Critique my 300G SPS Fish selection

[OrionN]

If you want Ocellaris, Percula clowns in a tank that size with that many big fish you got to have their natural host. IMO, with that many big fish around, the Percula will not be happy, and will not look natural and likely stressed without a host. I have had 4 Flame angles in my 450 and they were great, I am not sure about 6 CB in your tank, maybe 3 or 4.
If you know how to do it, keeping anemones in reeftank is fine. Magnifica is great and the easiest to keep from moving around.
RG group is great. Unlike ThRoewer, I just get 6 young RG and put them in my 450 and they did great. I will get 6 to put in my 320 in the near future.

 

[roberthu526]

Man that's a lot of semi-aggressive to aggressive fish. I have a 125 and after a major ich break out now I am really afraid of getting too many fish in a tank. I would get half or 2/3 of your initial stock list. I now understand sometimes less is more.


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[lockdown52]

Glad to see that you cut that list of tangs down drastically. Looking at your rock work doesn't leave a lot of room for those big fish to swim around. I have two tangs and loading my 300 DD with about 30 smaller varieties of fish.

 

[OrionN]

Harlequin tusk will not bother larger snails but he will make shot work of the 2 mm snails and below. My Trocus breed in my tank and I see baby Trocus all the time. All sizes from tiny to almost full grown. Once I added the HT. No more baby snails. Also there were a bore of tiny snails that disappear over a month time or so.

 

[OrionN]

Blue Regal tang looks a lot better than a Yellow belly regal tang IMO

 

[zachtos]

• REGAL angel x 2 (hope for a mating pair)
• powder blue tang or achilles x 1 (leaning powder blue for cost/availability)
• Hippo Tang (or yellow belly hippo) x 1
• pyramid butterfly x 4
• coral beauty dwarf x 3 or 4 (unsure here, hope for a harem)
• Lyratail Anthias x 6
• royal grammas x 6 (unsure here)
• Harlequin Tusk Wrasse x 1 (bye bye snails?)
• Exquisitte Fairy Wrasse x 1
• Red Head Solomon Fairy Wrasse x 1
• Fine Spotted Fairy Wrasse x 1
• Pink Margin Wrasse x 1
• Blue Head Wrasse x 1
• Perculla Clown x 2 (I own 2 of these now with 9 RBTA)
• Clown Goby x 2 (in a year)
• Mandarin Dragonette x 2 (in a year)
• cleaner goby x 2 (in 6 months)

So drop a few more dwarf angels and keep the clown fish in the anemone frag tank for a while until i decide if to place an anemone in the SPS tank.

No consensus on royal grammas, but I would rather try those than chromis or more anthias.

So does the above fish load look too high, too low or OK now? Aggression and tank size long run all good? I love coops old reef but have no idea how he did that in a 180.

 

[ThRoewer]

My vote would be on the Grammas in favor of the Chromis. A group of 6 should be fine as long as you start with little ones.
Anthias - I would only add a species that is rather peaceful and where not every single one turns male.

 

[TerrapinStation]

So drop a few more dwarf angels and keep the clown fish in the anemone frag tank for a while until i decide if to place an anemone in the SPS tank.

No consensus on royal grammas, but I would rather try those than chromis or more anthias.

So does the above fish load look too high, too low or OK now? Aggression and tank size long run all good? I love coops old reef but have no idea how he did that in a 180.

I would still go for a harem of dwarf angels. 3 sounds good.

 

[zachtos]

Final Order List

• REGAL angel x 2 (mate pair)
• powder blue tang x 1
• Hippo Tang x 1
• pyramid butterfly x 4
• coral beauty dwarf x 3-4 (harem)
• Lyratail Anthias x 6
• royal grammas x 6+
• Harlequin Tusk Wrasse x 1
• Exquisitte Fairy Wrasse x 1
• Solar/Red Head Solomon Fairy Wrasse x 1
• Fine Spotted Fairy Wrasse x 1
• Pink Margin Wrasse x 1
• Blue Head Wrasse x 1
• Perculla Clown x 2 (I own 2 of these now with 9 RBTA)
• Clown Goby x 2 (in a year)
• Mandarin Dragonette x 2 (in a year)
• cleaner goby x 2 (in 6 months)

Maybe in a 6-12 months based on how it goes:

• +anemone (bubble tip or Magnifica or gigantea)
• +kole tang and/or convict tang
  
• +anthias (dispar, bartlett)
• or
• +1-2 flame or cherub or potter dwarf angels (no more than 2 each)

 

[zachtos]

I ended up having a huge failure with my fish in QT, lost a good chunk of the order to velvet or flukes. Was waiting for 1 week before treating with copper/prazipro but something broke out and things started to die on day 5,6,7 very fast. Mostly the small fish, but lost a good size tusk. Not happy about it, but the QT tanks look much more established now. No ammonia/nitrites, it was disease. My LFS won't work with me on this, and basically blew me off as my fault, so now I will be doing all fish shopping online.

Steering away from smaller fish now because of bad luck and ruined budget (anthias/wrasse = $$$)

Current QT Plan:
*sponge filters x 2 w/ air pumps, powerhead, temp controller, PVC parts, and 'stability' bacteria added every day week#1
-formalin dip
-1 day of observation/adjustment
-2 weeks of cupramine and prazipro x1 treatment
-50% WC and carbon 1 day - 'stability bacteria' add
-1 week of prazipro
-1 final week of observation and possible maracyn 2 (bacteria) if needed

• -regal angel x 1
• -lamaracks angel x1
• -flame dwarf angel x1
• -pygmy or potter dwarf angel x1
• -coral beauty dwarf angel x 4
• -pyramid butterfly fish x 4-6 (depends on cost/size)
• -hippo tang x1
• -powder blue tang x1
• -kole tang x1
• -scopas tang x1 (so majestic and beautiful... or just $20)
• -foxface rabit fish x1
• -harlequin tusk wrasse x1
• -cleaner wrasse x1
• -royal gramma x 10-12 (maybe as experiment)
• *MAYBE a big angel x1 (emperor, zebra, flagfin, passer)

// *would be LAST and small, need SPS established first and only if tank is peaceful and not seem too crowded, which probably is w/ above. seems so empty, but I keep forgetting SPS will fill it way up over 4 years. Can always sell/trade fish if it does get too crowded.