Fish Stocking Plan for 300G

[Anonymous]

I will be putting the 3 fish that I currently have in my 75G in my new 300G. They are: a false perc clownfish, atlantic blue tang, and a green manderin.

Here are a couple of fish that I really want to have:

Sohal tang
Achilles tang
Vlami(sp?) tang

I might would also like the following:

Yellow tang
Sailfin tang
Foxface rabbitfish

And perhaps a school of bluestreak cardinalfish

If could be convinced that any of these angels were reef safe, and compatible with the other fish listed above, I might consider one or more of these:

Bluespotted angel
Blackspot angel
Watanabe's angel
Lamarck's angel.

I am thinking about devising a plan where I add all of these fish at the same time to help out with the territorial disputes. I want to buy these fish from a local LFS that I think I can convince to quaratine them for me for 30 days in one of their displays. I may pay extra for this, but it'll be worth it. This may seem like a lot of fish for a new system, but consider that I will have my current reef as the refugium so the system would be rather advanced for a new setup. I'll add a couple of hundred pounds of new liverock and let it cycle for a month or two. I will have two protein skimmers hooked up as well, my Lifereef and a MACO beckett skimmer that I built for this tank. Two skimmer is overkill, but I am going to hook both of them up anyways. No point in putting the Lifereef on a shelf to collect dust. I would always unplug one.

A penny for your thoughts....... :wink:

Louey

 

[Len]

A vlamingh tang would be awesome, but they still get too big for even a 300g. I love these fish, but they are way too massive. Achilles or Sohal are better choices. I like white cheek (A.japo) tangs too.

Watanabe's angel and Lamarck's angel are 100% reef safe. Any Genicanthus is. The others are very risky. A male/female pair is always nice.

Adding all the fish at one time is a big, sudden load on the aquarium. Maybe divide it up to two or three schedules where like-bodied fish are added at the same time. But I would think that a tank as big as a 300G would help prevent one fish from damaging another too badly.

 

[Anonymous]

Ditto on exactly what Len said. Skip the Vlamingi. I don't really know exactly what angels those first two are that you're describing...are they a Chaetodontoplus sp.? IF your tank is going to be SPS/clam only there are some other cooler looking safe angels...emperor and a red sea regal come to mind. If not I would stick with the Genicanthus. Also, I would consider getting a male/female pair or harem.

And of course with a tank that big I would have to add a harem of fairy wrasses.

 

[Anonymous]

Do add a foxface, mine is a wonderful fish! I can't say enough good things about him. I have the figi foxface but I would love a magnificent fox.

Any more little fish? Personally I am always swept away by the big tanks with lots of little colorful fish.

 

[sediener]

What size tank will I need to get for Vlad, my vlamingi? he's only ~7" now. I am about 4 years away from being in a stable enough career to build a major tank. I would like to go for a 12x3x3 if that'll give him enough room.

- sed

 

[Anonymous]

That might be about the right size. I would consider a wider and shallower tank though, like 12x4x2. The amount of surface area is more important than depth.

After seeing a couple of these and some full grown Dussimieri tangs, yeah, 300 is not enough room for them. They get huge.

 

[Anonymous]

Shucks. I had no idea vlamingh's got that big. There out. No fish is going to have to do a 3 -point turn in my tank.

Len wrote:

Adding all the fish at one time is a big, sudden load on the aquarium. Maybe divide it up to two or three schedules where like-bodied fish are added at the same time

I could add the achilles, atlantic blue, and a whitecheeck first. Add the sohal last as I am sure he'll end up being the boss of the tank no matter what.


Matt wrote:

I don't really know exactly what angels those first two are that you're describing...are they a Chaetodontoplus sp.?

According to Scott Micheals Marine Fishes they are Chaetodontoplus Caeruleopunctatus (bluespotted) and Genicanthus Melanospilos (blackspott). My LFS has a 5-6 inch bluespot that has been there for a month or so. Absolutely beautiful fish. I think they are asking $300 for it. I might would fork it over.

