Thinking Ahead To My Stocking

[heavenly_d3vi1]

My tanks not set up yet even, but thought I'd do bit of research as I have no idea on what I want to keep in this setup yet! When it comes to putting things in my tank, do I need to know which fish I want before I can gather a CUC, or vice versa?

Without knowing what fish there will be is it possible to suggest some good CUC members to me?

All I know for sure is that my tank is 4ft-330L (89g?) and that I want an anenome, does that effect what else I can keep in any way?

Also any fish suggestion for me to think about would be welcomed! obviously as a newbie to salt, like all the other newbies, i'd love a couple of clown fish does this restrict my options on other areas at all?

Any stocking hints/tips/dos and donts welcomed please! Sorry for possible silly questions, I've not yet done ANY research on habitants yet, so this is my starting point!

 

[Morri]

Its always best to start with fish

Sooo much choose I will throw a few of my favs around so you can have a look

First thing first nems need a matured tank so need to wait at least 6 months pref 12 months before adding

First fish normally are clowns perculas or occelarius are the best ones for aggression and the "Nemo" look

Royal grammar very pretty fish
yasha goby (Most gobies are good)
you could squeeze a small tang in like a yellow tang or a kole tang
blennies are very good character fish
anthias are another very nice fish
Flasher wrasse and fairy wrasse are some of my favs but tank needs to be covered

fish to avoid imo

Any damsel nasty little so and so`s
Chromis I dislike they get nasty if spawning
Cardinals get big and ugly and just hang around might as well get a cardboard cut out
Hawkfish pretty fish but like to chow down on your cuc
Any big tang your tank is a nice size but apart from the 2 I mentioned get too big

risky fish

Manadrins very pretty fish has a spealised diet of copepods these can be brought or grown
Scooter blennies as above

Sure I can think of more in the morn

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Ahh thanks morri.. great minds think alike and all that! your list of 'good' and 'bad' fish look very similar to the quick lists Ive just drawn up in my head from looking at the kish of the week threads!

I was also wondering if I'd get away with a tang, I love the yellow ones, but ofcourse, thanks to nemo was wondering if i'd have room for a blue one!?

 

[lewiss]

Hello and welcome!! :hello:

Where to begin!?! First of all, what tank are you planning? A full reef setup (live rock, coral), fish only, preditor tank? What lighting do you have?

Well you can choose your CUC and fish and they don't really affect each other really, so treat them as two separate things, however there are some cool invert / fish pairs such as the pistol shrimp and goby. Choose your CUC first, things like snails, urchins, shrimp, emerald crabs, hermit crabs. For CUC have a look at Donya's post on the thread 'I was thinking...' it's very informative!! Might give you some ideas. My personal favourites - blood shrimp and cleaner shrimp - cleaners are fascinating to watch!! Anemone crabs (when you get an anemone) lovely crabs, and bright so you can see them!! Antler crabs are cool. When it comes to hermits - they're great but the larger ones can knock rocks everyone!!

Then fish wise, ensure they are reef safe (if you are going for a reed setup, (ie. With coral). Here's a photo thing with a few types, some aren't able to be kept in your size tank - but gobys are nice, you can get some really colourful wrasse, emporer cardinal, angel fish? There's soo many. Maybe chromis? Check out some journals and you might get some inspiration!! Personal favourites, yellow tang, perc clowns, rock beauty, mandarins, Clown tang, the list is massive!!

Having just looked at that, a lot of them need bigger tanks but still have a little look and see if any stand out.

In terms of anemones, your tank needs to have matured, which means you need to have had it at least a year and water conditions are perfect. Most anemones req high lighting, 4xT5's at min for Bubble Tip Anemones (BTA), other anemones will need stronger usually metal halides.

Only tip I'd give is ask here before you buy and if you have any questions!! Impulse buys tend to end up in regrets or returns!!

Sorry just seen Morri has already beating me to a post!!

