Stocking

Mr31415

Active member
In my 145g reef tank with about 180lbs of LR, soft and stony corals, Deltec AP600 skimmer, refugium with cheato on reverse photoperiod, I have the following fish. I do not want to add any more as it "feels" like my tank is fully stocked - I just want to confirm this and make sure it is not over/understocked:

1 medium Sailfin tang
1 smallish Achilles Tang
1 ocellaris clown
1 small dragon wrasse
1 small leopard wrasse
1 green mandarin
1 blackaxil chromis
5 Anthias (not sure the species, but they look like Lyretail anthias)

Is this ok?
 
I would ditch one of those tangs. Preferrably the achilles tang...those are pretty much an "expert only" fish, and that isnt a cheap fish, so you'd really hate to lose that due to lack of experience (i'm not saying you lack the experience, dont take it that way!!!! :) )

While the sailfin on the other hand, can get to a foot and 3 inches or something. It would be fine for quite a while...should take a long time to grow to that size, (and it may not even get that big) so i'd say it should be fine in a 145 for a good length of time

Last thing...take out either the leopard wrasse or the manderin...they're both very picky eaters and only eat the same thing for the most part. A 145 would not be able to support both of them in the longrun IMO. I'd go w/the manderin over the wrasse, but thats just my opinion :) The manderins are generally a bit easier from what i hear.
 
well the achilles has been happy and fat since 14 january this year, eating very well. I bought it because (a ) I did not realise it was expensive until I already paid for it, (b ) I did not realise it was any more difficult to keep than any other tang and (c ) it was eating very well at the LFS.

My mandarin only eats live food - i.e. the pods on the LR. The leopard wrasse eats any frozen meaty food I feed to my tank, both had been healthy and fat for 1 year now.

So apart from that there is no "space" issue here? I.e. overloading territory or biological filtration?
 
I would add a couple of reef dwellers like a gobie, fridmani or bi-color blennie. I have all three and they are so fun to watch and the pretty much stay out of the way of the free swimmers. They also don't add much to the bioload.
 
Oh, you already got all those....missed that part! I'd take out one of those tangs then...they really do get big and while 145 might seem like a big tank, it really isnt that big compared to what these fish have out in the ocean. I went snorkeling in hawaii a couple months ago and i saw both those tangs, hundreds of them. They were all soooo stinkin active that i felt kinda bad that people keep them...but i cant imagine both of them in one tank smaller than like 300.

Take one of those away, and everything else seems fine then, as long as the wrasse is taking frozen stuff :)
 
Yeah I have a 480g predator tank - idea was as the dragon wrasse and sailfin gets too big they'll move over.
 
ah, then you got nothin to worry about :) did you just update your current tanks? I swear i didnt see the other one on there...
 
I had the 145g since 1 June '06, then I used to have a 125g bought in September '06 but that was too small for my predator fish, so about 2 months ago I upgraded to a 480g. So now I have a 145g reef, 480g predator with softies and a 12g nano.

See my red house for details.
 
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