Fish selection.

hagar101

hagar101

New member
I have just started cycling my tank, and have started looking at fish. Heres a list.

1 pineapple fish
1 deepwater lionfish
1 threadfin butterfly (adding later)
1 true faluca (adding after establised tank)
1 double saddle butterfly (same as above)
1 yellow longnose butterfly (same as above)
1 onespot foxface rabbitfish
1 chocolate surgeonfish
1 yellow tang
1 spiny puffer.

I have a book that tells me i can have this in my 75 gallon. Im getting a skimmer soon. Could i do this? Thanks
 
Most of them fish get fairly large. I think it would be too cramped for all those fish especially two tangs. If your getting a lionfish like a volitan they get large like 14" and can eat large fish. Last the spiny box puffer is a hard fish to keep hard to get them eating and always has internal parasites and bacterial infections. Just my .02
 
Let's say I don't get a yellow tang and the puffer. And instead get one of the 5 inch little puffers.? And that lionfish only gets 6".
 
hagar101 said:
I have just started cycling my tank, and have started looking at fish. Heres a list.

1 pineapple fish
1 deepwater lionfish
1 threadfin butterfly (adding later)
1 true faluca (adding after establised tank)
1 double saddle butterfly (same as above)
1 yellow longnose butterfly (same as above)
1 onespot foxface rabbitfish
1 chocolate surgeonfish
1 yellow tang
1 spiny puffer.

I have a book that tells me i can have this in my 75 gallon. Im getting a skimmer soon. Could i do this? Thanks
Click to expand...

Could you post the name of the book? the author is clueless. ALL these fish in a 75? Its really hard to take this thread seriously.
 
It's a book called Marine Fish. I don't have the book on me atm. and I'm starting to take second thoughts on some of them. I'm probably at least taking 3 to 4 off that list
 
Last the spiny box puffer is a hard fish to keep hard to get them eating and always has internal parasites and bacterial infections. Just my .02
Click to expand...

We got a Spiny Box Puffer from Live Aquaria and it was at first tough to get it to eat, until I started making a home made food recipe of fresh clams, mussells, oysters, shrimp, garlic cloves, formula 1 cubes, frozen krill and what ever dry foods, pellets etc. I have lying around and my Spiny goes nuts for it and will even challenge my Triggers to get to it first. I knew it was going t be a hard fish to keep, and was a challenge at first, but is now my favorite fish :beer:
 
oldreefer76 said:
We got a Spiny Box Puffer from Live Aquaria and it was at first tough to get it to eat, until I started making a home made food recipe of fresh clams, mussells, oysters, shrimp, garlic cloves, formula 1 cubes, frozen krill and what ever dry foods, pellets etc. I have lying around and my Spiny goes nuts for it and will even challenge my Triggers to get to it first. I knew it was going t be a hard fish to keep, and was a challenge at first, but is now my favorite fish :beer:
Click to expand...

Well thats good I know a lot of people don't have success with them. It is ky favorite fish also as I got lucky and he was eating the second day in qt. When I put him in the display he would challenge my trigger for food and would nip at him if they were both going for the same piece and one time his belly looked sucked in and he broke out with ich so I had to take him back out and qt for 8 weeks but other than that he's been great fish doesn't bother my snails two cleaner shrimp corals or my clams he loves to be cleaned by the two shrimp.
 
hagar101 said:
So what do you recommend I do? I really want that puffer though :)
Click to expand...

You should do a real good qt because almost anyone you buy will have internal parasites. First you need to try to get him eating that's difficult with these puffer and you should treat with a med like prazi and do hypo. I wouldn't do copper with a scale less fish.
 
What's a "deepwater lionfish"????? There are a few that might fall into that category, depending on where they were collected. Then again, what depth constitutes "deepwater"?

Man, I'd love to smack to peeps who started using that "phrase" as a selling point..."deepwater this", "deepwater that", now we can add some $$ to the price...sheesh!
 
hagar101 said:
1 pineapple fish
1 deepwater lionfish
1 threadfin butterfly (adding later)
1 true faluca (adding after establised tank)
1 double saddle butterfly (same as above)
1 yellow longnose butterfly (same as above)
1 onespot foxface rabbitfish
1 chocolate surgeonfish
1 yellow tang
1 spiny puffer.
Click to expand...

I would steer away from any tangs since all will quickly outgrow a four foot tank, save for the smallest (Kole tang), but even then....

Butterflies might be less aggressive/less fast growing, but they too will be a little cramped in a four foot tank, and I would not recommend butterflies until both your tank is established and you have had some experience with less difficult fish (from a feeding/water quality/fish aggression perspective).

Dwarf lionfish.....great idea! Full size lion, not so much.

Puffer....wait for a six foot or larger tank.

So what would I put in a four foot tank?...
Common clowns
Chromis
Clown gobies
Dwarf wrasses - opposum, cryptic....the REALLY small ones. Six lines are great, but they get nasty.
Yellow Corris Wrasse.....though they will grow a bit in time.
Dwarf angels. Introduce late in the game, as they can get pretty territorial towards small fishes as well (especially flames).
Blue headed jaw fish
Firefish (red, purple, or helfriechi)....they can school.
Cardinal fish....also schoolers.
Filefish (mimic saddle is interesting and stays small)
Dwarf golden moray (if you can stomach the pricetag)
Royal Grammas
Neon gobies
All sorts of other gobies!

There is plenty that will stay perfectly comfortable in a four foot for the life of the tank, but they generally are not the big open swimmers. Hope this helps a little.
 
If you want a larger lionfish than a dwarf species, you could also go with one of the medium-bodied Pterois species: radiata, mombassae, or antennata.
 
That "deepwater lionfish" was the Mombassae. But i just looked this through a day ago, and man i feel stupid. I have an updated one which i think (and hope) will work.

1 onespot foxface.
1 two spot goby
1 bennetts sharpnose
(looking at a trigger?)
and then 3 butterflys.
maybe one pair of clowns.
? could i do that?
 
No to the Foxface, no to a trigger. Idk, about the butterflies. Not sure what the Bennetts Sharpnose is. A Mombassae lionfish can go in there. If you want a lion, there are several that would do perfectly in the 75 gallon.

Don't feel stupid....at least you're asking, and you aren't cramming tons of fish into an unfit tank, just cause you want them.--a thread comes to mind--
 
The thing with lions is this:

They appreciate some room to move around, otherwise, they may tend to "perch" more. Likewise, if they have fast-moving tankmates, they may also tend to "perch" just to stay out of the way. You can mitigate the latter somewhat by introducing the lionfish first and letting it become established.

Instead of a triggerfish, you might consider one or a pair of the smaller filefish.
 
i could still get the clowns, correct? does the radiata or mombassae "perch"? And jwing, why not the foxface?
 
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