help me decide.FOWLR,reef,aggressive,mellow?

[funkoptimus]

Trying to decide if I want to do a softie only reef or a FOWLR in my 125. Need something less labor demanding than my 75 reef that I taking down.

Now I like FOWLR in the fact that I wont need to to update my lighting (two) 2x36'' fixtures.

Warning I am rambling outloud!!

I like Triggers as far as aggressive larger fish but I really enjoy the tiny things. Hermits, urchins, small fish hopping about. DIVERSITY!!!
I enjoy alot of little jewels swimming about versus a handful of behemoths. I think this comes from my days of keeping cichlid aquariums. Makes me wonder about a dottyback/damsel tank full of a bunch of bullys doing a stare off.

Now I havent seen many FOWLR in larger tanks where the largest fish is a clown or a dwarf angel.

Is it possible to have many many fish in a FOWLR vs 6-9 larger fish? I am thinking maybe 20+ smaller fish. Gobys, clown, dwarf angel etc. Or would this be difficult and boring? Should I just go the softy coral route?

 

[joshuabradley1]

I think this can be done with enough LR for hiding places. In my opinion many smaller fish vs. a few larger fish is much nicer in appearence anyways. It will also be much more active to watch.

 

[rayn]

You could mix it up and have a bunch of smaller fish and one or two bigger that won't eat them. Maybe a kole tang or rabbitfish. They should leave the smaller ones alone.

 

[Wolverine]

I actually like the lot of little fish tanks. Most triggers will outgrow a tank that size, so I'd skip that, unless you want to have to tear the tank apart to remove it later. Also, if you have a larger aggressive, most of your small fish will spend most of their time hiding, which sort of negates the purpose.

 

[funkoptimus]

Thanx all for the replies! I have seen many stocking plans for larger aggressive tanks but no mention of smaller FOWLR setups. Can anyone point me in the right direction.

 

[dzfish17]

I decided to go with mostly small fish in my 600g tank. I'm adding a couple of tangs and one large angel (regal or majestic) as a show fish. I like to see alot of activity in my tanks.

 

[funkoptimus]

I decided to go with mostly small fish in my 600g tank. I'm adding a couple of tangs and one large angel (regal or majestic) as a show fish. I like to see alot of activity in my tanks.

Cool! :thumbsup:You have a list of what you are going with and a link to a build??

 

[dzfish17]

Cool! :thumbsup:You have a list of what you are going with and a link to a build??

The tank is only 3 1/2 mo. old so not alot of fishes yet.
2 yellowtail damsels
2 groups of chromis
1 clown
2 royal gramma
1 sixline wrasse
1 talbot damsel

I'll be adding...
1 coral beauty angel
1 flame angel
1 butterfly fish (undecided)
a group of anthias (undecided)
1 yellow tang
1 purple tang
1 blue hippo tang
1 large angel (regal or majestic)
1 orchid dottyback
1 sm wrasse (undecided)

Thats about it because I tend to lightly stock my tanks. I know my list is kinda boring but I like simple, hardy fish. No build thread yet but I'm going to start one this winter showing how I built my rockwall aquascape.

 

[funkoptimus]

Anyone have stocking recipes for smaller fish. Example, trio of yellow fin damsels go well with "name" damsel due to color diffrences, or pseudo go well with these basslets etc.

 

[WuHT]

no there is non set in stone. Smaller fish that reefers complain about generally fight only because they're cramped in too small of a tank.

If your damsels/dotty/clowns all have their own areas there won't be as much fighting to consider.

 

[LisaD]

For small fish trigger types, there are a lot of really nice filefishes that don't get huge and are much mellower than triggers. Some of the tobies (if you like puffers) are really nice as well.

One of my favorite small files is the mimic saddle puffer - it looks a bit like a saddle puffer, but to my eye, looks more like a mini-trigger and is spunky, but well behaved:

There are lots of other interesting and relatively mellow files and tobies.

I kept a 55 gallon "mellow" predator reef with softies, macro, tobies, a marine betta, files, etc. For my "eel" I had a green wolf eel.

 

[Snausy]

Love my FOWLR tank. Can't go wrong with the dogface puffer, Harlequin tusk combo. Add a nice trigger and you are good to go imho!

I've had this combo for years and I wouldn't change a thing. It's a tank with so much personality. I added a nice Flame Hawkfish which is another awesome personality fish and he's worked great so far.

....nothing like a regular reef tank. Pretty but no personality. I like me some FOWLR!

Good luck!