...is not picking the fish.
It's looking at your tank and discovering what sort of tank nature and process has handed you.
Tanks differ, even coming from the same cycling process. Some rock has a lot of phosphate, which means a lot of hair algae. Some rock comes in with sponges. Or various live critters. Some tanks seem to grow algae in an endless succession of types. Some can't manage to grow cheato. Some have film algae on the glass. Some don't. Some rock stays brown forever. Other rock seems to coralline-up real fast.
The fish and critters you get will generally not get ALL their diet from you, and many of the foods they like do not come in a canister or cold pack. They often forage for copepods, for film algaes, for various things, the spores of which may come in on specimens, and just turn up and grow---over TIME. Live rock from the ocean can turn up things to surprise you: I just had a tiny clam show up, no idea how he got there, but it had to be years ago. And I'm glad to say I have no clam-eating fish or inverts.
You don't want your fish to eat your CUC and you don't want them to eat each other. That's another part of planning your community.
People ask how to keep fish healthy and happy and thriving.
Having a BIG enough tank is important. If you were cooped in a closet for years, you might survive, but you wouldn't be healthy, because you couldn't move enough.
Having the right forage is important. Getting some voracious critter to eat up a problem growth is not a good idea, first because once he eats it, he possibly starves; and second, that growth he just ate may feed something else in your tank's system. A diverse appetite in your critters is a good thing. An 'obligate' feeder that only eats one thing is difficult to keep and not appropriate for a new tank, which hasn't developed its ecosystem to any degree that could support it.
Tinkering with a tank's chemistry to keep it void of 'unscheduled' life is one way to keep a tank, but every species you take out, if not encroaching on another's space, is possibly removing forage for something else. Striking a balance, so that one species does not just take over, is often a matter of getting your rock properly conditioned, your water chemistry right, and all that goes with good husbandry, but it's also a matter of time and patience, watching what develops, and not trying to stock every new fish your lfs gets just because 'it's neat.' That often ends badly, especially for the fish.
Your tank may maintain a balance of things that might not be great if they took over, but each in moderation is part of the diversity that supports the little life. Having just a little algae is not bad; having worms is good; having critters producing poo is good; having sponges and corals is good. All this means a tank with interlaced resilience: there's stuff to eat, there's stuff using the waste, and if your fish have forage, they'll be able to survive nicely if you leave for the weekend.
Mainly, before you make your fish list, or your invert list, consider how healthy and robust a food source for that particular species you have managed to create. If you have a browsing type of tang or angel or blenny, they need rock that has browse on it. This isn't a goldfish bowl into which you put a fish that will only and forever eat what you provide in a can. Part of the reason for the rock and corals and such is to help support an ecosystem that not only processes waste, but has a food chain going on that extends a bit above the bacteria, up to little crustaceans and other little surprises.
This is what you do: sit and watch your tank before you buy anything. Take note of what's growing, and how well it's growing. Watch the hermits go. Bring a flashlight at night and take a look at what's come out, and what's feeding.
If, all things considered, you don't HAVE as much diversity as you'd wish, you can augment the life in your tank by acquiring a nice little rock with a lot of growth that came from some different place. There are a few sources where you can actually buy worms and pods and diverse snails. But not all hitchhikers are bad---far from it. Do remember 'things ride in on what they eat', so if you've got a nudi on your zoa frag...that's not so good. Crabs are generally bad, worms are generally good, and the more experience you have identifying these sorts of things, the better. I've been at this for years and still meet things that puzzle me.
All in all, in determining what will succeed in your tank, ask yourself whether it has room to be an adult (check that out) and what it's going to do with its time when you're not standing right over the tank delivering food.
It's looking at your tank and discovering what sort of tank nature and process has handed you.
Tanks differ, even coming from the same cycling process. Some rock has a lot of phosphate, which means a lot of hair algae. Some rock comes in with sponges. Or various live critters. Some tanks seem to grow algae in an endless succession of types. Some can't manage to grow cheato. Some have film algae on the glass. Some don't. Some rock stays brown forever. Other rock seems to coralline-up real fast.
The fish and critters you get will generally not get ALL their diet from you, and many of the foods they like do not come in a canister or cold pack. They often forage for copepods, for film algaes, for various things, the spores of which may come in on specimens, and just turn up and grow---over TIME. Live rock from the ocean can turn up things to surprise you: I just had a tiny clam show up, no idea how he got there, but it had to be years ago. And I'm glad to say I have no clam-eating fish or inverts.
You don't want your fish to eat your CUC and you don't want them to eat each other. That's another part of planning your community.
People ask how to keep fish healthy and happy and thriving.
Having a BIG enough tank is important. If you were cooped in a closet for years, you might survive, but you wouldn't be healthy, because you couldn't move enough.
Having the right forage is important. Getting some voracious critter to eat up a problem growth is not a good idea, first because once he eats it, he possibly starves; and second, that growth he just ate may feed something else in your tank's system. A diverse appetite in your critters is a good thing. An 'obligate' feeder that only eats one thing is difficult to keep and not appropriate for a new tank, which hasn't developed its ecosystem to any degree that could support it.
Tinkering with a tank's chemistry to keep it void of 'unscheduled' life is one way to keep a tank, but every species you take out, if not encroaching on another's space, is possibly removing forage for something else. Striking a balance, so that one species does not just take over, is often a matter of getting your rock properly conditioned, your water chemistry right, and all that goes with good husbandry, but it's also a matter of time and patience, watching what develops, and not trying to stock every new fish your lfs gets just because 'it's neat.' That often ends badly, especially for the fish.
Your tank may maintain a balance of things that might not be great if they took over, but each in moderation is part of the diversity that supports the little life. Having just a little algae is not bad; having worms is good; having critters producing poo is good; having sponges and corals is good. All this means a tank with interlaced resilience: there's stuff to eat, there's stuff using the waste, and if your fish have forage, they'll be able to survive nicely if you leave for the weekend.
Mainly, before you make your fish list, or your invert list, consider how healthy and robust a food source for that particular species you have managed to create. If you have a browsing type of tang or angel or blenny, they need rock that has browse on it. This isn't a goldfish bowl into which you put a fish that will only and forever eat what you provide in a can. Part of the reason for the rock and corals and such is to help support an ecosystem that not only processes waste, but has a food chain going on that extends a bit above the bacteria, up to little crustaceans and other little surprises.
This is what you do: sit and watch your tank before you buy anything. Take note of what's growing, and how well it's growing. Watch the hermits go. Bring a flashlight at night and take a look at what's come out, and what's feeding.
If, all things considered, you don't HAVE as much diversity as you'd wish, you can augment the life in your tank by acquiring a nice little rock with a lot of growth that came from some different place. There are a few sources where you can actually buy worms and pods and diverse snails. But not all hitchhikers are bad---far from it. Do remember 'things ride in on what they eat', so if you've got a nudi on your zoa frag...that's not so good. Crabs are generally bad, worms are generally good, and the more experience you have identifying these sorts of things, the better. I've been at this for years and still meet things that puzzle me.
All in all, in determining what will succeed in your tank, ask yourself whether it has room to be an adult (check that out) and what it's going to do with its time when you're not standing right over the tank delivering food.
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