Intended fish purchase question.

alexkharden

alexkharden

New member
Hello everyone, I'm beginning to stock two tanks, and I'd like some input on my intended fish purchases. I've got four in the cart right now, but am nervous about pulling the trigger.

One tank is a 40b, intended as an aggresive-ish, live feed FOWLR. The other tank is a 190g 48"x36"x25", intended as a more peaceful reef. Both tanks are plumbed into a 75g sump fuge with a LifeReef svs-30 skimmer. The 190 return pump is a Waveline DC-6000, and there is a Jebao RW-8 and RW-15 in it for flow. The 40b has a Waveline DC-2500 return pump with two Jebao PP-4's.

Substrate in both tanks is about 2" of Caribsea special grade reef sand and both tanks have a goodly amount of live rock in them

Currently in the 40b is a fuzzy dwarf lionfish, 4 black long-spine urchins, a wennerae mantis shrimp, and an assortment of snails, limpets, blue-leg hermits, porcelain crabs, and red mithrax crabs.

Currently in the 190g is a Royal Gramma Basslet, a clingfish, an algae blenny, an unidentified blenny that could possibly be a sailfin, 6 urchins, 2 decorator crabs, 3 peppermint shrimp, and endless porcelain crabs, snails, limpets, hermits, emerald crabs, and red mithrax crabs.

The full stocklist for the 40b that I'd like to add in with the Dwarf Lionfish is:

Flame Angel
Tahitian Butterflyfish
Marine Betta
Leaf Fish
Flame Hawkfish

From that list I have the Marine Betta in the cart.

In the cart for the 190 I have:

Blue Sided Fairy Wrasse
Diamond Watchman Goby
Raccoon Butterflyfish

I plan on adding some more fish to the 190 later, but that's all I'm wanting to get right now. I do know one future fish will be a Mandarin dragonet, after my refugium starts producing that is.

I do plan on having soft corals, leathers, zoas, and a few LPS in the 190 as well, but I'm going slow with the corals.

I'm buying the fish from Blue Zoo Aquatics, so I hope that's a good choice as well.

Here's a pic of the 40b so everyone knows what we're dealing with:

20160423_153846small.jpg

And here's two of the 190 for the same reason:

20160423_153854small.jpg

20160423_153906small.jpg

Thanks everyone!
 
Any recommendations to replace it? I'm looking for a larger, relatively peaceful, reef-safe swimmer (as opposed to blennies/goby's with no swim bladder).
 
Never mind. I overlooked it somehow. It's on LA, but for 160 which is out of budget right now.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
The scribbled or spotted foxface is quite pretty. With a 190 you might manage tangs, wrasses, even full-sized angels (not reef safe), a flock of anthias; etc.
 
alexkharden said:
Hello everyone, I'm beginning to stock two tanks, and I'd like some input on my intended fish purchases. I've got four in the cart right now, but am nervous about pulling the trigger.

One tank is a 40b, intended as an aggresive-ish, live feed FOWLR. The other tank is a 190g 48"x36"x25", intended as a more peaceful reef. Both tanks are plumbed into a 75g sump fuge with a LifeReef svs-30 skimmer. The 190 return pump is a Waveline DC-6000, and there is a Jebao RW-8 and RW-15 in it for flow. The 40b has a Waveline DC-2500 return pump with two Jebao PP-4's.

Substrate in both tanks is about 2" of Caribsea special grade reef sand and both tanks have a goodly amount of live rock in them

Currently in the 40b is a fuzzy dwarf lionfish, 4 black long-spine urchins, a wennerae mantis shrimp, and an assortment of snails, limpets, blue-leg hermits, porcelain crabs, and red mithrax crabs.

Currently in the 190g is a Royal Gramma Basslet, a clingfish, an algae blenny, an unidentified blenny that could possibly be a sailfin, 6 urchins, 2 decorator crabs, 3 peppermint shrimp, and endless porcelain crabs, snails, limpets, hermits, emerald crabs, and red mithrax crabs.

The full stocklist for the 40b that I'd like to add in with the Dwarf Lionfish is:

Flame Angel
Tahitian Butterflyfish
Marine Betta
Leaf Fish
Flame Hawkfish

From that list I have the Marine Betta in the cart.

In the cart for the 190 I have:

Blue Sided Fairy Wrasse
Diamond Watchman Goby
Raccoon Butterflyfish

I plan on adding some more fish to the 190 later, but that's all I'm wanting to get right now. I do know one future fish will be a Mandarin dragonet, after my refugium starts producing that is.

I do plan on having soft corals, leathers, zoas, and a few LPS in the 190 as well, but I'm going slow with the corals.

I'm buying the fish from Blue Zoo Aquatics, so I hope that's a good choice as well.

Here's a pic of the 40b so everyone knows what we're dealing with:

View attachment 348765

And here's two of the 190 for the same reason:

View attachment 348766

View attachment 348767

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...


