Help with Stocking

[mnat]

Prazi is a great medicine for a bunch of different parasites (internal and external) that is widely used in the aquarium. Fish can lose appetite during treatment so just keep that in mind, some people like to make sure they are eating before they dose the prazi to make sure they have a healthy eating specimen.

I drip every single fish we have ever brought in. I know some people do it other ways, but I will stick with what works.

I think you are making the right choice with doing it slow. It sounds like you have some very nice SPS and the last thing you want to do is spike your nitrate cycle and phosphates which could brown out your SPS or kill it outright.

 

[kschweer]

Good call only doing a few fish at a time. As far as acclimation goes I wouldn't suggest anything other than drip acclimation for fish. I usually float the bag for 10-15 minutes to match temp between the bag and the tank and drip until I at least double the amount of water the fish was packed in. Drip acclimation allows for a slow transition of parameter for your new fish.

 

[dppitone]

There is no inch per fish rule. Rather, and IMO, there are a few intelligent ways to approach the question, and they don't require guessing in advance on outcomes.

The best thing to do is prioritize what you want and add one or two at a time, while checking levels as you go to see if bio-load can be handled by your config. As far as what fish get along with who, there's really no way to know till you try. If you have a grouping that starts problems, just be prepared to break it up and trade the problem fish out with a fellow reefer. No harm done, it's trial and error business. Notions of right and wrong are overstated in this hobby IMO.

40 gallons of water capacity on a 75 gallon tank is small in my opinion - bare minimum. Yet if you do as stated above, gradually, you'll end up where you need to be. Adding many fish at one time is not good practice.

$.02.

 

[trivan]

I realize people have been doing drip acclimation for ages, but after I read this I was convinced to change as I will consider purchasing fish via mail order when I have my QT set up.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1939508

I think this only really comes into play if you have a fish shipped and is in a sealed bag for a long period of time. Reasoning for me changing? Some of the most respected people in the hobby are on RC and they weren't challenging the procedure.

 

[Paul B]

A lot of good information here. I would not add all those fish at the same time for a couple of reasons. First, that is a couple of hundred dollars worth of fish and second your tank is not cycled to add that many fish. I don't care what it says on your test kit a tank continually cycles in relation to the bio load. My tank is very old and I would not put 9 fish in at once. The royal gramma could be a little boistrious and firefish jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor.
Forget the one inch fish rule. Many saltwater fish don't hardly even count, like clown gobies for instance. One of my favorite fish and you could probably put 50 of them in there. Small gobies also, as long as you pick gobies that don't get over like 2".
Bangai cardinals are fairly large but swim about 6" a day and tend to just sit there looking at you. But foxface's are much larger and very active. Don't get stung by them as it feels the same thing as if you were run over by an Oldsmobile. They just have to touch you with that top fin. If you keep those fish healthy by feeing live food you should never need Prazi or anything else.
Good Luck.
Paul

 

[horseplay]

I realize people have been doing drip acclimation for ages, but after I read this I was convinced to change as I will consider purchasing fish via mail order when I have my QT set up.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1939508

I think this only really comes into play if you have a fish shipped and is in a sealed bag for a long period of time. Reasoning for me changing? Some of the most respected people in the hobby are on RC and they weren't challenging the procedure.

Thanks for the link. I agree with the no-drip method, especially with fish in a sealed bag in extended peorid of time. Good see a lot of people doing it. It's a trade off of priorities. IMO when the ammonia level in the bag very high and the O2 level very low, getting fish to fresher water is the main concern (assuming matched SG).

 

[NikkiT]

IMO when the ammonia level in the bag very high and the O2 level very low, getting fish to fresher water is the main concern (assuming matched SG).

That is a valid point. It is also applicable when a fish is packaged locally and for whatever reason (typically too small of a bag), is running low on O2 and obviously in distress. This happened to me about 2 years ago, and Marc (one of our speakers in for a frag swap) recognized the distress and helped us save Marc the fish (an aquacultured assessor basslet) by advising to remove him from acclimation and put him right into the tank. This is the only time we did this and it undoubtably saved the fish.
There is no one right way to do things here. More than one thing will work.
That said, we do typically drip acclimate fish. If fish are properly prepared for shipment (ie food withheld the day before shipping, shipped in a large bag with heat/cool packs and O2), and they do not arrive in distress, I do find that we get better results from drip acclimation.
The exception to that is if you are putting the fish into a QT system, and your QT can match the SG and temp of the water the fish arrived in- then I see little reason to drip acclimate.

 

[JRWOHLER]

The royal gramma could be a little boistrious and firefish jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor.

That was too funny.

 

[dppitone]

[F]irefish jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor.

Hilarious

 

[horseplay]

Stop by Trop they have Lyre tail, Bartlett, Dispar and Ignitus. I think I am going to go with either Bartlett or Ignitus. Both max out at 3 1/2 according to LA. The problem is how to sex them. They're not very small so some already changed or changing to male? The Ignitus are smaller. But the bright yellow back on the Bartlett is very nice.

The also have solorensis wrasse and carpenter flasher. Love both. Can I stock these two with the six line I already have EVENTUALLY?