suggestions welcome and needed

[MAKO-MIKE]

I am in charge of my boss' SW tank of a little over 300 gallons. I currently have a lunar wrasse (4"), flame hawkfish, harlequin tusk (5"), and a lion (4") in it. Also residing n the tank are sea stars, turbo snails, cowrie, and sally lightfoot crabs. There are lots of fake corals and decorations taking up a fair ammount of space. He would like me to add more fish. Like most people, he wants larger, "ooh ahh" fish. I had some ideas but not sure on the practicality and/or compatability. We plan on adding some sort of angel (emporer or queen most likely), possibly a powder blue or purple tang. Others that have come up were clowns, triggers and anthias. I am afraid of adding triggers due to the inverts and just found out that anthias and hawkfish are not compatable. A few fish that I love are orbiculate batfish and moorish idol. Not sure if they would work. I was hoping you might be able to suggest a few options that may appease my boss and not be a major pain in rear for me. Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[danmhippo]

Posts tend to get lost in these less frequent forums. People normally post questions onto the General Reef Discussion forum. Although I think you choose the forum wisely (non-reef related), but posts in this forum tend to get unnoticed.

Fishes that you have are all meat eaters. When you are considering adding fish such as tangs, and moorish idol, you are stepping into fishes with algae as the major diets. Mixing different types of fish will only make you work harder in maintaining the tank. If you insists on the tangs, I would suggest you go with yellow tang or purple tang. Powder blue has track record of not able to survive in captivity of over 8 months. Very few specimens exceeds that. I'd suggest you stay away from that fish.

Others to consider in the tang category are naso tang, kole tang, regal tang, black tang, and chevron tang.

If you are willing to remove the sally lightfoot, You can go with one or 2 triggers. My favorits are niger and queen. Niger tends to be mild tempered and are often kept in non-aggressive specie tanks. Queen are a B!tch, and will take a bite of any less aggressive fish that it think is edible.

You can also consider groupers and/or another wrass.

 

[PupChow]

Trigger might pick on the Lion's spines.

Personally if it were my tank, I would add an Angel! Emperor, Blue Face, or Imperator (or is it Majestic?)! That's definitely "ooooo-ahhhh!!!"

Moorish Idol is one of the most difficult fish to keep in home aquarium, mainly due to lack of food during shipping; but if you find one that eats readily, hey, you might be the lucky few. However, don't think you wanna risk something that float upside down easily going into your boss' tank.

Good luck!

 

[reefann]

Another comment on the tangs is they need plenty of healthy greens dried seaweed strips is great romian lettuce is ok but not my first choice. Regal tangs are gorgeous fish but are very susiptible to hLL (head and lateral line dieseas) would not recomend to you. As for the triggers i would stay away from clown and quenn triggers their crazy. Any trigger I would put in small and last if I were you. On a 300g a grouper would be a good idea. They have a tendincy to make people ohh-ahh. Good luck with the tank!!
JJ

 

[WRASSER]

MAKO MIKE,
A COUPLE OF SUGGESTIONS ON MY SIDE OF THE WORLD. TANGS WILL BE A PERFECT FIT. ONE OR THREE OR MORE OF THE SAME KIND, OR ONE OF EACH OF MANY KINDS. THE SKY IS THE LIMIT WITH 300 GAL. NOT ONLY THAT, THEY WILL HELP KEEP ALL THAT FAKE CORAL CLEAN! I WOULD ALSO GO TO SAY PUT THREE OR FOUR DWARF ANGLES INSTEAD OF ONE BIG ANGLE. YOU WILL GET MORE FOR YOUR MONEY OUT OF THEM. THE WRASSE FAMILY WILL GET ALONG WITH THESE FISH. DO SOME HOMEWORK AND GET SOME MORE WRASSE (HOGFISH). THIS MAKES A GREAT EYE CATCHER, ALL THE FISH INTERACT WELL TOGETHER. GOOD LUCK.
WASSER 8)