70 stock list

[united417]

In the process of setting up my 70 with an 18 gal sump, will be a mixed reef (some sps, polyps and lps) looking for some advice on my hypothetical stocking list:

Midas Blenny
Wheelers goby (maybe two or three? Looking for fish here to maintain the sandbed without dumping sand all over the tank like sleeper gobies tend to do)
Pair of black ocellaris clowns
Pair of spotted mandarin
Vroliks wrasse
Christmas wrasse (h. Claudia)

Thanks all in advance!

 

[jraker]

Midas blenny - great fish, great personality

Wheelers goby - Hectors goby or Rainsford goby are better choices. Wheelers gobies are shrimp gobies, and do not sift or maintain your sandbed. All they do is pair up with a shrimp and make a burrow. Either one of the gobies I suggested would maintain your sand, but would not create a cloud like sleeper gobies.

Pair of black ocellaris clowns - can get aggressive as they get larger, but should be fine.

Pair of spotted mandarin - No. Don't do it. Unless you have a huge refugium, you won't be able to support a viable amount of pods in your tank and sump for them to survive.

Your wrasses should be fine, but if you wan to have a mandarin, don't get the christmas or vroliks wrasse. They will eat all the pods, and maybe small invertabres. If you wanted the mandarins, you should choose a different type of wrasse, like a flasher or fairy wrasse.

I would also consider adding some small active fish to the tank like a royal gramma or a firefish.

 

[united417]

Midas blenny - great fish, great personality

Wheelers goby - Hectors goby or Rainsford goby are better choices. Wheelers gobies are shrimp gobies, and do not sift or maintain your sandbed. All they do is pair up with a shrimp and make a burrow. Either one of the gobies I suggested would maintain your sand, but would not create a cloud like sleeper gobies.

Pair of black ocellaris clowns - can get aggressive as they get larger, but should be fine.

Pair of spotted mandarin - No. Don't do it. Unless you have a huge refugium, you won't be able to support a viable amount of pods in your tank and sump for them to survive.

Your wrasses should be fine, but if you wan to have a mandarin, don't get the christmas or vroliks wrasse. They will eat all the pods, and maybe small invertabres. If you wanted the mandarins, you should choose a different type of wrasse, like a flasher or fairy wrasse.

I would also consider adding some small active fish to the tank like a royal gramma or a firefish.

Thanks so much for the valuable input! Blew my expectations away needless to say.

Excellent to know about the shrimp goby, I love both the hectors and rainsford; would I be capable to have both of them?

I was curious about the mandarins ability to exist with a wrasse or two, and I appreciate that as well so definitely will be removing them from the list. However, if I substituted a trio of fairy wrasse in for the larger two wrasse would the mandarins stand a suitable chance with 70 lbs of rock and definitely some in the sump as well

In your experience/opinion would a flame hawk be compatible with those two gobies I mentioned?

The royal gramma and fire fish both certainly appeal to me, as stated a trio or group of wrasse (or anthias??) I was hoping the wrasse would be the primary water column occupiers

Again thanks so much for the assistance

 

[SecretiveFish]

I was curious about the mandarins ability to exist with a wrasse or two, and I appreciate that as well so definitely will be removing them from the list. However, if I substituted a trio of fairy wrasse in for the larger two wrasse would the mandarins stand a suitable chance with 70 lbs of rock and definitely some in the sump as well

In your experience/opinion would a flame hawk be compatible with those two gobies I mentioned?

The royal gramma and fire fish both certainly appeal to me, as stated a trio or group of wrasse (or anthias??) I was hoping the wrasse would be the primary water column occupiers.

Even with those wrasses, IME you still will not be able to keep a pair of mandarins. I was not successful keeping a single mandarin in my 65g with plenty of live rock, no competition, and a refugium chamber in my sump. Unless you want to culture copepods, I would not do it. I tried keeping a pair of mandarins in our 150 with refugium, lots of live rock, and no competition without success...

I am not sure if those two gobies can go together, but IMO a flame hawk would be fine with them. I really like flame hawks.

My royal gramma spends most of its time near the rockwork, and I have had the same experience with firefish. You would probably be ok with the wrasse and a firefish or royal gramma.

 

[united417]

Even with those wrasses, IME you still will not be able to keep a pair of mandarins. I was not successful keeping a single mandarin in my 65g with plenty of live rock, no competition, and a refugium chamber in my sump. Unless you want to culture copepods, I would not do it. I tried keeping a pair of mandarins in our 150 with refugium, lots of live rock, and no competition without success...

I am not sure if those two gobies can go together, but IMO a flame hawk would be fine with them. I really like flame hawks.

My royal gramma spends most of its time near the rockwork, and I have had the same experience with firefish. You would probably be ok with the wrasse and a firefish or royal gramma.

Great to know! Definitely a fish I love but am more than happy to pass over them, heard too many stories similar to yours and I don't intend on adding to the loss of the species!

