I have been out of the hobby for many years. That is a long story. I loved my reef tank and always hoped to restart a new tank. I am now planning to build a 180 gallon mixed reef tank. I see many lists of fish, anemones, and corals, yet I have not seen any detail on whether there Is a best order to introduce various spices of fis, inverts, anemones or corals. Would appreciate any advice or a reference that I can read to help guide me as I make those decisions after cycling the tank.
Is there a best way to introduce fish, anemones and corals?
- Thread starter Bobbruin
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coker98
New member
Fish and inverts such as shrimp, anemones, stars and the such should be drip acclimated over a period of a couple of hours. Most corals should be dipped in a preventative dip and temp acclimated if you have no plans to quarantine them.
Speaking of, many suggest quarantine everything that goes in the tank. I have seen some for and against.
Speaking of, many suggest quarantine everything that goes in the tank. I have seen some for and against.
I know there was a link on one forum or an email I got about testing corals next to each other to see if they would sting each other. I think it required usually sampling some of each coral next to each other which did not seem feasible for some expensive corals. I don't know where it was for sure but you may google something like coral compatability testing and see if the article comes up, it may have Drs Foster & Smith possibly or on reef 2 reef maybe? For fish I usually use a plastic critter keeper for introducing new fish and watch their behavior for a few days before releasing them. Worked out really well on introducing a second mystery wrasse to my tank three months agao and useful on tangs as well. The critter keepers are perfect isolation boxes as well for problems that come up and arent expensive and come in many sizes. Hope that helps
Rule of thumb for fish is to introduce them in order of increasing aggressiveness - only 'kind of' works because at some point an established fish will die, but it's worth doing as you initially stock the tank. Order of introduction of inverts, corals, etc. doesn't really matter as much, though more exacting species should be avoided until your tank has had a chance to mature a bit.
Definately invest in a quarantine tank, definately for all fish, ideally for corals and clams as well. If you don't decide to QT corals, at least dip them in something like Revive. Personally I'm not a fan of long acclimations, I think it does more harm than good.
Definately invest in a quarantine tank, definately for all fish, ideally for corals and clams as well. If you don't decide to QT corals, at least dip them in something like Revive. Personally I'm not a fan of long acclimations, I think it does more harm than good.
