vertical black bars and electric-blue edging. It is hardy once settled, but needs mature rockwork, a varied diet, and a plan for territorial behavior and possible coral nipping.
Fish
Foxface Rabbitfish
A hardy, active algae-grazing rabbitfish with a fox-like snout, black-and-white face, and bright yellow body. It is usually peaceful, but it grows large, may sample corals, and carries venomous dorsal, pelvic, and anal spines.
Fish
Mandarin Dragonet
A small, exceptionally colorful dragonet patterned in blue, green, orange, and red. It is peaceful, but its near-continuous need for tiny prey makes it one of the most frequently underfed marine aquarium fish.
Fish
Purple Firefish
A slender, vividly colored dartfish with a violet head, pale front body, dark purple rear body, and red-purple fin markings. It is peaceful and hardy once settled, but extreme shyness and exceptional jumping ability make housing details critical.
Fish
Yellow Clown Goby
A tiny lemon-yellow coral goby that spends much of its time perched on branching structures. It is peaceful, personable, and well suited to smaller marine aquariums, but it may nip SPS coral tissue and can be outcompeted for food.
Fish
Yellow Tang
The Yellow Tang is a bright, active Pacific surgeonfish valued for its vivid color, constant grazing, and generally dependable reef compatibility. It is hardy after acclimation but needs adult-sized swimming space, frequent plant-based foods, and careful disease prevention.
Content updated: