good centerpiece fish for a 75?

[joshalicialtjt]

ok i have the pair of misbars in the tank, maroon thats under an inch, lawnmower blenny, 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, and a coral banded shrimp.
We are planning on getting a flame angel as well and had pondered a yellow tang, pair of purple firefish, and pair of dispar anthias.
The lights are 2 250watt 12k reeflux bulbs and the filtration is a 30gallon sump, reef octopus skimmer, and 2 koralia 4 ph's.

Are there any ideas for a decent centerpiece fish or pair of fish if the only above thing added is the flame angel? The fish must be reef safe as I will be adding some high priced corals in the future once the tank has matured a lot more. I looked at the regal angel but have been told they can be hard to keep and im still trying to convince the miss that its more worth it to get one more nice centerpiece fish and then add a tiny school of chromis to the tank. any ideas?

 

[Jandree22]

a 75 is definitely too small for a full sized angel, so rule that one out.

a yellow tang would be fine as I've had one for years and he seems to be relatively happy. chromis are happy little fish and always out in the open... I get more comments about them from friends/family than any other fish (closely followed up by my yellow tang )

keep an eye on that maroon... they can become really evil bastards.

 

[Bruno3047]

I wouldn't be so quick to rule out a pomacanthus angel in a 75. In my 60 FOWLR I had a 5" Scribbled, a 5" Majestic, a 5" Imperatore, a 3' Flame, a 2" Coral Beauty and a 4" Hippo tang all at the same time and the pomacanthus angels were all raised together from juveniles. I also had a pair of maroons, a couple of regular firefish, a gramma and various inverts in the tank.

Any of the three angels I mentioned above would make nice centerpiece fish for a reef, but my personal preference would be the Majestic. Majestic Angels make a spectacular addition to any tank, and when purchased as juveniles, are relatively easy to acclimate and are very hardy once acclimated.

The only caveat, of course, is that they are hit-or-miss when it comes to being reef-safe.

My thinking, though, is if you get one very young, 2" or so, still in juvenile coloration, and feed it well, you might not have a problem with coral nipping.

A spectacular fish:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/7/fish

 

[rjsilvers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12762568#post12762568 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bruno3047
I wouldn't be so quick to rule out a pomacanthus angel in a 75. In my 60 FOWLR I had a 5" Scribbled, a 5" Majestic, a 5" Imperatore, a 3' Flame, a 2" Coral Beauty and a 4" Hippo tang all at the same time

That's incredibly ridiculous.

 

[swreasercher]

either insane or ignorant!!

 

[joshkennedy07]

I think you have a good list - minus the Regal.

Forget about that idea. You don't have nearly enough room and if your adding coral you will have much less room. Chances are he would be mowing through your coral anyway. The flame is about as colorful as they come -cool fish!

If your not going to keep SPS for a while I would get a bi-color blenny. These guys have always been my favorite.

The purple firefish are pretty and have personallity, but get ready to relocate the clown espicially if he is already in there.

I would also leave out the banded coral shrimp - they eat most everything including little fish

 

[DEEC77]

Just a quick question. Did I read that right you have a maroon clown with a pair of misbar clowns? If you do unfortunately the maroon may eventually kill the misbars. I would think about taking either the maroon out or the misbars out.

~Dee~

 

[otrlynn]

You didn't ask anything about the flame angel, but there have been several threads on here in the recent months as to whether it, or any of the pygmy angels, are reef saft. The resounding consensus is "it depends". Many reports of people saying their fish never bothered a thing in their tank, many reports of peoples saying they reluctantly had to catch and relocate pygmy angel because it had started to nip at coral. Just something to think about.

 

[joshalicialtjt]

my gf is set on the flame and its one of a few things she is actually purchasing for the tank much like that maroon thats already in there. I will be taking chances on both of them as far as being nice to my corals in the tank. So after reading all of the threads I have yet to have any really 'appropriate' suggestions. . .

 

[otrlynn]

I don't have experience with these fish, but I'm sure someone else does--have you considered any of the group of angels known as the Genicanthus angels? I really wanted one for my 58, but it is too small. I'm not sure about your 75. Here is a link devoted to them. Check it out and in the meantime, maybe someone who has one will chime in. They are considered to be very reef safe.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1284946

 

[joshalicialtjt]

sweet thanks for the link i will def check it out. ok well thanks to everyone here for the advice on the site i am going to get rid of the pair of misbars somehow and look for a mate for our gsm. i would probably have gotten rid of the gsm instead if it was up to me but for fear of my misters being attacked by the miss i will part with my pair instead lol.

 

[Bruno3047]

Why would I have to be insane, ignorant or incredibly ridiculous?

 

[WinnipegDragon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12765696#post12765696 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bruno3047
Why would I have to be insane, ignorant or incredibly ridiculous?

Because your tank is too small for most of those fish, let alone all of those fish? Just a guess...

 

[Bruno3047]

Too small in what way?

The fish had excellent coloration, were well-fed, grazed on a beautiful lawn of lime-green algae, and were peacefull towards one another except for an occasional "tail-fight".

So why too small?

 

[rjsilvers]

Umm.... Do you really need someone to tell you why it's too small? Because some of those fish get over a foot long. There's no way you're going to be able to keep a foot long fish happy in a 4 foot tank... Let alone 4-5 of them.

Even if they -were- happy not being able to swim at all, you wouldn't be able to keep up the water quality in a 60 gallon tank with fish that big.

Heck, even the link you posted yourself said 90g minimum, with a 180g being ideal for just -one- of those fish.

 

[Bruno3047]

I had absolutely no intention of trying to keep the fish until they were a foot long. In any case, a Majestic Angel only grows to about 10 inches or so in the wild and rarely reaches that size in captivity. Same for the Scribbled Angel. Both of those fish actually stopped growing in my tank when they hit about 5". The Imperatore was traded in once when he got to be about 6" for a new juvenile Imperatore about 3" long.

My LFS gave me a $200 credit for the 6" adult Imperatore.

Bought him 3 years earlier for $39.00 from the same LFS.

 

[WinnipegDragon]

Okay, I'm not trying to jump on it or anything, but am the only one that gets attached to my animals? I couldn't imagine taking a pet back in two years...

Sorry, off topic I know.

As for good centrepiece fish, do you want larger or flashier? If you want flashier, look at some wrasses. If you want larger, how about a Tomini tang?

 

[DrBegalke]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12766758#post12766758 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bruno3047
Both of those fish actually stopped growing in my tank when they hit about 5".

Which is exactly the point... drastically stunted growth isn't a sign of healthy conditions, at least IMO.

 

[DrBegalke]

1) I would keep only one species of clown in a 75.

2) I would go with the flame angel and 2-3 anthias. I think the flame itself is a center piece, and anthias add a lot of color and motion to a tank. You'll have a pretty heavy bioload, but doable if you don't have an SPS system.

 

[joshalicialtjt]

New and IMPROVED STOCKLIST:
Pair of True Percs
Lawnmower Blenny
Coral Banded Shrimp
Pair of Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Flame Angelfish
Chocolate Tang or Yellow Tang
Trio of Dispar Anthias
I think that sounds like a pretty decent list imo what do you guys think?