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Stocking reef tank

R

reef boy

I am going to be giving away three of my fish a blue hippo tang, egineer goby, and I already have given away my indigo dottyback. So I am looking to get some new fish. I'm not sure when I am going to put a new fish in. I have a 144 gallon half circle mixed reef tank.

The current fish that I have are...

Achilles tang
cleaner wrasse
yellow patch wrasse
condei wrasse
pair of regular occelaris clowns

You dont have to worry about the Achilles tang because he is pretty small and my parents have promised me that when the time is right I can upgrade. :)

Some of the fish that I was thinking about getting are...

Anthias- mabye a trio of Lyertail
I LOVE wrasses so I wanted to find a couple more that would get along with the ones I have. Mabye a pair of wrasses and then one or two more???
Kole tang- I really like them but I dont know how much room is available in the tank. Also if the Kole tang is the same shape as the Achilles?
Lawnmower blenny
manderin

I'm really not sure what I want right now but I just wanted to get a feeler out to see about how many fish I can have, which types of wrasses will fit in with others etc: I dont want to put anything in the tank that may jeopardize my corals or shrimp. I'm just looking for ideas and am open to any suggestions. I'd like to put some more less common fish in there but nothing that is going to cost thousands lol.

Thanks for your time,
Andrew
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
I am a fellow wrasse head so I understand.

As far as the anthias go: Lyretail are good, also check out Carberryi Anthias, and bartletts as well. A lot of people on RC are big fans of the Carberryi as they seem to be hardy and relatively cheap.
The blenny should do great in your tank
The manderin really depends on how your pod population is, if you have a fuge, and how established your tank is. They are a very tough fish, and you really have to find a good one to start (one that is not pinched or starving already). Ones that are on frozen or tank bred are very hard to find but worth the search.

Back to wrasses:
There is not really a compatability list out there as far as wrasses go. There are some species that are known to be aggressive, but even that is not 100%. The ones that are known to be aggressive are the Scotts fairty wrasse, red headed fairty wrasses, whip fins, eight lines, mystery wrasse, and roseafascia. That is not a complete list but a good start. You can also mix is up between fairy wrasses and flashers. For example carpenters flasher and golden rhomboid fairy wrasse. They should leave each other a lone.
 
R

reef boy

Lol I got a good laugh out of that. I guess what I was trying to ask about the compatibilty with the wrasses are do I have to worry about the same shape like I do with tangs. Also do you think that the kole tang would be ok with the achilles? The Achilles tang is actually pretty pasive for one. And I know that it kinda depends on how the fish that I currently have are acting and if there seems to be enough room but is there like an estimation of how many fish I would be able to have? I would like primarily smaller to medium size fish and then a kole tang if I can fit one.
Andrew
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

The tank is really pretty good sized. Do you have a sump also?

I like tangs a lot and have had two almost always in my tank. The smaller they are the easier the situation will be.
That is not the standard answer however and the tang police may come out and get me. Tang police

I have always gotten my tangs from AO and I picked ones that were in tanks with other tangs so I had a better chance they would play nice. The kole is not usually an agressive one, just know if worse comes to worse you will have to remove one.
 
Cdiggy

Cdiggy

My kole was pretty aggressive. It was however in a tank that was probably too small for him (60 gallon). He ended up killing a bicolor angel before I could get him out. I got him to control algae which he did very well but not worth the loss of fish.
 
R

reef boy

I do have a custom sump. I'm not sure the exact size but I would guess around 40 gallons. I also like tangs a lot! :) The Achilles is pretty peacful for an Achilles tang. I am use to hearing that the Achilles tang is always the king of the tank but when I had my hippo tang he was pretty much th dominet one. I mean there was once in a while that the Achilles stood up to the hippo but for the most part the hippo was king. I bought the tank with the Achilles and hippo in it so I never quarrentined the Achilles so I think I am going to do that considering that I'm going to put fish in there. So I think if I end up deciding that I'll get a kole tang then I'll put them in at the same time. When I had my 75 gallon I got a kole tang and it swam with the fire fish next to each other. :) I think the kole is a good choice for me though because they stay small for a tang and like you said they are really not usally agressive. I guess the tank was too small for the kole in your tank Doug, etheir that or you just got one that just happened to have a bad personality.

If I were to put a kole tang in the tank is there a guesstimate of how many more small/medium fish I could have? I'm just tying to come out with a number to try to get in my head so I can figure out a stock list that I might change down the road or not.

Also I know I have never heard of this fish but when I was on Live Aquaria toda, I found this fish in the Misc section and I thought it was extreamly cool. From what it said it has a great personality, it stays relativly small, and it is reef safe! Its called a Australian Stripey.

He is a link http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+46+3154&pcatid=3154

Thanks for all the help and imput!
Andrew
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

The general rule of thumb is 1 inch per 5 gallons....vs 1 per 1 in fresh water.
Lets say our sumps are the same..in my 120
I have 2 tangs, 2 clowns, bangaii cardinal fish, small angel and maybe a yellow assessor.
Max fish I think the above plus wrasse and blenny.

That was full what I have now there is room for some smaller fish if wanted wrasse and blenny were good sized, I had had them for a number of years before the blenny jumped and the wrasse just croaked.
 
R

reef boy

Thanks JRWOHLER!

Doug did you read the description? It makes them look and sound 10x better. I think it might be time for a upgrade lol.
 
Cdiggy

Cdiggy

Gotta talk the little lady into An upgrade. Baby steps. Got to slowly acclimate her to a new environment!!! Yeah man, he sounds and looks super cool.
 
Empire

Empire

The general rule can be used as a guideline, however I also buy fish according to where they dwell in a tank. I'll get open water fish, then fish that hang out in one area, mid level fish, then bottom feeders. As long as you have a very powerful skimmer, and you take fish growth into consideration, you'll have happy corals(eating poop) and an active tank.
 
R

reef boy

Thanks Empire! I have a ASM G3 skimmer, bio pellets, and GFO so I think I'm covered lol. The skimmer does up to 250 gallons.
 
R

reef boy

Also I have never had Anthias before because of too small of tank, has anybody had exprience with them? I want to know if they have a good personality (most of them at least in your experience). I want to know if it is even worth thinking about getting like a trio or if I should just get wrasses lol.
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

We have a sunburst in our reef, a pair of borbonius in our reef, an aurulentus in our reef, and a flavoguttatus in our frag tank.
I really like Anthias.

We had our first sunburst for 2 years, lost him in our move in August 2011, and we now have our second sunburst here. He did fine in our 57g, and does great in our 205. The other Anthias we did not get until we got our big tank and it was established.

All our anthias are active swimmers, and by now most of them recognize us and will come and beg for food.

You can also take a look at some of the basslets; we have a pair of gold assessor basslets in our reef that I love.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

BTW I found my yellow assessor after like a full month of not seeing him....lets say they can be a little shy. I guess he heard me talking about him haha.
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

JRWOHLER said:
BTW I found my yellow assessor after like a full month of not seeing him....lets say they can be a little shy. I guess he heard me talking about him haha.
Click to expand...

LOL.
Get him a friend and he may come out more ;)
Ours started out shy, but we have had him for 4 years and now he is pretty adventurous. We try to keep at least two at a time, and that seems to help them feel more comfortable and be out more.
 
dangerbird

dangerbird

Lawn Mower Blenny

I have a large Lawn Mower Blenny I will give to you for free. My purple tang has been harassing him lately and he's getting thin. I used to have a lot of algae, but now that's cleared up. He loves chowing down and is usually fat and happy. He's probably 4-5 inches.

Let me know,
Dave
I live in Howell, NJ
 
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