First fish, ocellaris or diamond watchman goby, or??

cordell

cordell

New member
Hey everybody. So my tank (75gal) has been going for about a month now. I haven't seen any ammonia or nitrites in more than 2 weeks now. I used a good bit of established live rock from a buddy's tank, so it seemed to cycle fairly fast. I also have my QT tank setup and have had an aqua clear filter running in my DT to get some bacteria in the filters so that I can put it on the QT when that time comes.

So, now I'm thinking about fish in the next week or two. I've looked at a few "beginner fish" articles of that nature and I think eventually I would like to go with the following fish, in no particular order:

1. Diamond Watchman Goby (get a Pistol Shrimp at the same time?)
2. Royal Gramma Basslet
3. Six Line Wrasse
4. Ocellaris Clown
5. Yellow, Purple, Scopas, Kole, Tang
6. Foxface/Rabbitfish

How does this list look for a 75gal? I have about 90lb live rock in the DT and about 25lb more in the fuge.

Unless there are any strong reasons why not, I would really like to start with either the diamond watchman goby with a pistol shrimp or the ocellaris clown (maybe a pair?). What do you guys think?

Are there any changes I should make to my list, or things to watch out for? I don't have a DSB, just about 1.5-2 inches. I will have soft corals and possibly LPS sooner or later, so I want to keep that in mind when buying fish.

Thanks for any suggestions :) I figure by the time the fish QT for a month, the DT will for sure be ready, even though it seems to be ready now. Adding snails this weekend... gotta get that algae under control!
 
Pair of ocellaris clowns is a great way to start a 75. Thats the first fish that went in mine. Will you try a boutique hybrid or straight species.

On another note, fox face is too big for 75. I'd skip the tangs too but some will say Kole is fine. Good luck.
 
I would start with clowns...Diamond watchman likes to have some stuff in the sand to sift through, and more established tanks will probably make them happier. Also i don't know if you think the pistol shrimp and diamond watchman will pair up, but usually they don't. the diamond watchman is not a pairing goby.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by boutique hybrid or straight species. I'll have to search some on that!

Well it sounds like the clowns are the best bet. As long as I get two of the same species and introduce them to the tank at the same time, they shouldn't fight, right? Such as 2 ocellaris.

As far as the watchman goby... yeah, I guess it might be best to wait for a few months at least. I had read in several places that the diamond watchman goby was the best bet for pairing up with a pistol shrimp, several threads on here even. I guess it's just a hit or miss thing?

Does everybody agree on the FoxFace not fitting in a 75? LiveAquaria says it requires 70gal or bigger, so I'm just not sure. Kole also lists at 70gal, so that seems like a good choice too, eventually.

Thanks for all the help..
 
Either get two small clowns or one small and one larger. I'd go two small and let them sort out the boy girl thing. There are some neat hybrid ocellaris clowns. I have "naked" clowns which have had the white stripes bred out of them. There are black ones, white ones, crazy ones.

Maybe the fox face is fine. I thought they get a bit large. But I don't think they're big swimmers.

You can fill a 75 very quickly if you stock larger fish like rabbits and tangs. I think a more interesting approach is more smaller fish like wrasses, gobies, basslets, etc. and your clowns. My sig has my fish list and I think those are all good choices for your size tank. But some are very hard to feed like the pipes, dragonets and files and you should probably wait on fish like that.
 
Check out the yellow coris wrasse. Beautiful bright yellow, very peaceful and a good pest eater. Also check out flasher wrasses. You'll need a cover as they jump. The royal gramma is also a great easy colorful peaceful fish.
 
Some people confuse orange-spotted shrimp gobies with diamond watchman gobies, so that may be why you see conflicting info. I would recommended the orange-spotted shrimp goby for pairing with a pistol. One of my diamond watchman gobies years ago paired with a blue CBS shrimp and a redheaded goby (all lived together in the diamond's burrow and the shrimp cleaned the diamond), but I don't think that's all too typical for any of the three LOL.

We currently have a yellow coris wrasse, big time jumper so make sure it can't jump anywhere.

Sixline wrasses have a bad reputation of being bullies, and with 2 clowns you'll have that covered as they get older, so maybe switch it out for the coris. Ours minds his own business, he's just a little nervous sometimes.

Flashers are good, as well as cardinals (we have an orbic cardinal).
 