 

[HappyGeorge]

Morri has listed a lot of my faves. Firefish are different looking and I'm a huge fan of my lawnmower (algae) blenny he is a star, goes round cleaning the glass leaving little kiss marks if he can find a patch of murky glass, Any Goby are cool, love my Chalk Goby, nothing to look at colour wise (white with little blue spots) but goes round sifting great gobfuls of sand all day long. I know there is a huge Chromis hating club but I quite like them personally, it's Anthias that I find boring and at £4 for a Chromis and £20+ for an Anthias I'm liking the Chromis (just waiting for my LFS to catch the little group in his LPS display so I can stick them in my tank. IMO cleaner shrimps are a must, who would have thought a crustacean could be so comical.

 

[woody88]

Morri has listed a lot of my faves. Firefish are different looking and I'm a huge fan of my lawnmower (algae) blenny he is a star, goes round cleaning the glass leaving little kiss marks if he can find a patch of murky glass, Any Goby are cool, love my Chalk Goby, nothing to look at colour wise (white with little blue spots) but goes round sifting great gobfuls of sand all day long. I know there is a huge Chromis hating club but I quite like them personally, it's Anthias that I find boring and at £4 for a Chromis and £20+ for an Anthias I'm liking the Chromis (just waiting for my LFS to catch the little group in his LPS display so I can stick them in my tank. IMO cleaner shrimps are a must, who would have thought a crustacean could be so comical.

+1 on the cleaner shrimp!

Fire fish and royal gramma are next on my list. Followed by a blood/fire shrimp and lots of xenia!..........You reading this HG & Spadge! lol

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Atm I'm just going for LR, but do plan on corals a bit further down the line. The tank I've ordered comes with 3 x 39w t5's but I'm looking to upgrade that after a bit more research as I dont yet know which things need which light etc.

My tank will be set up as soon as all my orders arrive and my RO unit is set up, then I plan on gradually stocking it up with all the LR I need bit by bit. Would it be possible to add ANYTHING at all before I have all my rock or not? I'm happy to wait, but even better if I could add something, even if its just a snail or shrimp!

From your pic, I think its the regal tang I was hoping for.. I assume since thats not one that morri mentioned, that my tank is too small for a dori?

Oh my, you lot are too quick for me! I'm gunna be up all night searching fish pictures/info now!

What about starfish, good/bad idea?

 

[lewiss]

Well that sounds good. Well 3xT5's are good, you can keep soft corals, and most LPS corals when the time comes. BTA's do need higher light though.

Dori's need massive tanks, you can get a small one, but they grow very fast and you need to have plans to upgrade tank size within a couple of years. They do a lot of swimming so they need lots of water!!

Your rock needs to be in the water and cured before putting anything in!! Sorry. Patients will be your best friend in this hobby!! My personal opinion is don't put CUC in whilst the levels are all over the place! Once it's cured it's game on!

Starfish are very hard to keep as it's not been fully established what they need to thrive and they dont seem to last long in home aquariums, however some people have great success straight away but they are considered more experienced critters. I bought one when I got my tank and he's still going strong! But that's just luck!!

3x cleaner shrimp!!

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

cleaner shrimp is added to the definate things to get list then! I think shrimp look cool too

As for the rock, I'm planning on getting bits and pieces of it from people breaking down tanks and some from LFS tanks, that means it'll already be cured, right?

what sort of size tank would be suitable for a dori? I cant see it being long before I'm going down the upgrade route! When I first started freshwater, I had a 60L and within a couple of months had 3 tanks, up to 4ft

 

[Yuma]

Hey there....good to see you doing research BEFORE you have your "feet in the water" and before you make that impulse buy at the LFS.

As mentioned, CUC and fish have very little to do with each other except for the symbiotic relationships mentioned. Both can be determined independently.

Live Rock. Sounds like it will be cured....but that's doesn't mean your tank is not going to cycle.

When you take that rock out of the water and put it in say, a bucket, transport to your house, and then into your tank, there will inevitably be some die-off of the beneficial bateria. There are things you can do to minimize that die-off, but you will at least usually have at very least a mini-cycle in your tank. Keep in mind, just because it's sold as LIVE ROCK.....doesn't mean that it truly is.

I am a HUGE proponent of the fishLESS cycle. Get all of your rock that you can at one time if you can afford it and get it in the tank with your sand and water. There are some old wive's tales about how to "speed up" your cycle(some work, some don't), but the die-off of the live rock in most cases is sufficient to kick off the cycle. You want zero ammonia, zero nitRITEs, and zero niTRATes before you put fish in.

