Prospective Fish List (1 Viewer)

[chiroman]

I could use some input on my prospective fish list because I think that I am ready to start stocking up. I have a 150 gallon tank w/ 30 gallon sump/refugium that has been set up for about 3 months. I have 100lbs of base rock that has been in the tank the whole 3 months, but is showing no signs of looking like live rock. I also have 1 piece of live rock that I purchased at a LFS to seed the rest of the rock.

As far as livestock, I currently have:

-1 green chromis
-some cerith snails
-some blue leg hermits
~16 peppermint shrimp (side note, these guys have babies all the time...crazy, didn't expect that)
-1 nephthea coral that I got from another marsh member

So far, everything appears to be doing well, and I have no problems to report. Below are the fish that I eventually want to have. Let me know if you see any problems here. Also, what order should I look to purchase these fish?

-2 percula or ocellaris clowns (should I look for one kind over the other?)
-1 flame angel
-1 yellow tang
-1 powder blue tang
-1 blue hippo tang (maybe, but maybe not)
-1 diamond or golden headed sleeper goby (suggestions? should I consider another type of sand sifting goby?)
-1 green mandarin dragonet (I understand I need to wait AT LEAST 6 month for this fish)
-possibly more green chromises, but probably not

I have read that the hermits that I currently have will eat all of the pods that the mandarin needs to eat. Should I get rid of the hermits if I want this fish?

I also plan to get some corals (haven't thought about which ones yet) and probably a bubble tip anemone for the clowns, but I'll save that subject for another day.

 

[chriskb3]

Your stocking list looks pretty good for your tank size. Make sure you add the fish slowly, over time, to allow your biological filtration to catch up with the load increase. Your live rock will take time to be covered in coralline, and new coral frags will bring in all the neat little hitch hikers (sometimes bad ones too lol).

Make sure with the tangs, to add them at the same time, or introduce the less aggressive one first to acclimate to suroundings without being bullied.

Be wary of any sand sifting goby, they will constantly re-arrange your sand bed, and dump sand on any nearby rock and corals. Some sand sifting gobies are notoroius for not doing well in the aquarium, like the twin spot, since pracically most of their food source is from the sand.

Green chromis are nice when your first get them, they will schoal all the time, out in the open. But soon after they will begin picking each other off until there are only one or two left.

 

[chiroman]

Thanks for your reply. As far as the tangs, I'm assuming it wouldn't be a good idea to keep more than one at a time in a 30 gallon QT, right? If I am adding the least aggressive one first, would the order go like this - blue hippo, yellow, powder blue?

How do diamond gobies do in aquariums? I haven't heard of any troubles with them.

About the chromis, I know what you mean. I had 6, but only one is left.

What about hermit crabs and the mandarin dragonet in the same tank? Will there be enough pods for the mandarin?

 

[Llama]

I have a green mandarin in my 46 right now with 15 or so blue legged hermits. Never had an issue. The mandarin is still nice and fat. However, I will say that I made the guy at the LFS feed him in front of me bofore I took him home. To this day I have not seen him eat anything but pods though.

 

[chriskb3]

I dont have any experience with those particular tangs, so I'll let someone else chime in about that.

Diamond gobies make great inhabitants, if you dont mind them moving the sand around.

The hermits wont bother the pods, so once the population builds up and stabilizes, your mandrin should have plenty to keep him busy and fat. My spotted mandrin, that I've had for quite a while now, has taken to eating prepared food so i've started to consider finding him a mate now that there are enough pods to feed 2.

 

[karlo]

Watch out for the Powder Blue Tang, they are really good at getting ich so always keep your eye on it.

 

[angel4]

I added:
- Several Green chromis
- Fox face
- Several Anthias
- Yellow tang
- False Percula clown
- Hippo Tang
in that order and they survived.
I should have added the Hippo tang before the Yellow tang but it turned out ok too.
Several green chromis disappeared.
One anthias disappeared.

I used to have Flame angel, Goby and Powder Brown but they died, either sickness or starvation.

The clown fish does not need an anenome. In fact, I think it's better without, at least for us. I understand with an anenome, the clown will stay a few inches from it the whole time. Mine will swim all over the tank .