Trying to recoup our 215g

[redhdmedic]

Yes, I will admit...we have been lazy fish parents...bad, lazy fish parents. Keeping our 56g reef in good shape is not as difficult as it sits in the middle of our living room, so we see it all the time, however the 215g is located in the basement which is currently inhabited by the boyfriends daughter, so we don't get to spend a lot of time down there...and so, we have become bad and lazy fish parents...with a big clean-up on our hands! So, while we are working on getting rid of the ton-and-a-half of kenya tree coral (pretty sure after the "end of the world" all that will be left is raches and kenya tree coral?), we're also trying to figure out how to stock that take and take it over and make it ours again! Current stock situation is Djardini Sailfin Tang, Purple Tang, Pink Tail Trigger, Foxface Rabbitfish, Tiger Cowry and SeaMonster (or Green Brittle Star). We are planning on removing the Seamonster, he's just too darn big. Of the 4 fish, clearly the sailfin (Desi) is the bully of the group. He is the only one that wasn't a rescue, so we're possibly open to the idea of trading him out for other options. what ideas do you have?

 

[redhdmedic]

another problem I am looking at, is after we figure out what we want to add, what is the best way to add it? We are thinking we will probably have to take the fish out, do some sort of small re-arrangement to the rock so it looks slightly different then add everyone back in the pool at the same time hoping for a peaceful community, but for some reason I feel like I am kidding myself there...

 

[redhdmedic]

ok...at this point, we have a few takers on the trees...so we're getting that cleared out...yay! In the mean time, we've narrowed our additions down to this:

small group of chromis?
small group of damsels?
small group of bar gobies?
paddle wrasse
porcupine puffer

we would really like to add a couple butterflies and possibly either a powder brown or powder blue tang...but not thinking that will go well with the sailfin.

Again, does anyone have ideas on how we should add...do you think the idea of removing and alightly altering the rockwork then adding everyone in at the same time will work? Or am I simply having pipe dreams here?

 

[redhdmedic]

really, no ideas at all? I have experience with smaller setups and less aggressive fish, but this is kind of new territory for me...just looking for a little direction/reassance here?

 

[LedZep fan2]

From experience, any new additions will be terrorized by the tangs and it will not stop. (especially from the purple) So butterfly's would be a no go in my opinion. Porcupine puffer wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe a bigger angel? You still have some space left in the tank, but that'll start to decrease as the fish get bigger. I wouldn't remove all the fish if there is aggression once you have a new addition, maybe only those displaying the most aggression. Otherwise, you'll be putting a lot of stress on the fish by pulling them all out. Moving the rock will sometimes help as well but it's not guranteed.

 

[redhdmedic]

thanks for the reply, I was thinking I was invisible! Right now the purple is definitely submissive to the desjardini, and the desi was the last fish added to this tank. The purple was a rescue, he was dropped off at a lfs in a 10g tank and our lfs didn't want to take the time to get him healthy, at that time he was about 1.5" and had massive HLLE, you would never know it now, he's gorgeous and just shy of 4". The Desi is about 6", Pink Tail 5" and Fox Face 6". Everyone has now been in the "pool" together for a little over 2 years. We used to be able to get to the tank more often, but since my boyfriends daughter has moved into the basement we don't want to intrude on her, but want to make sure our babies are taken care of. Since she spends more time away now, we're able to get down there more and spend more time with the babies! I know we were mostly worried about Desi beating up on any new additions, but I'm sure Rudy would jump in the fray just the same. The boyfriend is more the tang fanatic than I am, I know he was tossing the idea of possibly trading out Desi if it was thought the fish was just too darn aggressive to make any additions, as it is crazy to have only 4 fish in a 215g (unless 1 is a grouper and 3 are food), but i know he really likes Desi and it's just gorgeous fish.

 

[clowntriggerfis]

if you want a salfin you could give yours to your LFS and after you stock the tank add a 1-2 in salfin

 

[LedZep fan2]

thanks for the reply, I was thinking I was invisible! Right now the purple is definitely submissive to the desjardini, and the desi was the last fish added to this tank. The purple was a rescue, he was dropped off at a lfs in a 10g tank and our lfs didn't want to take the time to get him healthy, at that time he was about 1.5" and had massive HLLE, you would never know it now, he's gorgeous and just shy of 4". The Desi is about 6", Pink Tail 5" and Fox Face 6". Everyone has now been in the "pool" together for a little over 2 years. We used to be able to get to the tank more often, but since my boyfriends daughter has moved into the basement we don't want to intrude on her, but want to make sure our babies are taken care of. Since she spends more time away now, we're able to get down there more and spend more time with the babies! I know we were mostly worried about Desi beating up on any new additions, but I'm sure Rudy would jump in the fray just the same. The boyfriend is more the tang fanatic than I am, I know he was tossing the idea of possibly trading out Desi if it was thought the fish was just too darn aggressive to make any additions, as it is crazy to have only 4 fish in a 215g (unless 1 is a grouper and 3 are food), but i know he really likes Desi and it's just gorgeous fish.

haha no worries! It happens to me too:lol: In my opinion get everything to where it used to be and then you could add another fish. If you do see some aggression you can go from there. Just make sure when you do buy the new fish that it is slightly larger than the others in an attempt to avoid aggression. As far as having only 4 fish in a 215, I've got only 2 in my 120 and it'll probably stay that way unless I get something small. But I agree you can fit another fish in there, but you just want to make sure you are keeping track of how large the fish will get after a certain amount of time. Just my $.02

 

[LedZep fan2]

if you want a salfin you could give yours to your LFS and after you stock the tank add a 1-2 in salfin

I wouldn't recommend doing this.. Getting a smaller sailfin tang would only tempt the other fish to go after it since it's smaller and it's imposing on their "territory" so to say.

 

[clowntriggerfis]

well it depends on how fast she adds the fish and how agressive they are

 

[rnscross]

mirrors up against the glass can help with aggression when introducing new tangs. Try putting up a mirror and see if the sailfin is more interested in attacking its reflection than terrorising the rest of your fish.

 

[redhdmedic]

if we were going to keep a sailfin in the tank we would likely keep the current Desi that is in there now, he's just a flat out gorgeous fish, but he is large and fairly aggressive...I think given the current state of the tank we would definitely benefit from an aggressive clean up and slight re-arrangement of the tank, so I'm really hopeful that will go along way with the new additions. I think we're pretty set on adding an angel, a wrasse and a group of chromis.

 

[redhdmedic]

ooo, never even thought about the mirror thing! thanks!

 

[redhdmedic]

Update on our newest additions! So far we have added 5 green chromis and a larger spotted hawk along with a few peppermint shrimp. Thusfar everyone is getting along swimmingly! Yay! Not even kidding myself though, at some point, I know that other show will drop...I've ben doing this long enough to know! So we're still trying to decide on a wrasse and angel. I've always been very set on an Emporer, but the other half is leaning towards a Majestic...The wrasse debate is going to be quite difficult as he is so set on a dragon, which may just going to get in there and topple our rockwork around...even though they are so darn goodlooking! There may be no way to end this debate other than to set up another 215