Putting fish in a tank to "survive" through the cycle is cruel in my opinion. Most folks wouldn't feed antifreeze to a puppy or kitty, but yet they have no problem throwing fish into an ammonia filled tank. I step down off my soap box.

Back to the topic at hand, some other fish for you to look at:

Wrasses, many beautiful fairy and flasher wrasses out there...many that are reef safe too. Careful, some are not.
Dwarf Angels, say a coral beauty, or flame angel (ONLY 1 angel in your tank though)
Firefish. I love my firefish and their grumpy little faces.
Clowns. Clowns are just simply the funnest, quirkiest little fish around. Very entertaining to watch in my opinion.
Many choices of gobies, including ones that pair with pistol shrimp
The shrimp mentioned earlier are excellent choices.

Mandarins are beautiful fish...but have VERY specific feeding requirements, my word of caution about these fish.

Go to an online place like liveaquaria.com or saltwaterfish.com (or whatever your favorite online fish store is) and just start looking, and then ask away. Certainly someone on here can provide you information beyond what they have included on their site.

 

[-Nemo-]

Minimum size tank for a hippo would be a 6footer... 120G minimum..

 

[Morri]

Yip Regal tangs can get very big I would agree with Nemo a 6 footer min

The problems with Tangs are they are pure waste machines the bio load they add to the system is quiet high and limits other stock.

lots of smaller fish looks very effective in a reef tank a lot more activity.

http/www.liveaquaria.com/

Is a great site for piccies of fish some lucky people can order from here <Scowls at Nemo>

Once you see the fish you like you need to work out what will go with what I would love a tank full of Blennies but dependant on size 1 blenny per tank is norm

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

now, I know whe I come back with a list as long as my arm of fish i'll like, you lot will certainly let me know thats far too many.. but is there an average ish number of fish I can keep in this tank? I know it depends on so many things, but just a rough guide!?

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Right, had a quick browse of those websites, think I got most my list from coral safe/beginner sections! Heres a few that took my fancy!

Nemo clowns 2/3?
firefish - purple
goby - catalina/court jester/green clown
flasher wrasse - carpenter/blue
fairy wrasse - red vekvet/longfin/lubbocks
dwarf angel - singapore
green mandarin
2 spot benny

had a quick look at inverts too while I was there..

scarlet/electric blue hermits
turbo snails
lots of different shrimp that are quite cool, can you have mixed shrimp?
blue tux urchin
some kind of cucumber and clam maybe?
and a sandsifting star and anenome once the tank is more established!

So go ahead and ruin my dreams!

 

[ben1987]

Right, had a quick browse of those websites, think I got most my list from coral safe/beginner sections! Heres a few that took my fancy!

Nemo clowns 2/3? Deffinatly 2! they would pair off and kill the 3rd
firefish - purple Yep fine, can be skittish and shy though. best to only keep as singles too
goby - catalina/court jester/green clown yep yep yep, although in large tanks ive never been a fan of gobys. i like fish i can see a bit easierflasher wrasse - carpenter/blue yeah...drool, i lost mine though as it jumped out a tiny hole in a net over the tank
fairy wrasse - red vekvet/longfin/lubbocks nice fish, yeah...these guys jump too
dwarf angel - singapore try coral beauty instead. singapore is difficult to keep alive, fairly aggressive, grows quite big and 90% of the time a polyp muncher
green mandarin i wouldnt, jmo.if you do then youll have to culture live food all the time and loads of it as the wrasse will eat pods too. a lot of hasstle
2 spot benny id go midas, bi-colour or algae. bit bigger and a bit more robust ime

had a quick look at inverts too while I was there..

scarlet/electric blue hermits quite aggressive scavengers the blue ones are! scarlets are usually ok
turbo snails perfect
lots of different shrimp that are quite cool, can you have mixed shrimp? i find shrimp a pita when feeding corals, they are scavengers. you could mix
blue tux urchin
some kind of cucumber and clam maybe? no on the cucumber imo, yes on the clam later...they need really stable water conditions and strong lights though!
and a sandsifting star and anenome once the tank is more established!nem after 6-12 months with goo water and lights, starfish do better in the wild and get quite big!

So go ahead and ruin my dreams!

hope that helps