And of course with a tank that big I would have to add a harem of fairy wrasses.

I might do that instead of the cardinals.

IF your tank is going to be SPS/clam only there are some other cooler looking safe angels...emperor and a red sea regal come to mind.

It is going to be SPS and clams. It's good to hear there are some other angels that are reef safe. I'm not sure I'm buying it, but it still good to hear.



LauraD wrote:

Do add a foxface, mine is a wonderful fish! I can't say enough good things about him. I have the figi foxface but I would love a magnificent fox.

10-4. Seems that the yellow onespotted foxfaces are the ones I see for sale around here most often. Might just get one of them.

 

[JamisonRD]

Do add a foxface, mine is a wonderful fish! I can't say enough good things about him. I have the figi foxface but I would love a magnificent fox.

Well, I don't have one, but when I have a large enough tank a foxface will be my 1st investment. Since it sounds like you may be interested, I've seen a few Magnificent's in person... the pictures available online just don't do it any justice (fun personalities too).

Just my two cents.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, G. melanospilos. I've never heard it called anything besides "Zebra" or "Zebra Swallowtail"

Regals and Emperors (and Majestics, and I'm sure many other Pomacanthus spp.) are pretty safe with SPS from what I've read. I know Greg has a regal in his big tank. Minh had a majestic in his old tank. And the Waikiki Aq. has that great big emperor in their outdoor SPS and clam tank. (They have a regal in there too but no visitor besides me has ever seen it I bet )

 

[Anonymous]

I'm with Laura I would do few big fish and lots of little fish if it were me. I would add a school of something. Chromis, cardinals, or anthanias.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, my manderin didn't make it to the 300G. He passed on to the big aquarium in the sky. I kept him for 4.5 years, so I guess that would be considered a success.

My clownfish and atlantic blue tang are now in the tank along with a foxface rabbitfish. Great fish that foxface. They all seem to be getting along fine.

I am now strongly considering a Harlequin Tusk.

I still want the other tangs mentioned above.

I like the idea of a harem of fairy wrasses too. Is there any particular kind of fairy wrasse that is best? Also, will the 3" eurobracing around the perimeter of the tank help stop jumpers? I really don't like the idea of any kind of cover over the tank. What else could be done to keep the wrasses inside the tank?

Louey

 

[Rob Top]

Stop jumpers?...
My understanding is when a fish jumps it's due to being spooked and could brake the water anywhere.

 

[Anonymous]

Louey,
All the Cirrhilabrus fairy wrasses adapt well to aquariums. They will all eat just about anything that floats by in the water column. Some of them (jordani and lineatus come to mind) can be a bit shy for a few days but most of the others (I've kept scottorum, solorensis, bathyphilus, laboutei, cyanopleura, and luteovittatus) will feed virtually right out of the bag. It's really just a matter of which you find most attractive and in your price range.

I would definitely add them before any tangs, as they tend to be "low man" on the totem pole.

You will need some eggcrate or some kind of glass walls to prevent them from jumping out.

 

[Anonymous]

A couple good articles on fairies...

http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/arti ... brus1.html
by Len!

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003- ... /index.php
A good one too, although Mr Schultz has a picture of a C. rubrisquamis ID'd as a C. pylei.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the links Matt. Both were excellent!

My tank is open on the two sides and the back. I want to keep it that way due to the heat of the 4 - 400 MH's. If I used eggcrate across the back and side, vertically all the way to the ceiling, would my tank be safe to keep wrasses in?

No way I am putting a complete canopy on the tank. Too much heat from the halides would result.

I already have the Atlantic Blue Tang in the tank. I'll hold off on adding any more tangs until the wrasses are established.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

bump for:

I wrote:

My tank is open on the two sides and the back. I want to keep it that way due to the heat of the 4 - 400 MH's. If I used eggcrate across the back and side, vertically all the way to the ceiling, would my tank be safe to keep wrasses in?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I think it would probably be okay.

