Stocking 65 Suggestions

[Markilles]

Hi I just upraded from a 20 gal to a 3' 65 with a 30 sump. So far I have 2 occ clowns, a cherub angel a few lps, some soft and in the future sps. I have been trying to work out what else to add to the tank. I have a few ideas of what I would like.
-red or green mandarin (once pod population has risen)
-Mystery or radiant wrasse
-vrolik wrasse or something like it
-yellow eye kole tang (Im on the fence I know 4' is recommended)
-another centropyge angel(Is the 65 big enogh for a second centropge angel)
- a couple cool gobies
-a couple chromis (will they kill down to 1 or 2)
I'm not planning on putting all of these in, but I would like your opinion on what would work and if you have any other suggestions Id love to hear them.

Thanks

 

[small alien]

I would skip the tang. Id go more of a flasher wrasse/leopard wrasse direction with that footprint. Mystery wrasses are gorgeous but can be pugnacious. Final thought would be even though the new tank is significantly larger than your older one, its still relatively small. Id say in general, no fish over 5". 4" would be better. Good luck.

 

[dzfish17]

Welcome to RC. Here are a few of my favorites... royal gramma, yellow coris wrasse, midas blenny.

 

[Markilles]

Hey thanks for getting back to me, so you you wouldn't recomend the mystery wrasse. Would the radiant wrasse be a better option. have you had bad experiences with mystery wrasses being overly aggressive? In terms of the leopard wrasses, is the main difficulty with them getting them to eat? DZ I have been thinking about the midas blenny definately a cool fish.

 

[SecretiveFish]

Your proposed fish choices (I would not have more than 7 fish in your tank IMO):
-red or green mandarin (once pod population has risen) - As long as you have a refugium chamber in your sump too, this should be fine.
-Mystery, radiant wrasse or vrolik wrasse - I would skip the mystery wrasse, and I think that you would either need to pick the radiant wrasse or the vrolik wrasse. I have a wrasse from the same family as the vrolik, and he is an active, attractive fish.
-yellow eye kole tang (Im on the fence I know 4' is recommended) - No. these guys need a lot of swimming room.
-another centropyge angel(Is the 65 big enough for a second centropge angel) - I would not do this as Cherub angels are aggressive little guys. You might get lucky, but the odds are that one would kill the other.
- a couple cool gobies - I like gobies too, but would only add 1-2.
-a couple chromis (will they kill down to 1 or 2) - Every time I have tried a group of these, they whittled themselves down to 1 or 2. IMO, these are kind of boring fish.


If this was my tank, I would have the following fish.
- 2 occ clowns
- a cherub angel
- a mandarin
- vrolik or radiant wrasse ( I would not do the leopard wrasse because it and the mandarin are competing for the same food source in a tank not large enough to support both. If you skipped the mandarin, you might be able to keep one of these)
- 1 non-sandsifting goby
- 1 blenny (midas, bi-color or starry)

 

[small alien]

That's a grat list.

I think it's harder to find a healthy leopard than to feed one in general. They love PE mysis. I haven't had a mystery but everything I've read suggests they can be personality challenged.

 

[ckwolf]

I would definitely suggest looking into yellow clown gobies. I had one and I absolutely loved him. It will hover/cling to LR so it will leave the Leopard/mandarin alone and would work fine with others in the planned stocking list. I would also look at fire fish. They are skittish for the first month+ in the new tank but will become much more active as time goes on. I have never kept neon gobies but the seem pretty cool. Good Luck!

 

[redwingrob40]

Mystery wrasse are hit or miss. I had one that was super aggressive and ate one of my small clowns. He would also go after cleaner shrimp, they are def beautiful fish though. The Vroliks looks like a sweet fish as well, not a lot of info about them out there though.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

You have got some really good advice here. I would go with a few flasher wrasses like carpenter's or McCoskers, very pretty and they stay small and you can get a few. I'm not a fan of mystery wrasses (or especially a sixline) in smaller tanks, they will probably get mean sooner or later. I wouldn't do a tang in a tank that small and I would be wary of adding another centropyge, especially with the cherub, one of the feistiest of the dwarves. I'm not a big fan of chromis either mostly because they just kill each other but I really like the Talbot's damsel if you want a nice pair of damsels.

If you get anything that eats pods a mandarin might be tough unless you can get it to eat prepared food. There are a lot of awesome gobies I would look at a pair of shrimp gobies and a pistol shrimp.