Stocking help w/ established 300g

[Zalick]

I have a 300g mixed reef that's been up and running for about 4 years. Its setup as a peninsula with two rock burms and an arch. Rockwork allows for tons of hiding as well as lots of swimming. It has a 3-4" sand bed for sand dwellers.

I've barely stocked it because I just couldn't figure out what I wanted and didn't want to pull the trigger too early in the order of stocking.

The tank is LPS dominant. No SPS. No clams. I will add clams at some point and possibly SPS.

Inverts are snails and cleaner shrimp.

I don't need fish that are 100% reef safe. nipping at LPS is OK with me.

My current fish are:
Magnificent Foxface (3yrs)
Royal Gramma (3yrs)
Yellow & Purple Wrasse (3yrs)
Sleeper Banded Goby (3yrs)
Black & White Ocellaris (10yrs old)


I'm avoiding the fish that are most prone to ich or other diseases. I will QT all fish. I have an established 20L for quarantine. I keep filter floss in my sump to mimic the filtering capacity of live rock. I move new floss in to the QT for each round of QT. I could get a larger QT tank if necessary.

My most important criteria is to not introduce anything that will kill my current fish via bullying, especially my 10yr old clown.

Here is the current list I'm thinking of. I would appreciate any thoughts on this list. As well as order of introduction. I would like around 20-25 fish total and avoid fish that will kill each other over time. I prefer and will purchase captive bred when at all possible.

Tangs
Yellow - 2
Kole - 1

Goby
Yellow Prawn 1
Red Mandarain - 1
Sleeper Banded (existing) 1

Angles
Flame - 1
Coral Beauty - 1
Majestic - 1

Blenny
Midas - 1

Wrasses
McCoskers Flasher - 2
Red Head Solon Fairy - 2
Mystery - 2
Red Velvet Fairy - 2
Melanurus - 2
Ruby Head Fairy - 2
Yellow & Purple (existing) - 1

Rabbitfish
Magnificent Foxface (existing) - 1

Clownfish
Black & White Ocellaris (existing) - 1

Basslet
Royal Gramma (existing) - 1


Specific question on the wrasses: Should I attempt to introduce all at once? Or can I do the same species at once?

Overall question: Does this list look like they would all be compatible? If so, does order of introduction matter aside from Tangs then angles last?

 

[lifeoffaith]

I'm no expert, but I feel like I've heard that yellows do better with odd numbers. Hopefully some tang experts will be along soon to help. The list looks good to me otherwise. I would probably start with the Midas Blenny as they can be shy until they're established. You should be able to add with your gobies. Wrasses can be pretty territorial, personally I'd think you'd be best adding them at once, but I don't have experience with multiples in one tank. Then as you stated, probably tangs and angels last.

 

[nereefpat]

There are some problems with your wrasse selections. Mystery wrasses are in the genus with sixline and other lined wrasses. They are all pretty intolerant of other wrasses when mature.
You list pairs for most wrasse species. It doesn't work like that in aquariums. They all eventually turn Male and kill each other.

For the tangs: instead of getting two yellows and a kole, I would recommend three different species, preferably in three different genera. Yellow, kole, regal for example.

 

[Zalick]

There are some problems with your wrasse selections. Mystery wrasses are in the genus with sixline and other lined wrasses. They are all pretty intolerant of other wrasses when mature.
You list pairs for most wrasse species. It doesn't work like that in aquariums. They all eventually turn Male and kill each other.

For the tangs: instead of getting two yellows and a kole, I would recommend three different species, preferably in three different genera. Yellow, kole, regal for example.

Thanks Pat. I'll ditch the Mystery. I wasn't set on pairs, that was more just to hit about 25 fish. If I go singles with them all, with no Mystery, do you think they will be tolerant of each other?

 

[sfdan]

As for the tangs, in my ~350 gallon tank I have 1 Kole Tang and 3 Yellow Tangs. The Kole tang was in there first for a couple years, and about 7 months ago I added 3 small captive bred Biota yellow tangs. The yellow tangs squabble amongst themselves but otherwise it is a very stable configuration. The yellow tangs are by far the most aggressive fish in the tank, but they were added last and thus don't really cause any problems for anybody else.

