Should I add another fish? Which one?

[Gibbous]

Can anyone give me some input as to whether or not I should add another fish considering the information below, and if so, which might be a good choice?

Here's the details of my tank as is-
-36 gallon bowfront (relatively tall & small footprint) w/ a small sump (>10 gal) which holds carbon and a small Tunze skimmer that honestly doesn't seem to do much...
-The tank has been running for around 10 months with no chemistry problems, just a small amount of cyano that seems to be slowly disappearing.
~50 lbs of live rock and 2-3 inches of fine sand.
~15x turnover between the sump/overflow and a closed loop.

Inverts are a mix of nassarius, trochus, and turbo snails, as well as a few hermits. No shrimp. Coral is mostly softies with a couple LPS.

The 2 fish currently in there are a fuzzy dwarf lionfish (~4-5"), and a coral beauty (~3-4")The lion is not what I'd call aggressive at all and I've never seen it bother anything that wasn't on the end of my feeding stick, though I wouldn't be surprised to see it go after something if it thought it could eat it. The angel is a sort of skittish little thing, and I that seems to make the lion a bit nervous sometimes so if I were to add another I would look for something fairly docile, but also spends a lot of time in the open. Also, my tank is open topped and I'd like to keep it that way, so anything that is likely to jump probably wouldn't be good.

I've always liked lawnmower blennies, but my tank doesn't have much algae at all in it so I would have to feed mostly by sheets. Is that difficult in any way? Also, do these guys eat macro? I've got a little bit in there and would like to add more. I guess I'd have to find a pretty big one too.

I've also thought about a flame hawkfish but don't have many ideas beyond that. I don't really like clowns, and would be concerned about something like a goby or firefish becoming lunch for the lion.

Any input considering what I've mentioned so far? If I left aything important out I'll fill in the blanks as best I can. Thanks for reading...

 

[Ace25]

Hmmm, I see your dilemma. With that Lion in there your options are very limited. Just with your 2 fish your pushing the limits already, both of those fish you have need your size tank as a minimum by themselves. That said, lets go over the options you listed.

Lawnmower blenny, probably a good choice, but I would look into other types of algae blennies like the Starry Blenny or Orange Spot blenny just to have something a little less common.

Hawkfish, they are cool, really really cool personalities. Just make sure you don't get stuck in a staring contest with them, they will win. They are very curious and will watch your every move. They are not swimming fish, but either are lawnmower blennies. The blenny will swim more than a hawkfish, but I have had blennies jump out of the tank on me in the past (it is rare though compared to other known jumping fish like small wrasses).

Your correct on the gobies... lunch for the lion.

So, other options, maybe something like a Royal Gramma? Colorful and a swimming fish, just make sure to get one big enough so your lion wont eat it. The problem with getting another swimming type fish though is it is highly probable it will cause aggression issues with your angel in that small of a tank.

 

[Gibbous]

Thanks for the input Ace.

Hmmm, I see your dilemma. With that Lion in there your options are very limited. Just with your 2 fish your pushing the limits already, both of those fish you have need your size tank as a minimum by themselves.

I guess I have sort of painted myself into a corner. Not having a large number of fish has been both good and bad so far. When the lion spends a lot of its time hiding it can make the tank a little boring and the stocking limitations make for a big tradeoff in keeping one but I still love it. I certainly don't want to overstock, but I'd like to think I could get away with one more.

The problem with getting another swimming type fish though is it is highly probable it will cause aggression issues with your angel in that small of a tank.

This is another one of the things I was concerned about, and why I was mostly considering the types that tend to hang out on the rocks. The angel pretty much acts like it owns the place.

 

[cam191919]

my dwarf fuzzy lion would eat things i couldn't imagine fitting in his mouth, like needlefish and pinfish almost 3/4 his size, plus a pretty big lawnmower blenny. but he was very docile when it came to fish he couldnt eat. i had a toby puffer in with him in a 46 bowfront for a few months with no problems before velvet disease took all my stock.

 

[Gibbous]

velvet disease took all my stock.

That sucks, sorry to hear that... Before I do anything else I'm also going to get a QT going to help prevent things like this.

My lion is the same way, it's choked down a few silversides that have been about 2/3 his length, but doesn't pay any attention to the angel unless it just gets annoyed with it and swims away. I've seen some pretty big lawnmower blennies that I can't imagine it could eat, but not many lately so I could see having to go with something more like the hawkfish for that reason.

 

[Ace25]

Some lion fish are too dumb for their own good.. seen and heard of several instances where a lion tries to eat a fish too big for it and it ends up choking on the fish and dying. Seen it happen myself with a lion and a clown.