The care guides
Saltwater livestock we cover
We're building the warmest, most trustworthy saltwater & reef care library there is — from the best first fish to advanced corals, each one fact-checked before we publish it. Start with a fish, grow into a reef.
72 of 72 fully sourced26 fish · 22 corals · 24 inverts
Clownfish
Ocellaris Clownfish
The hardy, captive-bred "Nemo" — the friendliest first saltwater fish there is.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Percula Clownfish
The true percula — near-identical to ocellaris, with bolder black outlines.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Tangs & Surgeonfish
Yellow Tang
The iconic reef yellow — an active grazer that needs real swimming length.
Tang / surgeonfish✓ Care guide
Blue Tang
"Dory" — stunning, but grows big and needs a large, mature tank (not a beginner fish).
Tang / surgeonfish✓ Care guide
Kole Tang
The bristletooth "cleaner" tang — mows film algae and detritus, and fits a mid-size reef.
Tang / surgeonfish✓ Care guide
Powder Blue Tang
The breathtaking powder-blue — and the most ich-prone, demanding tang in the hobby. Experts only.
Tang / surgeonfish✓ Care guide
Gobies & Blennies
Firefish Goby
An elegant, peaceful hover-fish with a flame-orange tail — perfect for nano reefs.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Yellow Watchman Goby
A charming sand-sifter that forms a famous partnership with a pistol shrimp.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Green Clown Goby
A tiny, bold perching goby full of personality — ideal for the smallest reefs.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Mandarin Dragonet
A living watercolour — gorgeous, but only for mature tanks that grow enough copepods.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Lawnmower Blenny
A goofy, perching algae-grazer that mows film and hair algae off the rocks.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Neon Goby
The tiny cleaner goby — captive-bred, nano-friendly, and it picks parasites off your other fish.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Bicolor Blenny
The two-tone nano blenny with attitude — an eager algae-grazer that may nip corals if underfed.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Tailspot Blenny
The peaceful pick of the nano blennies — a tireless algae-grazer that stays out of trouble.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Midas Blenny
The golden "crown jewel" blenny — it swims out in open water like a wrasse and rarely bothers corals.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Wrasses
Six Line Wrasse
A busy, colourful wrasse that hunts pest snails and flatworms — but can turn a bully.
Semi-aggressive fish✓ Care guide
Melanurus Wrasse
A tireless rainbow-coloured pest-hunter — eats flatworms and pyramid snails; needs sand and a lid.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Cardinals & Basslets
Royal Gramma
A hardy purple-and-gold beauty — peaceful, colourful, and nano-friendly.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Banggai Cardinalfish
A striking finned-and-spotted cardinalfish — calm, and a captive-breeding success story.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Pajama Cardinalfish
A quirky polka-dot schooler that drifts calmly in the open — great in a group.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Damsels & Chromis
Green ChromisDwarf Angelfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
The best beginner dwarf angel — hardy and gorgeous, but keep an eye on your clams and LPS.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Flame Angelfish
The dazzling flame-red centrepiece dwarf angel — reef-safe with caution around clams and LPS.
Reef-safe community fish✓ Care guide
Orchid Dottyback
Lyretail Anthias
Flame HawkfishSoft Corals
Zoanthids
Colour-packed polyp colonies — the collectible, forgiving coral most reefers start with.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
Mushroom Coral
Bulletproof beginner coral — happy in low light and low flow, and it spreads for free.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
Green Star Polyp
A neon-green carpet that grows like wildfire — hardy, cheap, and beginner-proof.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
Pulsing Xenia
The hypnotic coral that "pulses" all day — mesmerising, and it multiplies fast.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
Toadstool Leather Coral
The big, hardy toadstool that anchors a soft-coral reef — it just needs room and periodic sheds.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
Kenya Tree Coral
The bulletproof beginner tree coral — so hardy it can spread; a great first coral, kept in check.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
Ricordea Mushroom
The jewel of the mushrooms — bubbly, fluorescent discs that are hardy and beginner-easy.