Here's my opinion fwiw

1: Fuzzy dwarfs in my experience do very poorly in predator tanks. They are shy, suck at competing for food, and can be bullied into starvation. If he is taking frozen well and you are able to hand feed him, I would put him in the reef with the calmer fish, They will be safe unless they are the size of neon gobies, fuzzy dwarfs have tiny mouths. You could keep the fuzzy with the marine betta and the leaf, but other than that I wouldn't put much else with him.

2: You also said "live feed" tank, which gives me concern. You have to get these guys eating frozen. The types of live foods you will likely be able to give to them are going to be very nutritionally deficient. The long term survival rates for these animals that aren't weaned to frozen is very very poor.

3: X2 on no butterflies.

4: I would not get a watchman goby this early in the game. He will probably starve and decimate what little life you have in the sand bed at this point.

5: I would not put the flame hawk in with the picky feeding leaf or lion. They can be aggressive bullies. Mine killed my lawn mower blenny, if that tells you anything.

6: the flame angel might be ok with the lion and leaf, but if you value having any coral at all in the tank, I'd skip it, they are pickers. They also might bully the leaf and lion to death.

7: you might consider getting a angler to go with the leaf and lion.

8: don't get all these animals at once. Get them one at a time, QT them properly and wean the predators to frozen. Dumping all these animals in a new tank is asking for a disaster and will lessen your chances for success.

9: those long spine urchins will become the size of basketballs quickly. Just FYI.



So in summary this is what I would do with the breeder:

-get the marine betta and put him in QT. I usually do prazi-pro, then metronidazole, I just started doing TTM as well. So my new routine is going to be one to two weeks for feeding and weaning, TTM, then prazi-pro for flukes for two weeks, one week recovery, two weeks of metronidazole for internal anaerobic diseases and Protozoa, two more weeks of recovery then into the display.

-get the lion eating frozen, transfer him to QT if you have to.

-get your animals one at a time, go slow.

For the 190:

-skip the butterfly and the DWG.
-the fairy wrasse would be fine, but make sure you QT him as well. (Seperately from the betta obviously).
 
1: Fuzzy dwarfs in my experience do very poorly in predator tanks. They are shy, suck at competing for food, and can be bullied into starvation. If he is taking frozen well and you are able to hand feed him, I would put him in the reef with the calmer fish, They will be safe unless they are the size of neon gobies, fuzzy dwarfs have tiny mouths. You could keep the fuzzy with the marine betta and the leaf, but other than that I wouldn't put much else with him.

I actually set up the 40 because of him. I was worried that once he got larger he would eat some of the smaller fish in the big tank. He's definitely not weaned onto frozen yet. So far all he's eaten is feeder shrimp.[/I][/I]

2: You also said "live feed" tank, which gives me concern. You have to get these guys eating frozen. The types of live foods you will likely be able to give to them are going to be very nutritionally deficient. The long term survival rates for these animals that aren't weaned to frozen is very very poor.

Ditto from the first question. I'll work on weaning him, but I was trying to plan ahead because I've read so many stories of people not getting them to wean, ever.

3: X2 on no butterflies.

That's sad, they're very pretty.

4: I would not get a watchman goby this early in the game. He will probably starve and decimate what little life you have in the sand bed at this point.

That may be a good point. I've already got the sailfin(?) blenny that's constantly rooting in the sand, and two large pistol shrimp that do the same.

5: I would not put the flame hawk in with the picky feeding leaf or lion. They can be aggressive bullies. Mine killed my lawn mower blenny, if that tells you anything.

I knew they could be bullies, but I didn't think they'd pick on poisonous fish and larger fish. I figured it would just keep to itself.

6: the flame angel might be ok with the lion and leaf, but if you value having any coral at all in the tank, I'd skip it, they are pickers. They also might bully the leaf and lion to death.

No, there would be no coral in that tank. I plan on it being FOWLR.

7: you might consider getting a angler to go with the leaf and lion.

I really want one!!! I've looked at several anglers, but I had a lot of people telling me that it would likely end up eating my lion and other fish.

8: don't get all these animals at once. Get them one at a time, QT them properly and wean the predators to frozen. Dumping all these animals in a new tank is asking for a disaster and will lessen your chances for success.

Well, I have 2 20g quarantine tanks set up, so I was thinking I could handle qt'ing multiple fish at once, and I was only planning on getting the 4 now.

9: those long spine urchins will become the size of basketballs quickly. Just FYI.

I have 9 of them total, and a purple urchin. All 10 came in as hitchhikers on my live rock. I know they're already kind of annoying because they keep brushing up against the few coral that I do have. Not as annoying as the limpets though.


So in summary this is what I would do with the breeder:

-get the marine betta and put him in QT. I usually do prazi-pro, then metronidazole, I just started doing TTM as well. So my new routine is going to be one to two weeks for feeding and weaning, TTM, then prazi-pro for flukes for two weeks, one week recovery, two weeks of metronidazole for internal anaerobic diseases and Protozoa, two more weeks of recovery then into the display.

First, you don't use copper in QT? Second, for the Betta, I've read over and over that they are remarkably disease and ich resistant - is this not true?