When getting the YTs I was also convinced by the huge tang thread on the other forum to get an odd number, and at least for me it is working. I would say if you are going to introduce the tangs, introduce all 3 (or 4 if you add another YT) at the same time, as similarly sized as possible and last. A couple times during the 7 months I've had to use the "mirror trick" to distract the tangs from relentlessly picking on the smallest one, but only on a temporary and as-needed basis.

Based on my experience with Tangs, I don't see any fish on your list (other than each other) they will care about. My Kole tang picks on my Lawnmower Blenny a little bit, but I don't think a Kole tang will care about a Midas Blenny. And the good news is when your tank is big enough, a little bit of aggression isn't a big deal, there should be more than enough room for fish to hide if they need to.

Also in terms of captive bred tangs... Highly recommend the biota yellow tangs. They were very cute and tiny when I got them, about 1", ate every kind of food right away and were disease free and healthy (obviously I can't guarantee that but I think you'll have better luck with CB than you would with wild caught). They also grow very fast. After 7 months, the biggest YT is ~5", and the other 2 are ~3.5". Not as cute as when they were tiny but great fish, really helped stabilize my reef by eating algae and pooping out coral food.

 

[Zalick]

As for the tangs, in my ~350 gallon tank I have 1 Kole Tang and 3 Yellow Tangs. The Kole tang was in there first for a couple years, and about 7 months ago I added 3 small captive bred Biota yellow tangs. The yellow tangs squabble amongst themselves but otherwise it is a very stable configuration. The yellow tangs are by far the most aggressive fish in the tank, but they were added last and thus don't really cause any problems for anybody else.

When getting the YTs I was also convinced by the huge tang thread on the other forum to get an odd number, and at least for me it is working. I would say if you are going to introduce the tangs, introduce all 3 (or 4 if you add another YT) at the same time, as similarly sized as possible and last. A couple times during the 7 months I've had to use the "mirror trick" to distract the tangs from relentlessly picking on the smallest one, but only on a temporary and as-needed basis.

Based on my experience with Tangs, I don't see any fish on your list (other than each other) they will care about. My Kole tang picks on my Lawnmower Blenny a little bit, but I don't think a Kole tang will care about a Midas Blenny. And the good news is when your tank is big enough, a little bit of aggression isn't a big deal, there should be more than enough room for fish to hide if they need to.

Also in terms of captive bred tangs... Highly recommend the biota yellow tangs. They were very cute and tiny when I got them, about 1", ate every kind of food right away and were disease free and healthy (obviously I can't guarantee that but I think you'll have better luck with CB than you would with wild caught). They also grow very fast. After 7 months, the biggest YT is ~5", and the other 2 are ~3.5". Not as cute as when they were tiny but great fish, really helped stabilize my reef by eating algae and pooping out coral food.

Thanks for the info Dan! I was looking at Biota YTs. I'm an avid diver so i opt for CB whenever possible. Hopefully to plan a trip to Palau for diving and tour of the Biota facility.

 

[sfdan]

Thanks for the info Dan! I was looking at Biota YTs. I'm an avid diver so i opt for CB whenever possible. Hopefully to plan a trip to Palau for diving and tour of the Biota facility.

The one thing I'll note, based on a thread from another forum, is that IME the captive bred YTs do not have the same clean coloration as you get from wild-caught.

Here is the picture of my YTs when they first went into my tank after 20 days of QT and today:

May 25th:

Today:

This could be described as HLLE (though I'm not convinced that is accurate), but my tangs are fed a healthy diet of high quality frozen food and selcon enriched nori, and my (wild caught) Kole tang has perfect coloration, so I'm assuming this is just what you get with a captive bred tang. Notwithstanding their faces, all my YTs are fat and healthy and I'm very content with the work they do in my reef and want to support captive breeding whenever possible.

However if you want the pure yellow coloration in your YT, you might want to look towards wild caught.

 

[nereefpat]

Thanks Pat. I'll ditch the Mystery. I wasn't set on pairs, that was more just to hit about 25 fish. If I go singles with them all, with no Mystery, do you think they will be tolerant of each other?

I think you will be okay with those selections.

Perhaps you could fill in the blanks with something like sapphire damsels or dispar anthias.