Having it all (“FOWLR” with corals)

[artieg]

I am interested in thoughts on "œmiddle ground" reef tanks, with a wide variety of invertebrates and hardy corals, but also some of the classic FOWLR fishes that are more likely to behave in such a setup. I originally thought my 200g would be a FOWLR, but I've gradually been adding interesting frags, with mostly positive results noted below. My tank is just under 2 years old, so the fish are not full grown. All corals were acquired as smaller frags propagated in captivity, so ethically I feel better about trial and error with those. And if something is not doing well, I remove it and put it in a nano tank that I call the Island of Misfit Corals. Curious about thoughts and experiences of others.

The FOWLR fish (potential future terrors).
All were purchased as young as I could find, in the hopes they could be trained to eat only prepared foods.

• 6 inch Emperor Angel, adolescent (acquired as a juvenile, now with yellow throughout)
• 5 inch Queen Angel
• 2 inch Nox Angel
• 4 inch Niger Trigger
• 3 inch Saddle Valentini Puffer
• 5 inch red coris wrasse (halfway between juvenile and adult colors)
• Other fish are classic "œreef safe": several tangs, fairy wrasses, ocellaris clowns, and chromis

Corals and how they've done:

• Green Star Polyps. OMG. Please tell me a fish that will eat these (joking). Unstoppable. Actually worried I am going to have to eradicate.
• Green Hammer. From 2 heads to 10 heads in 8 months.
• Encrusting Montipora (various). All doing fine, growth is slower than the GSP of course, but no one bothering it. Have a nice little shelf of red monti that has quintupled in size in 6 months.
• Torch coral. Once I got rid of the decorator crab (who was giving it regular haircuts), has grown nicely.
• Trumpet coral. Eh, slowly growing, color not great.
• Birds Nest. Once I got rid of a small lemonpeel angel (who wanted nothing more in life than to graze on it), has grown slowly and steadily.
• Bubble Coral. Never thrived, slowly faded away. Never saw anyone picking at it.
• Acans. Nope. The angels pick at them constantly. Had to remove.

Inverts:

• Bubble tip anemone. Have clowns that are hosted. Doing great.
• Pair of cleaner shrimp: no one bothers them
• Urchins: Great, keep the algae down, no one bothers
• Hermit crabs: fine, no one bothers

Questions:

(1) Am I courting disaster with the 2 big angels? Will they eventually start eating everything in sight?
(2) Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Sk8r]

Heh. If you find any fish that eats xenia, gsp, ysp, or discosuma mushrooms, you might be up for a Nobel Prize. OTOH, the big angels are a possibility.
I've kept some pretty chancy things in a softie reef and had good luck, back when all we could keep were what we now call 'invasive.' I think they just taste bad.

 

[WatDatThing]

Pictures?

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[Ryan Darilek]

Yeah, I'd love to see pics. I applaud your success!!

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[Ron Reefman]

BTW, a FOWLR that now has corals in it is just a mixed reef!
Congrats and best of luck.:beer:

 

[heathlindner25]

BTW, a FOWLR that now has corals in it is just a mixed reef!
Congrats and best of luck.:beer:

Thank you ....My thoughts exactly

 

[artieg]

Photos below. Closeup of the left hand side, with the torch, hammer, encrusting, birds nest, anemone.

Also, I've heard people refer to such a setup as a "mixed reef", but I've also heard other uses of that term to describe any reef tank.

The tank is freestanding (not built into a wall), with no hood (but a mesh acrylic top to keep the jumpers in). It basically divides the living room in half, so it is visible from both sides. While I don't think I massively overfeed, I am certainly not starving them. The angels pick at the rock all day long but, other than acans, they leave corals alone for now. I did try a lemonpeel, and that did not work.

 

[WatDatThing]

I like it.


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