158g Fowlr

[JustinReef]

Well you have the perfect attitude for keeping fish happy and healthy. Your tank will no doubt turn out amazing. As for the trigger, I would say adding it last would certainly help. Also choosing a Trigger that is known to be less aggressive will help. I have had the best luck with Blue Throat Triggers and if you get a male, they are absolutely gorgeous in my opinion. Not as in your face colorful but very nice subtle yellow and blues. Very gentle fish too. You would have to take into account their adult size. I had to give mine up because it got about 10". I had a puffer about the same size but the problem was the trigger was much more active than the puffer and just seemed cramped. Great fish though. Beautiful in pairs but you would have to really limit your stock list to just a few fish if you went with a pair.

Not to suggest you should do this but a pair of Blue Throat Triggers and a Porcupine or Dogface puffer would make a very nice tank. Man I could easily set up 5 or 6 tanks if I had the room!

 

[JustinReef]

Not my pic or fish but this is a Male Blue Throat:

 

[elecbzerk]

Man, no doubt. 5 or 6 tanks easy. But lack of space andgetting the mrs. to agree is another story....Love the blue throat!! Will post a pic or two of the "before"shot on Sat or Sun. In the meantime, I'm going to be deep in research. I know the puffer for the boys, so like you said originally, i'll build around that with my decision on what else.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12619799#post12619799 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justinpsmith
Man I could easily set up 5 or 6 tanks if I had the room! [/B]

 

[LisaD]

it'll be great to see pictures of the tank. I predict the whole family will love the puffers. they are the closest you can get to a finny dog.

blue throat triggers ARE gorgeous, and actually very shy, so you could add one at any time. as justin said, they are active, and they get 10-12", which might be pushing it in your tank. Even though a picasso trigger gets the same length, it is not such an active swimmer.

I've enjoyed this thread, glad you found our advice helpful.

I really don't have room for more tanks, I have too many in a modest sized house. I have promised to shed a few, but now justin's post has me thinking about brackish again...

 

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12621045#post12621045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LisaD
it'll be great to see pictures of the tank. I predict the whole family will love the puffers. they are the closest you can get to a finny dog.

blue throat triggers ARE gorgeous, and actually very shy, so you could add one at any time. as justin said, they are active, and they get 10-12", which might be pushing it in your tank. Even though a picasso trigger gets the same length, it is not such an active swimmer.

I've enjoyed this thread, glad you found our advice helpful.

I really don't have room for more tanks, I have too many in a modest sized house. I have promised to shed a few, but now justin's post has me thinking about brackish again...

I live in a small condo and Im trying to work out a way to have a brackish tank again too! I think my only option is a 24G nano I have empty though. Im not sure what I would keep in it though because most if the brackish fish I love are big...

 

[petsarenice]

Thanks for all the advice. I have been learning a bunch reading through it.

 

[elecbzerk]

BEFORE PICS

BEFORE PICS

I thought I would post some pics of how this set up looks before. I did not take any of the equipment, I thought that would bore. LMK what you think.

before

 

[JustinReef]

Uhhhh...Whoa Im confused. So you have that gorgeous reef and your asking our advice??? LOL. Thats a BEAUTIFUL tank.

Did I miss something?

 

[JustinReef]

Ok...I went back and read the first post

 

[JustinReef]

So are those pics of it at the original owners place? Are you selling the corals? Man thats a great reef. My kind of reef!

 

[elecbzerk]

LOL, your memory is as bad as mine. Yes, that is at the current owner's. We will move it on htis Sat. I'll probably never get the rock re-arranged the way it is now..I do plan to move the candy cane, slimmer and montipora over to my 75G reef. and sell what I can't fit. What do you think about the xenia? I have heard the softies will help a great deal with filtration.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12633368#post12633368 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justinpsmith
Ok...I went back and read the first post

 

[MeskeetDog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12611543#post12611543 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justinpsmith
Clean up crew is hard with puffers. They will most likely eat them. I have been lucky that my puffers dont really care about hermit crabs...well they try to eat them but are way too lazy to keep trying once the crab goes in its shell. I have also kept a few HUGE snails with them but other than that, everything else gets eaten.

What kind of puffer are you thinking of? For that size tank, maybe one spiny puffer (ie. porcupine) and one smooth puffer (ie. Dogface) would be nice. Just be careful about mixing similar puffers unless you have a really big tank.

