75 Gallons: Planning my fish livestock

[mike61289]

Hi everyone,

I'm almost done cycling my tank. I will soon be adding my coral (all soft) and cleanup crew (assortment of snail species, cleaner shrimps, a sea star at some point, and possibly some hermit crabs) and decided to start planning out my fish list now.

I already have a pair of 11 year old clownfish (knock on wood) that will be moving in, along with a 3 year old royal gramma. The fish I'm considering are the purple masked angel and a green mandarin, both of which I have successfully kept longterm in the past (mandarin on constant tisbe copepod replenishing), and a tail spot blenny (never kept before). That's a total of 6 fish. My concern is that I have no idea how well the royal gramma will get along with the blenny. It has never shown any territorial or aggressive displays, but I know that blennies and basslets don't always get along.

What are your thoughts on the fish list? If you have any other recommendations for fish (to replace something on my list or to add to the list), feel free to give me suggestions!

 

[aaronwitt]

My guess is that if you put the gramma and benny in at the same time you will be good to go in terms of the gramma being territorial. But then again it is nature!

 

[ThRoewer]

If you plan on adding SPS at some point I would forgo the blenny. Though with soft corals there should be no issue.
Grammas usually get along with all fish that don't attack them. They rather try to avoid trouble.

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[Deinonych]

If you plan on adding SPS at some point I would forgo the blenny.
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I disagree. I have a tank full of SPS and my Tailspot Blenny has never touched them in the three years I've had it. Bicolor blennies (Ecsenius bicolor) can be nippy with corals on occasion, but Tailspots are content to scrape the rocks for algae.

 

[Goat33]

Tailspot blennies are hit or miss with sps. I have had several tailspots that left all SPS alone. And one time I had one that loved "cleaning"/stripping my sps of their polyps.

 

[BigBlueTang]

Great list.

I would add some wrasses for some more movement. I have a similar stock list, Clowns, gramma, YWG, Leopard wrasse, and even with that sometimes my tank looks empty.. Same size as you.
Wrasses are pretty sweet and inexpensive most of the time.

 

[snorvich]

Tailspot blennies are hit or miss with sps. I have had several tailspots that left all SPS alone. And one time I had one that loved "cleaning"/stripping my sps of their polyps.

Roll of the dice.

 

[mike61289]

Thanks for all of the great responses (and sorry for the delay)! This tank will be purely soft corals, no SPS or LPS.

Great list.

I would add some wrasses for some more movement. I have a similar stock list, Clowns, gramma, YWG, Leopard wrasse, and even with that sometimes my tank looks empty.. Same size as you.
Wrasses are pretty sweet and inexpensive most of the time.

I have kept wrasses in the past and loved them, but I would like this to be a calmer tank, which is why I even chose a species of angel that's timid. Thanks for the suggestion though! If you ever have the opportunity, you should keep a Flame Wrasse. I had one for awhile in one of my other tanks and it did really well and looked amazing!

The only other fish (or pair in this case) that I was considering was a pair of Helfrichi Firefish. I kept a pair in the past and loved them, but they are so expensive and difficult to track down. Anyways, they likely wouldn't do well with the blenny and Royal Gramma anyways, right?

 

[ThRoewer]

Blennies are fine with softies, so pick which you like.

Firefish should generally get along with blennies and grammas, but in the end you will only know after you tried it.

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[Anthony357]

i have a long plate coral and bubble tip and my yellow tail blenny doesnt bother them at all

 

[mike61289]

Thanks! I'll likely pass on the firefish for now, but will keep them on my wish list should I ever randomly encounter a pair. I'll stick to the 6 fish on my list for now

 

[mike61289]

Another week and the algae cycle should be done. Can someone please help me plan a clean-up crew? I was never good at estimating the numbers I'd need.

I usually like to keep astrea snails, nassarius snails, electric blue leg hermits, emerald crabs, and a cleaner shrimp or two.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone thinks I should change that list so if you have better ideas, please let me know.

As I look in the tank now, I still see small patches of hair algae, some bubble algae, and one aiptasia anemone. Those are the targets for now.

Thanks

 

[mike61289]

Clean-up crew... what to keep and the numbers? Anyone please?

 

[Charley Diesing]

I would highly recommend a Flasher Wrasse.

 

[mike61289]

Thanks, I'm thinking about it, but that doesn't answer my current question lol

 

[Charley Diesing]

Thanks, I'm thinking about it, but that doesn't answer my current question lol

I would just go to ReefCleaners website and go with whatever they recommend for your tank size. Good luck!

 

[mike61289]

Thanks Charlie! I never even knew that existed.

 

[mike61289]

*Charley. My apologies

 

[Flaring Afro]

I would just go to ReefCleaners website and go with whatever they recommend for your tank size. Good luck!

Reef cleaners is a great site with a lot of info on the cleaners, but I feel like they recommend way too many for the tank sizes. I plan on ordering about the 40 breeder equivalent for my 125.

 

[mike61289]

Great! Thanks for letting me know. I thought the numbers for snails were a little high!