recommend a fish

[SpareParts]

Hello,
I have a 75 gallon secondary display attached to my system. I contains live sand, live rock and rubble, 12 species of urchin, 4 species of lobster, tons and tons of mysids, amphipods & copepods, and one anglerfish.

I used to have a green mandarin living in this milieu (for 4 yrs), however, he's disappeared and I am reluctant to replace him, considering who he'd have to share the tank with.

So, I am looking to place one fish specimen in the tank, preferably something more mobile than the angler. It would be neat to have some kind of fish that would feed off the plentiful amphipods and copepods, but I think most smaller fish would not do well with the other inhabitants. I'm willing also to consider something like a lionfish, small trigger or puffer, what would you all recommend?

Thanks!
Rick

 

[iamwrasseman]

personaly if you have a great pod population i would find a cool leopard wrasse and let him live off the pods . you will still need to feed him as your pod population will get desimated very quickly by a wrasse also .

 

[namxas]

The angler would eat the leopard wrasse, I'm afraid...

 

[iamwrasseman]

ahhhhhhhhhh , i just read back and yup there is already an angler in the tank as i didnt read it that way . it sounded like he wanted one fish in the tank but its my mistake . yes an expensive meal too !

 

[SpareParts]

Ah, gotcha. How about a species of lionfish? Or a largish trigger? Or a puffer?

 

[aday2remmbr]

i would do a clown trigger, those are pretty awesome and you dont have to worry about it being aggressive or anything. you could also add a dwarf lion in as well. that would be cool

 

[sacremon]

Whatever it is, something that is considerably larger than the angler will eventually grow to be is essential, and stay away from anything 'torpedo' shaped - they are real easy for anglers to swallow.

While there are those who have had community tank-friendly clown triggers, those are in the minority. More often you read about a clown trigger being fine for several months to a year, then snapping and killing everything else in the tank. Perhaps one of the planktonic feeding triggers, like the Niger or Blue Throat. Depending on the size of the angler, a dwarf lion would likely become food as well. What species of angler (if you know) and how large is it?

 

[namxas]

A 75 is a tad tight for any trigger, really, but esp. a clown, and a dwarf lion would be angler food.

Depending on WHICH angler you have, you could maybe go with a medium-bodied lion (mombassae, radiata, antennata). It's all about size differential...if the fish can be eaten, it will.

 

[aday2remmbr]

A 75 is a tad tight for any trigger, really, but esp. a clown, and a dwarf lion would be angler food.

Depending on WHICH angler you have, you could maybe go with a medium-bodied lion (mombassae, radiata, antennata). It's all about size differential...if the fish can be eaten, it will.

a clown trigger not a clownfish, sorry for the miscommunication. i didnt know a lion could be eaten that easily?

 

[SpareParts]

I have an orange painted angler, about 3". He's currently on a hunger strike. Or he's eating pods and I haven't noticed. He ate in the store and when I first brought him home 3 weeks ago....

I think I'm leaning towards a lionfish. I wouldn't want my urchins to become trigger food.

 

[jmasterdiver]

I would not put any other fish in a tank with an angler that is on a feeding strike. If they get hungry enough, they might sample (or attempt to sample) anything. Their eyes are much larger than their stomachs, and their mouths aren't much smaller...

What are you offering him to eat? And how? What did he eat in the store? Do you have any access to live foods?

 

[SpareParts]

I've offered him krill and silverside chunks. He ate the krill in the store and when I initially got him home. No local stores have ghost shrimp, there's plenty of goldfish, however. What kind of live food would you propose?

 

[namxas]

keep the fish off the krill as it has been linked to lockjaw in preds, or at the very least, make krill a small part of the diet. As for live foods, appropriately-sized guppies or mollies (gut loaded with a good marine flake food) might get the fish eating again, and both will live in SW.