For that size tank, just stay away from puffers like Stars and Stripes, Mappa, and some of the others that get quite large and will outgrow the tank in a year or so. A lot of LFS will tell you they are fine in a tank your size but you will find out pretty fast that those puffers need more room.

The other thing with puffers (or any fish really) is to make sure you feed them a varied diet. I go to a local asian market and pick up bags of mixed sea food including squid, clams, mussels, ect. as well as grabbing a bunch of fresh prawns, mussels, manila clams, squid, ect. Make sure you freeze all these foods before you feed them. Then just rethaw in vitamins and you will have healthy, happy puffers.

Depending on what type you get, you will also have to keep their teeth from overgrowing by feeding stuff like clams and mussels still in the shell so they can grind their teeth down. This is not a problem for porcupine puffers but other species like dogface, it is.

Anyways, hope that helps a bit. Puffers are amazing fish with so much personality but are very messy and get big. You have to be careful not to over stock a tank that has puffers because they really put a heavy load on a system as they get big. My porcupine eats between 2-3 whole prawns by himself about 2-3 times a week! You can imagine how hard that is on the tank.

And the last thing I would say is to QT of course. Puffers are like tangs when it comes to ich. They almost always will get it if they are exposed and most of the time they are in a LFS. No copper though.

Good luck!

"They almost always will get it if they are exposed and most of the time they are in a LFS. No copper though."

Can you clarify on this please? obviously the come from a store and will get it (Ich) under stress from the transition (good reason to QT) but the Copper thing i dont get...dont use copper at all due to smooth skin? Am i understanding it correctly?
thanks in advance

 

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12635008#post12635008 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MeskeetDog
"They almost always will get it if they are exposed and most of the time they are in a LFS. No copper though."

Can you clarify on this please? obviously the come from a store and will get it (Ich) under stress from the transition (good reason to QT) but the Copper thing i dont get...dont use copper at all due to smooth skin? Am i understanding it correctly?
thanks in advance

Yes puffers get ich very easily and as you said being in a LFS, its easy to get. They will most likely have it.

You don't want to use copper on puffers because its too harsh for them. They do not have scales. Basically any scale-less fish should not be treated with copper. People do use copper anyways and no the fish do not necessarily die but there can be side effects. Its just not a good thing to put them through.

 

[elecbzerk]

Justin, or LisaD; in the pics you can see all of that xenia, is it a good idea to keep it in the tank for filtration? I was at least thinking of trimming it back, it is choking out almost everything else.

 

[LisaD]

First, you need to tell me, does that gorgeous emperor angel come with the tank? If so, you need to keep him!!! Reminds me of mine.

Nice pictures. Good luck with the tank move. I'll be at the IMAC conference this weekend, in Chicago. I don't know if I'll have computer access or not. If not, I'll check back Sunday night or Monday.

I'd go ahead and leave the Xenia. You can prune out as needed. Since you have the reef lighting, any hardy corals that aren't extremely valuable that you can leave in the tank, I'd leave.

 

[elecbzerk]

Thanks Lisa. and no, unfortunately, the gorgeous Angel does not come with it. The owner is not willing to let it go. (I wouldn't either!!) That fish will eat out of his hand, and actually remembers people. He will hide if it is someone he doesn't like or knowcomes in. He is aggressive though, that is why there are no other fish outside of a cleaner wrasse, and a madarin. Also, the seller is having second thoughts of letting the system go now, as this was his first tank. I don't blame him. If he changes his mind, I will get another and start from scratch; as I would really like to see my boys light up everytime they see their own puffer. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[JustinReef]

Oh man I hope you get the tank but if you don't, you might want to look for a 180G. Close to the same gallonage but you would have a few more options for fish. Hopefully it does not come to that though.

When will you know?

 

[JustinReef]

Oh and keep the xenia and any other softies you can in the tank...if you like them. They will all help with water quality a bit, especially the xenia.

 

[elecbzerk]

Justin, I should know by next week. He postponed the move this weekend. If it doesn't go through for me, then I will def keep my eye out for a 180-200. People are always selling tanks, thats the easy part. it's the rest of the set-up where the $$$ starts to fly.

 

[elecbzerk]

Cool, thanks man! If I do end up with this set up, I will keep most of the xenia. If not, I will look to stock the next choice with xenia or zoas and other softies.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12637155#post12637155 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justinpsmith
Oh and keep the xenia and any other softies you can in the tank...if you like them. They will all help with water quality a bit, especially the xenia.