Atlantic Blues are pretty peaceful as tangs go, yeah?

 

[Anonymous]

Question about sexing wrasses. I can't find any online (or local) vendors that sell male vs. females. Do wrasses change sexes? Can I just buy 5 wrasses and later one will change to male and the rest stay female?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Atlantic Blues are pretty peaceful as tangs go, yeah?

He was fairly mean when I first got him. He now hangs out with my new foxface and the old clownfish all the time.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

UPDATE!

Here is a list of the fish that I have in my 300G as of now:

The original two fish:

Atlantic blue tang
False perc clownfish

The following fish were added on the dates shown:

Foxface rabbitfish 10/10/05
5 Scott's fairy wrasses (all but two died) 11/09/05
Lyretail Anthias' (5 females, 1 male) 11/29/05
Achilles Tang 12/06/05
Sailfin Tang (Philippines) 12/06/05

This present collection of fish is doing very well. It is a pretty display and there is no need to add any more fish just for the sake of making it look good. That's not to say I won't add any more. I just don't need to.

A few observations about these fish:

The Atlantic blue tang is much less aggressive in the new tank. He usually swims gracefully and slowly, all around the tank, with an occasional burst here and there.

The clownfish has always hosted in a tongue coral. The tongue coral was also moved into the 300G tank. He's still host there, but is is often out and about and swimming all around the 300G tank. There is nowhere he doesn't go. When he was in the 75G tank, he never swam out more than 1' away from the tongue coral.

The 5 Scott's fairy wrasses. 1 was DOA. 1 other never came out of a hole in a rock that he hide in as soon as he was released. The 3rd death I believe was due to him being picked on by the most dominate of the Scott's that I received. This dominate fish was also beating the living crap out of the 4th wrasse, but strangely when I added the 5 anthias' the aggression suddenly stopped. The 4th wrasses that seemed like a goner now looks good and is usually out swimming with the other fish. The aggressive wrasse still chases him into hiding on occasion, but I believe he'll make it.

The anthias. These fish are more beautiful than the picture on DF&S showed. I received these fish with the credit I received for the dead wrasses. I only had to pay $20.00 for the difference. They are great. Can't say enough about them. Best cheap fish I ever bought.

The Achilles and Sailfin tangs were added last. I was very concerned that the Atlantic would kill them. I had my LFS hold them for 3-4 weeks to make sure they were healthy to start with. I added them about a week ago, and the Atlantic blue did go after both of them with a vengeance. He was whipping the sailfin so bad I was sure he would kill it. The sailfin would run from one end of the tank to the other and the ABT would corner and beat the piss out of him. I turned the lights off immediately and left them in the dark overnight. The ABT would go after the Achilles and the Achilles wouldn't run, he'd do a quick spin around and face the ABT as if to say he was ready to fight if needed. That paid off for him. The next day the Sailfins fins were shredded badly. The Achilles had a few marks, but not near as bad as the sailfin. When I came home from work the next day (the lights had been on for 2 hours) all tangs were swimming around and minding their own business. I guess the ABT needed to show his dominance (and he did). Now they swim right past each other as if they are the only fish in the tank. I see an occasional stare, or an attempted tail swat, but that's about it. No chasing. No new fin damage. The Achilles is completely healed and the Sailfin is getting close to healed. The sailfin feeds like a pig. The Achilles was not quick to accept all foods, but he seems to be feeding more and more aggressively every day.

I use a Rondomatic 400 auto feeder and really like it. I have it programmed to feed flake twice a day. I feed a cube of frozen at night. I think the automatic feeder keeps the fish out swimming more than normal. This group of fish swims out in the upper parts of the tank a lot. I like that and think that the automatic feeder is at least partially responsible. The fish seem to have a sense of time and swim higher in the tank the closer it gets to feeding time.

I believe that fish get along better when there is more of them. I may be wrong, but that's what I see with this group of fish.

Louey