Help with fish selection

[Bl4ckDr4g0n]

I was wondering if someone could point me to a viable resouce for starting to select fish. I am presently setting up a 65 Gallon tank with a 20 Gallon sump. I have a vortech omega 130 skimmer, 45# of live rock, was planning a 1 to 2" sand bed. I am not real clear on how to determine how many fish my tank should be able to handle for bioload, nor if I can genuinely trust what I am reading on sites for minimum tank sizes. If for instance they say minimum tank size is 70 gallons, then is that doable in this tank? Although I would have like to have selected a tank based on what I want to keep I was forced to select a tank based on cost to set up. Any good references, on how to determine what bioload I can handle, and the appropriate fish to select from would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Sapelo]

In general, I think Live Aquaria offers the most consistent, reliable sizing information.
But a lot of your stocking decisions need to be based on a whole aquarium plan and not just size requirements of particular fish. You should come up with a complete stocking list and consider how all members will interact with each other and their needs (as an example you wouldn't want two pod eaters in a tank your size even if they were both rated for 45 gallons).
Planning is a lot of fun...enjoy!

 

[A.Astore]

I agree that LiveAquaria is pretty reliable on their size requirements. One thing to keep in mind though is that some of those size requirements are based on typical tank dimensions (tangs come to mind which most want a 6 foot tank to allow the longer swim lengths) so a cube that is the same gallon size might not be as great of a home. That obviously was just an example...

Number of fish will heavily depend on the size and type of fish you are looking at and there is no "X inch per gallon" rule like there is in fresh water. If you go through and compile a list then post it on here people will gladly help you decide which are the best for your system. I personally decided on my must have fish first then built around that. Whatever you do make sure you plan your full dream team before buying any fish/inverts (which seems like you are and will lead to less issues down the road in terms of stocking).

 

[scooter31707]

I agree with the others ^^^. When I was going through the process, I picked out the fish that I had to have and built around that fish.

 

[Bl4ckDr4g0n]

Since I have a 65 Gallon and hence is 3 feet wide, I am guessing I probably should avoid anything that gets beyond 4" or 5"? liveaquaria allows filtering on gallons and there are a few tangs and butterflyfish that I would love to have but I have hard time seeing a 6"+ fish being happy in this tank.

 

[thegrun]

For the most part yes, you would want to avoid fish that get into the 4"-5" range. Open water swimmers like tangs will not be happy in your tank.

 

[Nina51]

i have also found this helpful when i have added new fish...

http://www.marinecompatibilityguide.com/

 

[uncleL]

I would add two clowns ocellaris, coral beauty, lawnmower blenny, Royal Gramma, + 2-4 green chromis and maybe a elegant Firefish

 

[Bl4ckDr4g0n]

Thanks for the feedback, I will respond with a wishlist soon. Hoping to start quarantine soon. As far as CUC goes, any advice for a new tank?

 

[amperidot]

When chromis mature, they'll kill each other off so I'd stick with one chromi personally. The royal gamma is pretty, but also fairly aggressive. Clowns are great, but pairs will be a bit more aggressive than just one, but the ocellaris are relatively peaceful.

You could probably get some fairy wrasses, as long as they're about 5" or under, they're beautiful, great eaters, usually peaceful and help pick critters out of your live rock. I have a couple (a female solar fairy wrasse and a male exquisite fairy wrasse) with an occelaris clown in my softy reef tank and everything has been doing great

 

[bat21]

I have a 65gal also and if you really want wrasses, I would advise sticking to the smaller flasher wrasses. Full grown 5" fairy wrasses in my opinion are too large for this size tank. One could maybe be ok, but make sure it is one of the more peaceful species.

I took the route of lots of small fish. None of mine are more than 3". I have 9 with a 10th in QT. If I had gone with wrasses, 4"-5", then I would definitely have a smaller number of fish.

 

[CStrickland]

As far as CUC goes, any advice for a new tank?

reefcleaners.org has great info re: the diff diets of various CUC, and everything I've bought from them has been very healthy. One caveat, the "packages" are large, so I would half their recommendations. They also have a great algae ID guide when the time comes for that.

 

[hkgar]

Here is a good indicator of species compatilbility:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/compatibility_chart.cfm

It is from Liveaquaria.com

 

[Bl4ckDr4g0n]

Here is what I have on the list thus far:

Flame Angelfish
Eight Line Flasher Wrasse
Dracula Goby
Green Mandarin
Yellowtail Damselfish
Clownfish

 

[Bl4ckDr4g0n]

So after many hours staring at fish here is a less tentative list:

Centropyge loriculus (Flame Angelfish)
Pterapogon kauderni (Benggai Cardinalfish)
Opistognathus rosenblatti (Blue-spotted Jawfish)
Clownfish
Chromis viridis (Green Chromis)
Paracheilinus octotaenia (Eightline Flasher Wrasse)
Gramma loreto (Royal Gramma)
Stonogobiops dracula (Dracula Goby)
Chaetodon kleini (Sunburst Butterflyfish) -- some confusion marinecompatibilityguide.com and Scott Michael say 55 gallons but liveaquaria says 120 gallons which is a huge difference

All input is greatly appreciated, looking to start quarantining soon...

 

[Mark9]

Great list.
Not sure about the butterfly though, it will eat corals if you decide to go that route.

 

[kmbyrnes]

Great job thinking ahead. Your list looks pretty good.
Butterflies in reefs are hit or miss, so be prepared for possible nipping.