Stocking question for an established 75 gallon tank

[ssky]

Hi all,
As the title says, I need some help with my stocking options. Some basics.

75 gallon standard (48x18x20) 2 years old
20 gallon sump with skimmer

Currently have 1 clown fish, 1 engineer goby, 1 pajama cardinal, 1 red fire fish
few hermit crabs anda couple of nessarius snails

LPS corals: forgspawns, candy corals, chalice coral

I have tried couple of royal gramma but had bad luck with them. The last one lasted 6 months before disappearing all of a sudden. I still do not understand why they died. no stress no nothing just vanished one day. Then I tried wrasses (yellow coris wrasse twice and flasher wrasse twice) all died with a couple of months again no rhyme or reason. Interestingly never found their corpses. Probably the crabs and snails feasted before I could find anything.

My parameters are all inline with standards, I feed less and change water every 2 weeks.

So here is the history, now I am trying again to add another fish. So far I am looking at kole tang and a orchid dottyback. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

[ssky]

My water parameters are:

Salinity 1.024
Temp 76 F
Nitrates <20
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
ph 8.1
Alk 8.7
Mg 1200
Ca 420

 

[Easy E]

The orchid dottyback would probably be a good choice. Most are tank bred now and very hardy. The tank may be a bit too small for a Tang.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk

 

[Uncle99]

Nitrate seems a tad high.
48" is the minimum length for the kole, so that's a toss up whether that would work longer
Term...
Dottybacks great but can be quite territorial...may flash others...but IMO...doable...

 

[j.falk]

Is it possible that the missing fish jumped out of the tank and a family pet might've eaten them? Or there could be dried fish chips somewhere behind the tank?

 

[Uncle99]

Is it possible that the missing fish jumped out of the tank and a family pet might've eaten them? Or there could be dried fish chips somewhere behind the tank?

Dried fish chips.....LOL

Now that's funny!

 

[ssky]

Well I wish that was true but in all honesty, the fishes just disappeared. I know they are dead but they died in the tank. Nothing jumped out. I checked all around when they went AWOL. But oh well sometime there are fishes that no matter how hard you try they just don't last in your tank while similar fish will thrive in another tank.

I think that is why everyone says all tanks are not equal.

 

[Bent]

Well I wish that was true but in all honesty, the fishes just disappeared. I know they are dead but they died in the tank. Nothing jumped out. I checked all around when they went AWOL. But oh well sometime there are fishes that no matter how hard you try they just don't last in your tank while similar fish will thrive in another tank.

I think that is why everyone says all tanks are not equal.

How big is that engineer......


I have a theory as to what happened to your fish.

 

[ssky]

My engineered goby is approx inches and is one of the oldest mate but I have never seen it harassed any fish. quite a model citizen

 

[Frogmanx82]

If you have plenty of nooks and crannies for a Kole tang to explore you shouldn't have much problem. I really like mine. I've had the same experience with royal grammas, seem to be doing fine and then one day gone. I have a hard time keeping one for a year. I've had my clowns for 10 years. I think you'd be happier with the tang over the dottyback. Its really more of a centerpiece fish that is active and always out in the open.