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 sourced 26 fish · 22 corals · 24 inverts
Tangs & Surgeonfish 4
Yellow Tang
The iconic reef yellow — an active grazer that needs real swimming length.
Blue Tang
"Dory" — stunning, but grows big and needs a large, mature tank (not a beginner fish).
Kole Tang
The bristletooth "cleaner" tang — mows film algae and detritus, and fits a mid-size reef.
Powder Blue Tang
The breathtaking powder-blue — and the most ich-prone, demanding tang in the hobby. Experts only.
Gobies & Blennies 9
Firefish Goby
An elegant, peaceful hover-fish with a flame-orange tail — perfect for nano reefs.
Yellow Watchman Goby
A charming sand-sifter that forms a famous partnership with a pistol shrimp.
Green Clown Goby
A tiny, bold perching goby full of personality — ideal for the smallest reefs.
Mandarin Dragonet
A living watercolour — gorgeous, but only for mature tanks that grow enough copepods.
Lawnmower Blenny
A goofy, perching algae-grazer that mows film and hair algae off the rocks.
Neon Goby
The tiny cleaner goby — captive-bred, nano-friendly, and it picks parasites off your other fish.
Bicolor Blenny
The two-tone nano blenny with attitude — an eager algae-grazer that may nip corals if underfed.
Tailspot Blenny
The peaceful pick of the nano blennies — a tireless algae-grazer that stays out of trouble.
Midas Blenny
The golden "crown jewel" blenny — it swims out in open water like a wrasse and rarely bothers corals.
Wrasses 2
Cardinals & Basslets 3
Royal Gramma
A hardy purple-and-gold beauty — peaceful, colourful, and nano-friendly.
Banggai Cardinalfish
A striking finned-and-spotted cardinalfish — calm, and a captive-breeding success story.
Pajama Cardinalfish
A quirky polka-dot schooler that drifts calmly in the open — great in a group.
Anthias 1
Hawkfish 1
Soft Corals 7
Zoanthids
Colour-packed polyp colonies — the collectible, forgiving coral most reefers start with.
Mushroom Coral
Bulletproof beginner coral — happy in low light and low flow, and it spreads for free.
Green Star Polyp
A neon-green carpet that grows like wildfire — hardy, cheap, and beginner-proof.
Pulsing Xenia
The hypnotic coral that "pulses" all day — mesmerising, and it multiplies fast.
Toadstool Leather Coral
The big, hardy toadstool that anchors a soft-coral reef — it just needs room and periodic sheds.
Kenya Tree Coral
The bulletproof beginner tree coral — so hardy it can spread; a great first coral, kept in check.
Ricordea Mushroom
The jewel of the mushrooms — bubbly, fluorescent discs that are hardy and beginner-easy.
LPS Corals 10
Hammer Coral
Flowing hammer-tipped tentacles that sway in the current — a showpiece LPS.
Torch Coral
Long, glowing tentacles tipped like torches — one of the most coveted LPS corals.
Frogspawn Coral
Branching, grape-like tentacle clusters — an easy, rewarding first big LPS.
Duncan Coral
A friendly, fast-growing LPS that visibly loves being fed — very beginner-friendly.
Acan Coral
Jewel-toned fleshy polyps in every colour — collectible, hardy and easy to feed.
Candy Cane Coral
The candy-striped starter LPS — hardy, peaceful, and it buds into more heads the more you feed it.
Open Brain Coral
The fleshy open brain that sits on the sand — stunning colour, but keep the flow gentle.
Plate Coral
The solitary plate coral that slowly moves around the sand — hardy, but keep it off sharp rock.
Blastomussa
The low-light gem — fat, glowing polyps that colour up best OUT of bright light.
Goniopora (Flowerpot)
The mesmerising flowerpot — once nearly "impossible"; now doable, but only aquacultured and fed.
SPS Corals 5
Montipora
The forgiving first SPS — plates and encrusts fast once your parameters are stable.
Birdsnest Coral
Delicate needle-thin branches — a fast, relatively forgiving intro to branching SPS.
Acropora
The reef-keeper's trophy coral — dazzling growth, but only in a mature, ultra-stable tank.
Stylophora
The "cat's paw" — one of the toughest, most beginner-friendly branching SPS.
Pocillopora
The forgiving, fast-growing SPS — the classic bridge from LPS to a full SPS reef.
Shrimp 5
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
A hardworking reef-safe shrimp that "cleans" your fish — endlessly entertaining.
Peppermint Shrimp
The reef's natural pest-control — it eats nuisance Aiptasia anemones.
Fire Shrimp
The blood-red jewel of the reef — a hardy cleaner shrimp that just wants a shady hideout.
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
The engineer of the goby-shrimp partnership — it builds the burrow, the goby keeps watch.
Coral Banded Shrimp
The striking "boxer" shrimp — hardy and characterful, but territorial toward other shrimp.
Snails & Crabs 12
Trochus Snail
A workhorse algae-grazing snail that can flip itself back over — the reliable cleanup pick.
Nassarius Snail
The sand-sifter — buries itself, then erupts to devour leftover food and detritus.
Emerald Crab
The go-to fix for bubble algae — a hardy little crab that eats what snails won't.
Blue-Leg Hermit Crab
The reef's tiny janitor — grazes hair algae and detritus all day; just give it spare shells.
Scarlet Hermit Crab
The red-legged hermit that truly eats algae — and bothers snails far less than most.
Cerith Snail
The all-rounder cleanup snail — grazes algae on glass and rock, then burrows and stirs the sand.
Astrea Snail
A tireless film-algae grazer — the catch is it can't reliably flip itself back over.
Turbo Snail
The big, hungry hair-algae eater — mows a bloom fast, but bulky enough to bump loose frags.
Nerite Snail
The glass specialist — small and reef-safe, it scrapes film algae and diatoms off the panes.
Fighting Conch
The sand-bed cleaner that isn't a fighter — it plows the substrate for detritus and algae.
Tuxedo Urchin
The reef's neat little algae-grazing urchin — great on hair algae, and it decorates itself.
Serpent Star
The rock-dwelling detritus vacuum — a tough, hidden scavenger (just not the green one).
Anemones 7
Bubble Tip Anemone
The classic clownfish host — the one anemone most reef tanks can actually keep.
Long-Tentacle Anemone
The sand-dwelling host anemone — it buries its foot deep in soft sand, unlike the rock-anchoring bubble-tip.
Magnificent Anemone
The spectacular Ritteri — a high-light, high-flow show anemone that is genuinely expert-only.
Sebae Anemone
The leathery host anemone with a buyer-beware catch: there is no naturally white or neon "sebae".
Carpet Anemone
The "fly-paper" sand anemone — big, gorgeous, and strong enough to catch and eat fish (even a clownfish).
Rock Flower Anemone
The best first anemone — hardy, stays put, and kept for its own colour (it does NOT host clownfish).
Condy Anemone
The cheap, hardy Caribbean anemone pet shops oversell — it wanders, stings corals, and eats small fish and shrimp.