I wondered about that,definitely prefer the rainford but would like a couple/few ideally.

I am also a big fan of the flame hawk, but am also conscious of it's reported tendency to bully smaller fish so I am still undecided there.

Am also undecided about the wrasse situation!

Thanks all for the help, and I appreciate the time spent! Happy St Patties day! Better late than never.

 

[scooter31707]

Flame Hawk is a great fish and has a great personality. They can get a little aggressive to fish equal/smaller to them in size. Going into that tank with your list, I would add him last, letting everyone else get established.

 

[united417]

Flame Hawk is a great fish and has a great personality. They can get a little aggressive to fish equal/smaller to them in size. Going into that tank with your list, I would add him last, letting everyone else get established.

Thanks for the input! That would be the plan if I do end up with one.

I'd have to say the list is looking more like:
Midas blenny,
2 rainfordi gobies,
Trio of McCoskers Flashers,
One of Vroliks or H. Claudia,
Pair of black ocellaris clowns,
Possibly a Flame hawk at the end

 

[jraker]

I have heard a lot of good things about flame hawkfish, but I have als heard that they can get aggressive as they get older. I saw a large one at my LFS chase a grouper out of the tank.

 

[united417]

I have heard a lot of good things about flame hawkfish, but I have als heard that they can get aggressive as they get older. I saw a large one at my LFS chase a grouper out of the tank.

Yanno i think I will reconsider haha I never was so attached to em.

I have been interested in a couple of pearly Jawfish-forgot to add them to the list until I saw em in DD! Would that tap me out? I have a reef octopus 150 btw

 

[jraker]

Yanno i think I will reconsider haha I never was so attached to em.

I have been interested in a couple of pearly Jawfish-forgot to add them to the list until I saw em in DD! Would that tap me out? I have a reef octopus 150 btw

Jawfish are burrowing fish. In the wild, they will make a hole supported with rubble. So if you want one make sure you have lots and lots of rubble in your tank. You also need a pretty deep sandbed to keep one, as they can make their dens pretty deep. I am making a new macro algae tank, and I am going to pretty much center my aquascape and substrate around the pearly jawfish I wil get.

It really depends on how much work you want to do for a single fish.

How deep do you plan to have your sandbed? And what grade sand?

 

[Shawn O]

Anthias need more room. IIRC, Steve said something about the Rainfords Goby (aka Court Jester Goby) doing better singly. Multiples of Hector's Goby are supposed to do better together.

Good luck.

 

[united417]

Jawfish are burrowing fish. In the wild, they will make a hole supported with rubble. So if you want one make sure you have lots and lots of rubble in your tank. You also need a pretty deep sandbed to keep one, as they can make their dens pretty deep. I am making a new macro algae tank, and I am going to pretty much center my aquascape and substrate around the pearly jawfish I wil get.

It really depends on how much work you want to do for a single fish.

How deep do you plan to have your sandbed? And what grade sand?

I was planning on a slope of a sand bed of mixed grains with sufficient rubble, maybe 6 inches deep in the back left corner sloping to 3 inches at the front right (something similar is what I imagined anyway)

Anthias need more room. IIRC, Steve said something about the Rainfords Goby (aka Court Jester Goby) doing better singly. Multiples of Hector's Goby are supposed to do better together.

Good luck.

Thanks for the input! Definitely would prefer multiples since its a 70.
With the gobies I was trying to find a few cool fish that will help the CUC maintain the sandbed and also mingle in the rock work-definitely am open to others!

You are all so helpful, much appreciated!

 

[united417]

Maybe I will even scratch the trio and get a super male McCoskers and another flasher or fairy. Any suggestions? Would I have room for the two Halichoeres along with a McCoskers and another small fairy or flasher along with the rest I listed? But shoot I do like the idea of a trio along with a big wrasse and the rest of em

 

[jraker]

It sounds like the jawfish will do fine. Just be sure to have an open area wherever it makes its burrow, because in the wild they have a 360 degree all the time to see oncoming predators.

 

[united417]

It sounds like the jawfish will do fine. Just be sure to have an open area wherever it makes its burrow, because in the wild they have a 360 degree all the time to see oncoming predators.

Yanno upon further thought I may forego the jaw fish: as I recall some questionable things about DSBs over time. Thanks for the help once more jraker.

May end up bringing in a flame angel (always been a huge fan) along with the wrasses, Midas blenny, flame hawk, Royal gramma and pair of clowns. Contemplated a tang (bristle tooth or tomini) but I'm just not sold on the appearance of em and would rather take the flame angel and risk damage to the reef

But I am seriously still undecided-which ain't all bad I spose!

 

[united417]

Definitely the Midas, gramma, clowns, Vroliks, flame angel, and flame hawk, H. Claudia, and a trio of flashers (preferably McCoskers)

if I ended up not having enough room for them all it would come down to the trio and no Christmas or Christmas with a male McCoskers but does a single male super McCoskers keep its color without females around??