I'd do the clown first. The only thing I wouldn't add is the Fox Face. I would do the Yellow Tang, but that's just me. This is a hot topic for debate. I think 75 is enough and your fish list is pretty good, aside from the Fox Face. Maybe consider a Lemon Peel Angel as your "yellow" fish. They are gorgeous and should work well with the tank size and fish list.
 
That Lemon Peel Angel Fish is pretty awesome looking and Live Aquaria only calls for a 30gal so that might be doable! I'm pretty much agreeing with not keeping very large fish because that will be less smaller fish I can keep overall. Maybe some day I'll have a tank big enough to keep them all :)
edit: Looks like the lemon peel might not be reef compatible? I guess that is obvious since it is an angel. I'll have to do some research on this particular angel..

Thanks for clearing up the confusion on the Goby, Sushigirl. That Orange Peel Goby does look very similar to the YWG, so the confusion makes sense.

So, maybe sometime down the road I'll go with a Yellow Coris Wrasse or Flasher Wrasse. Could I eventually do both at the same time? Looks like I'll be forced to build a top for my tank after all! That's a whole other issue...

I've had Cardinals before and even though they did very well, they are somewhat boring to me. They just don't seem to have any personality at all, or at least the ones I had didn't.

Aren't tank bred clowns the best choice? And could I QT 2 at the same time in my QT? If one is sick, then both would get treated? I guess since they both would probably be coming from the same tank at the LFS, they both would probably need to be treated anyways, right?
 
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Your clowns won't get sick. They are no different than FW fish. Good for starting and really interesting to watch when you have been in the hobby for a while.

For your first fish QT is probably not necessary as if in the unlikely event they do get sick you won't be buying more until they are healthy so just toss them in the display.

p.s. build a refugium in your sump and get a mandarin dragonet, one of my favorite fish.
 
Thanks for the info musarra. I sure do like the mandarins too. I actually do have a fuge with a good bit of live rock, but no sand in it. I'm going to wait a while and see what my pod population will look like. I'd love to be able to support a mandarin, but don't want to starve one. I wonder if there would be conflicts between the orange spotted goby and a mandarin if I ever had both?
 
Most people don't like cardinals, but they definitely do have a personality. The one I have has been dubbed Puppydog because he just LOVES me and follows me everywhere if I'm near the tank. One night I kept having to keep the coris from stealing food from a coral. After a few swipes at it with the turkey baster, Puppydog figured it out & chased the coris away every time he got near it LOL. Now if I'm looking in the tank & the coris gets near my face, Puppydog chases him away. His latest favorite thing is putting his big eye up to the porthole viewer I got for Christmas and watching everything in the room. At this point, he's actually the most entertaining fish of the 4 in the tank, the rest just swim around & ignore everyone.
 
Haha, we'll have to see a video of the marching band!

Well, maybe my cardinals were just boring. I love fish with good personality so maybe I'll reconsider them again sometime. What other fish would you say have a great personality?
 
cordell said:
Thanks for the info musarra. I sure do like the mandarins too. I actually do have a fuge with a good bit of live rock, but no sand in it. I'm going to wait a while and see what my pod population will look like. I'd love to be able to support a mandarin, but don't want to starve one. I wonder if there would be conflicts between the orange spotted goby and a mandarin if I ever had both?
Click to expand...

No trouble with goby and mandarin. The mandarin can be challenging. IMO you can't just relay on a productive refugium. You'll need to train it to eat some prepared foods.
 
I wonder how unusual it is for a lfs to have a mandarin that is already trained to eat prepared food. Going to mine today to look around...
 
I've had black cardinals (pretty boring), pajama cardinals (pretty, but pretty boring), and this orbic (not too boring). The orbic will play with my finger when I run it along the glass (chasing, backing away, getting excited). All of the other cardinals always kept a big ole eye on me wherever I was, but didn't interact like this one. So it really probably wasn't just yours LOL.
 
Haha, well I'm glad it wasn't just mine!

Well, it is done. I got 2 ocellaris clowns today. They are small, about 1.5". They were in the same tank and were swimming all around with each other. They are in QT now. I was surprised that soon after going in QT they started bickering and outright fighting! But now they seem ok, so I'm not sure what to think. There are several PVC parts to hide in, which they are. So we'll see how it turns out. Will try feeding tomorrow. Will get some pics then! Lights out for today.. :)
 
The clowns will have to sort out who will become the female and that usually involves some sparring. If you see wounds or damaged fins, you might pull one. Otherwise don't worry about it. When my leopard wrasses were sorting out the sex thing it involved extremely intense chasing for weeks!
 
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