-get the lion eating frozen, transfer him to QT if you have to.

I need to find a good feeding stick.

-get your animals one at a time, go slow.

For the 190:

-skip the butterfly and the DWG.
-the fairy wrasse would be fine, but make sure you QT him as well. (Seperately from the betta obviously).

Yes, I definitely plan on keeping the Betta away from any thing I don't want him eating, lol.


So the big question I have, after all that, is what angler? Let's assume Lion, Leaf, Marine Betta, Angler, and unknown single future fish that remains to be chosen. What angler would work and not swallow the world?
 
alexkharden said:
1: Fuzzy dwarfs in my experience do very poorly in predator tanks. They are shy, suck at competing for food, and can be bullied into starvation. If he is taking frozen well and you are able to hand feed him, I would put him in the reef with the calmer fish, They will be safe unless they are the size of neon gobies, fuzzy dwarfs have tiny mouths. You could keep the fuzzy with the marine betta and the leaf, but other than that I wouldn't put much else with him.

I actually set up the 40 because of him. I was worried that once he got larger he would eat some of the smaller fish in the big tank. He's definitely not weaned onto frozen yet. So far all he's eaten is feeder shrimp.[/I][/I]

2: You also said "live feed" tank, which gives me concern. You have to get these guys eating frozen. The types of live foods you will likely be able to give to them are going to be very nutritionally deficient. The long term survival rates for these animals that aren't weaned to frozen is very very poor.

Ditto from the first question. I'll work on weaning him, but I was trying to plan ahead because I've read so many stories of people not getting them to wean, ever.

3: X2 on no butterflies.

That's sad, they're very pretty.

4: I would not get a watchman goby this early in the game. He will probably starve and decimate what little life you have in the sand bed at this point.

That may be a good point. I've already got the sailfin(?) blenny that's constantly rooting in the sand, and two large pistol shrimp that do the same.

5: I would not put the flame hawk in with the picky feeding leaf or lion. They can be aggressive bullies. Mine killed my lawn mower blenny, if that tells you anything.

I knew they could be bullies, but I didn't think they'd pick on poisonous fish and larger fish. I figured it would just keep to itself.

6: the flame angel might be ok with the lion and leaf, but if you value having any coral at all in the tank, I'd skip it, they are pickers. They also might bully the leaf and lion to death.

No, there would be no coral in that tank. I plan on it being FOWLR.

7: you might consider getting a angler to go with the leaf and lion.

I really want one!!! I've looked at several anglers, but I had a lot of people telling me that it would likely end up eating my lion and other fish.

8: don't get all these animals at once. Get them one at a time, QT them properly and wean the predators to frozen. Dumping all these animals in a new tank is asking for a disaster and will lessen your chances for success.

Well, I have 2 20g quarantine tanks set up, so I was thinking I could handle qt'ing multiple fish at once, and I was only planning on getting the 4 now.

9: those long spine urchins will become the size of basketballs quickly. Just FYI.

I have 9 of them total, and a purple urchin. All 10 came in as hitchhikers on my live rock. I know they're already kind of annoying because they keep brushing up against the few coral that I do have. Not as annoying as the limpets though.


So in summary this is what I would do with the breeder:

-get the marine betta and put him in QT. I usually do prazi-pro, then metronidazole, I just started doing TTM as well. So my new routine is going to be one to two weeks for feeding and weaning, TTM, then prazi-pro for flukes for two weeks, one week recovery, two weeks of metronidazole for internal anaerobic diseases and Protozoa, two more weeks of recovery then into the display.

First, you don't use copper in QT? Second, for the Betta, I've read over and over that they are remarkably disease and ich resistant - is this not true?

-get the lion eating frozen, transfer him to QT if you have to.

I need to find a good feeding stick.

-get your animals one at a time, go slow.

For the 190:

-skip the butterfly and the DWG.
-the fairy wrasse would be fine, but make sure you QT him as well. (Seperately from the betta obviously).

Yes, I definitely plan on keeping the Betta away from any thing I don't want him eating, lol.


So the big question I have, after all that, is what angler? Let's assume Lion, Leaf, Marine Betta, Angler, and unknown single future fish that remains to be chosen. What angler would work and not swallow the world?
Click to expand...

An angler would not mess with any of those. It will keep away from the lion, the betta is peaceful and looks like a moray and it will know the leaf fish is poisonous.

I would not put anything else with him. They don't do well in heavily stocked communities.
 
Well, I just ordered a marine betta, a sargassum angler, and a blue sided fairy wrasse. Looks like I'll have a lot of frozen food weaning to do!
 
Personally with the 190 I'd do a FOWLR and do butterflies and angels. Not all butterfly fish are hard to keep and even the hard ones can overcome a lot of their issues in QT. Be careful though if you go this route with butterflyfish, some of them get really big and it could be over crowded real quick due to size full grown.
 
Honestly, I confess I don't use copper, and haven't since the 1980's. Too hard on the fish, fatal to some.
 
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