60G cube stock list... thoughts?

Etoimos

Etoimos

New member
It's getting close to time to pick up some fish for our 60G cube mixed reef (mostly LPS and softies) tank and I'd like some feed back and input on what I'm looking at please.

For starters, we have to a have a pair of clown fish. Right now I'm leaning towards a pair of Onyx of maybe an Onyx and Picasso.

With those two mandatory selections to start the list, here are the other fish I am thinking about along with questions/thoughts about them...

Leopard Wrasse
My wife and step daughter love this fish and it is one of the few really striking fish that would be okay in our relativity small tank. LiveAquaria.com lists them as "Expert Only" for the care level. Why is that?

Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse
This is another Wrasse that we like. My concerns here is our tank size. LA says 75G, but list the max size as 3.5". Is the larger tank size due to needing room to swim? Also, has anyone kept these two types of Wrasse in the same tank?

Lemonpeel Anglefish
The wife loves the Yellow Tang, but our tank is way to small for one of those so I started looking for a substitute and came across this guy. LA lists them as needing a 70G, so it might still be a stretch.

One Spot Foxface
I really like this guy and he could also feel the Yellow Tang void, but again LA suggests a 70G tank. I'm also a little concerned about it in an LPS tank.

Diamond Watchman Goby
These guys are just neat to watch cleaning the sand bed and is a must have for my 7 year old son.


A couple of fish on my "back up" list are:

Kole Yellow Eye Tang
Size is again an issue with this one.

Blue/Green Reef Chromis
Not really one of my favorite fish, but everyone else loves the color of these.

If it helps, here is a full tank shot of our setup as of yesterday...

Corals-Critters-9288.jpg


So what are your thoughts on which of those fish we should get and which should we shy away from?

Thanks for any feedback!
 
Leopard Wrasse have small delicate mouths that can get damaged during shipping. IME, it can be a challenge to get them to eat pellets/mysis. They constantly graze over Established LR. They love pods, so having a refugium with good pod production helps significantly. They also need a 3" sand bed to sleep in. From your picture, the tank isn't ready for a leopard Wrasse.

Most Fairy Wrasses are fairly easy to care for and I would think your tank size would be ok.
 
+1 on leopards being delicate and difficult eaters. They never stop hunting.

After they've settled in to your system though they seem to be hardier, they just don't ship well. Beautiful fish, definitely my fave.

Make sure there is a healthy population of copepods/Amphipods etc for it to hunt.

DaimondBack back gobies are great to watch and do a great job at keeping sand white. IME they need to be well fed though, in the wild they have something like 18square feet (if I remember correctly) of hunting ground with various dens that they rotate around. If not fed properly they can starve after a year or so.
Also the constant creation of sand dunes around corals etc can be abit tiresome but easily smoothed out, not that much of a problem.
They will decimate all life in your sandbed though.

Again fair Wrasses would be fine IMO.

I would be hesitant with the lemon peel as it could be prone to nip at your clam especially as it matures. A coral beauty might be a better choice or even better would be a bellus angel or something else from the genicanthus species of angels.

IMO a fox face is pushing it but doable and same for the kole tang. They will be fine whilst smaller but grow fairly quickly and this could be a problem when they're a mature size. They need length rather than gallons, a cube doesn't quite provide it.

Just my opinions.




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I agree with all that has been stated. With a Lemonpeel, Orange Shoulder Wrasse, and a Goby along with the Leopard Wrasse may put the it in jeopardy with pods, especially if the leopard is not eating. IMO, it's a no-go for the foxface and kole in that size tank. Lemonpeel is going to be borderline and in a tank that size they can become aggressive and IME, they destroy corals.
 
WLachnit said:
Leopard Wrasse have small delicate mouths that can get damaged during shipping. IME, it can be a challenge to get them to eat pellets/mysis. They constantly graze over Established LR. They love pods, so having a refugium with good pod production helps significantly. They also need a 3" sand bed to sleep in. From your picture, the tank isn't ready for a leopard Wrasse.

Most Fairy Wrasses are fairly easy to care for and I would think your tank size would be ok.
Click to expand...

Thanks. My sand bead is only about 3", so I don't think it would support the Leopard Wrassse and I don't plan on running a refugium on this 60 cube. So I guess this guy is out... wife was really disappointed. She has been quite a bit disappointed that 90% of the fish she likes need a much bigger tank. On the plus side though, she has already excepted that we will get a second tank that is larger.

Nomdeguerre said:
+1 on leopards being delicate and difficult eaters. They never stop hunting.

After they've settled in to your system though they seem to be hardier, they just don't ship well. Beautiful fish, definitely my fave.

Make sure there is a healthy population of copepods/Amphipods etc for it to hunt.

DaimondBack back gobies are great to watch and do a great job at keeping sand white. IME they need to be well fed though, in the wild they have something like 18square feet (if I remember correctly) of hunting ground with various dens that they rotate around. If not fed properly they can starve after a year or so.
Also the constant creation of sand dunes around corals etc can be abit tiresome but easily smoothed out, not that much of a problem.
They will decimate all life in your sandbed though.

Again fair Wrasses would be fine IMO.

I would be hesitant with the lemon peel as it could be prone to nip at your clam especially as it matures. A coral beauty might be a better choice or even better would be a bellus angel or something else from the genicanthus species of angels.

IMO a fox face is pushing it but doable and same for the kole tang. They will be fine whilst smaller but grow fairly quickly and this could be a problem when they're a mature size. They need length rather than gallons, a cube doesn't quite provide it.

Just my opinions.
Click to expand...