Soft coral (beginner)✓ Care guide
LPS Corals
Hammer Coral
Flowing hammer-tipped tentacles that sway in the current — a showpiece LPS.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Torch Coral
Long, glowing tentacles tipped like torches — one of the most coveted LPS corals.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Frogspawn Coral
Branching, grape-like tentacle clusters — an easy, rewarding first big LPS.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Duncan Coral
A friendly, fast-growing LPS that visibly loves being fed — very beginner-friendly.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Acan Coral
Jewel-toned fleshy polyps in every colour — collectible, hardy and easy to feed.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Candy Cane Coral
The candy-striped starter LPS — hardy, peaceful, and it buds into more heads the more you feed it.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Open Brain Coral
The fleshy open brain that sits on the sand — stunning colour, but keep the flow gentle.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Plate Coral
The solitary plate coral that slowly moves around the sand — hardy, but keep it off sharp rock.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Blastomussa
The low-light gem — fat, glowing polyps that colour up best OUT of bright light.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
Goniopora (Flowerpot)
The mesmerising flowerpot — once nearly "impossible"; now doable, but only aquacultured and fed.
LPS coral✓ Care guide
SPS Corals
Montipora
The forgiving first SPS — plates and encrusts fast once your parameters are stable.
SPS coral (advanced)✓ Care guide
Birdsnest Coral
Delicate needle-thin branches — a fast, relatively forgiving intro to branching SPS.
SPS coral (advanced)✓ Care guide
Acropora
The reef-keeper's trophy coral — dazzling growth, but only in a mature, ultra-stable tank.
SPS coral (advanced)✓ Care guide
Stylophora
The "cat's paw" — one of the toughest, most beginner-friendly branching SPS.
SPS coral (advanced)✓ Care guide
Pocillopora
The forgiving, fast-growing SPS — the classic bridge from LPS to a full SPS reef.
SPS coral (advanced)✓ Care guide
Shrimp
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
A hardworking reef-safe shrimp that "cleans" your fish — endlessly entertaining.
Ornamental shrimp✓ Care guide
Peppermint Shrimp
The reef's natural pest-control — it eats nuisance Aiptasia anemones.
Ornamental shrimp✓ Care guide
Fire Shrimp
The blood-red jewel of the reef — a hardy cleaner shrimp that just wants a shady hideout.
Ornamental shrimp✓ Care guide
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
The engineer of the goby-shrimp partnership — it builds the burrow, the goby keeps watch.
Ornamental shrimp✓ Care guide
Coral Banded Shrimp
The striking "boxer" shrimp — hardy and characterful, but territorial toward other shrimp.
Ornamental shrimp✓ Care guide
Snails & Crabs
Trochus Snail
A workhorse algae-grazing snail that can flip itself back over — the reliable cleanup pick.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Nassarius Snail
The sand-sifter — buries itself, then erupts to devour leftover food and detritus.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Emerald Crab
The go-to fix for bubble algae — a hardy little crab that eats what snails won't.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Blue-Leg Hermit Crab
The reef's tiny janitor — grazes hair algae and detritus all day; just give it spare shells.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Scarlet Hermit Crab
The red-legged hermit that truly eats algae — and bothers snails far less than most.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Cerith Snail
The all-rounder cleanup snail — grazes algae on glass and rock, then burrows and stirs the sand.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Astrea Snail
A tireless film-algae grazer — the catch is it can't reliably flip itself back over.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Turbo Snail
The big, hungry hair-algae eater — mows a bloom fast, but bulky enough to bump loose frags.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Nerite Snail
The glass specialist — small and reef-safe, it scrapes film algae and diatoms off the panes.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Fighting Conch
The sand-bed cleaner that isn't a fighter — it plows the substrate for detritus and algae.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Tuxedo Urchin
The reef's neat little algae-grazing urchin — great on hair algae, and it decorates itself.
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Serpent Star
The rock-dwelling detritus vacuum — a tough, hidden scavenger (just not the green one).
Cleanup crew✓ Care guide
Anemones
Bubble Tip Anemone
The classic clownfish host — the one anemone most reef tanks can actually keep.
Anemone✓ Care guide
Long-Tentacle Anemone
The sand-dwelling host anemone — it buries its foot deep in soft sand, unlike the rock-anchoring bubble-tip.
Anemone✓ Care guide
Magnificent Anemone
The spectacular Ritteri — a high-light, high-flow show anemone that is genuinely expert-only.
Anemone✓ Care guide
Sebae Anemone
The leathery host anemone with a buyer-beware catch: there is no naturally white or neon "sebae".
Anemone✓ Care guide
Carpet Anemone
The "fly-paper" sand anemone — big, gorgeous, and strong enough to catch and eat fish (even a clownfish).
Anemone✓ Care guide
Rock Flower Anemone
The best first anemone — hardy, stays put, and kept for its own colour (it does NOT host clownfish).
Anemone✓ Care guide
Condy Anemone
The cheap, hardy Caribbean anemone pet shops oversell — it wanders, stings corals, and eats small fish and shrimp.
Anemone✓ Care guide