My favorite, not quite local, fish store has several of the Leopard Wrasse so shipping would not have been an issue. But as I replied above, it's out for other reason for now.

For the Gobi, I was already planning on having to feed it since I have such a small tank foot print. The current plan is not to have too many corals on the sand bed, neither my wife or I like the look of a cluttered sand bed much. I don't think we will end up with anything besides the plate coral in there now just laying on the sand. But if it covers things up a bit, I can deal with that.

How rapidly do the fox face and kole tang grow? As noted above, the wife has already come to terms that we will have a second, larger tank. I just don't know how long it will take her to actually approve the funds for a second tank. I'm thinking at least a year.

I'll take a look at those other angels you mentioned.
 
Etoimos said:
Leopard Wrasse
My wife and step daughter love this fish and it is one of the few really striking fish that would be okay in our relativity small tank. LiveAquaria.com lists them as "Expert Only" for the care level. Why is that?

Like the others said, getting a healthy specimen, getting it to eat, providing a mature tank with a deeper sand bed can all be challenging.


Lemonpeel Anglefish
The wife loves the Yellow Tang, but our tank is way to small for one of those so I started looking for a substitute and came across this guy. LA lists them as needing a 70G, so it might still be a stretch.

I wouldn't. They are notorious coral nippers. How about Halichoeres chrysus wrasse for the yellow color. It's also very peaceful and active.

One Spot Foxface
I really like this guy and he could also feel the Yellow Tang void, but again LA suggests a 70G tank. I'm also a little concerned about it in an LPS tank.

I wouldn't. It's an eventual 8" fish with venomous spines that uses them when cramped.



Diamond Watchman Goby
These guys are just neat to watch cleaning the sand bed and is a must have for my 7 year old son.

More challenging then you might think. Most starve or jump out. Try to find one that eats prepared food and give it a mature sand bed with lots of pods and worms.
A couple of fish on my "back up" list are:

Kole Yellow Eye Tang
Size is again an issue with this one.

Tank is too small

Blue/Green Reef Chromis
One would be fine.
Click to expand...
 
Show your wife Longnose Hawkfish.Pretty cool fish! It's a favorite fish in my tank. If you planning to keep Shrimp introduce before Hawkfish.
60 is pretty hard to stock in my opinion.... Having similar problem! Many fish didn't work out! Take your time and do it very slow. Good luck
 
Nomdeguerre said:
A coral beauty might be a better choice or even better would be a bellus angel or something else from the genicanthus species of angels.
Click to expand...

The Coral Beauty is an option and I've looked at it before. Its just not my favorite angle fish. All of the genicanthus angles I saw needed tanks twice the size of ours.

scooter31707 said:
I agree with all that has been stated. With a Lemonpeel, Orange Shoulder Wrasse, and a Goby along with the Leopard Wrasse may put the it in jeopardy with pods, especially if the leopard is not eating. IMO, it's a no-go for the foxface and kole in that size tank. Lemonpeel is going to be borderline and in a tank that size they can become aggressive and IME, they destroy corals.
Click to expand...

I would not mix the two Wrasse in this small of a tank, so it would be one or the other... more likely the Orange Shoulder.

nereefpat said:
Blue/Green Reef Chromis
One would be fine.
Click to expand...

Why only one of these? I've read they do better in groups of 2 or 3. The Yellow Wrasse could fill the wife desire for a yellow fish, but that would cross out the other Wrasse on this list.

jar41 said:
Show your wife Longnose Hawkfish.Pretty cool fish! It's a favorite fish in my tank. If you planning to keep Shrimp introduce before Hawkfish.
60 is pretty hard to stock in my opinion.... Having similar problem! Many fish didn't work out! Take your time and do it very slow. Good luck
Click to expand...

I've seen the Longnose Hawkfish at the local pet stores and it's pretty neat. I'll show the wife and see what she thinks.
 
Last edited:
So, from the original list of possibilities I posted, this is what I'm left with:

Clowns
Leopard Wrasse
Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse
Lemonpeel Anglefish
One Spot Foxface
Diamond Watchman Goby
Kole Yellow Eye Tang
Blue/Green Reef Chromis

Personally, not all that exciting to me :( Maybe I should just do the clownfish harem tank I originally was thinking of. LOL
 
If i would do it again i definitely would put bunch of wrasses in one tank.Fairy and flashers in the mix. Maybe i would add 2 different fish like Starry Blenny and some Basslet?
 
The fairy wrasse and the yellow wrasse will be compatible. Both are very peaceful.

Most of the time when folks get a group of chromis, they end up with one. They pick each other off.

I still like the dwarf angel idea. I just wouldn't do a lemonpeel. A flame or coral beauty, or flameback would be less likely to eat your corals.
 
Good to know that some Wrasse can go together. What about the Yellow Wrasse and the Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse?

I also just found the Blue Damselfish, how would that go with what we have been talking about?
 
All flasher/fairy wrasses are peaceful, and the yellow is among the most peaceful Halichoeres wrasses.

The damsels you would want to look at would be Chrysiptera spp, like the yellowtail or sapphire. And only get one. Definitely stay away from any Paraglyphidon, Neoglyphidon, or Dascyllus. Sk8tr (our damsel lover here) has a good write-up here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/blog.php?b=847
 
So the current proposed stock list for my tank is as follows:

2x Clown fish
1x Blue Sapphire Damsel
1x Dwarf Angle (undecided on which just yet)
1x Yellow Wrasse

How much of a bio-load is that for a 60g cube?


If I can add more (how many more?), I'm looking at some combination of the following:

1x Black Cap Basslet
1x Flasher Wrasse
1x Fairy Wrasse
 
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