I am very new to saltwater aquariums. I am trying to do a fairly easy and peaceful fish tank with a fair number of invertebrates. I am interested in what other members think of this stocking plan: I recently purchased a 75-gallon tank with about 85 pounds of live rock and 40 pounds of live sand and rubble. It has a skimmer, heater, and sump of some sort. The lights are compact fluorescent 50/50. It's been cycling for about a month with 15 snails, 2 conchs, 10 small hermit crabs, a pistol shrimp, and one red bar shrimp goby. I just added a skunk cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp. A few snails died but everyone else looks pretty good so far. Water quality has been good for two weeks: temperature 80.0-81.5, specific gravity 1.023, Ph 8.2, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrate 10-20, some other random tests all very reasonable. My stocking plans are as follows: one jawfish, either pearly or blue spot (next in, I think) 5 clown gobies blue assessor 6-line wrasse Some number of sexy shrimp, cleaner shrimp, feather dusters. maybe two barnacle blennies, a pygmy geometric hawk. I've read online that the Royal Grammas will really go after a jawfish. So will the clownfish, although in the cases I read the jawfish was second in the tank. That's why I'm not adding these two popular and easy fish. My husband is color-blind and really prefers the blue fish. Small, peaceful blue fish are tough to find though: maybe the new indigo dottback or dwarf angel last? I'm busy sealing up the back of tank against the escaping jawfish. The sandbed is 5 inches deep in some spots and should be able to accomodate the jawfish well. Any thoughts on this plan? Thank you!
I think your selection of fish is pretty good and shows you have done some research on compatability. The Jawfish is a good selection if you have the correct substrate. They need some coral rubble and larger sand particles to construct a burrow that will not collapse on them. Speaking of that, you should have the base of your live rock on the bottom of the tank so they won't dig under and tumble your rockwork or fall on your fish. Good luck finding the Blue Assessor, I have been looking for one for some time, and you may want to wait for your tank to season a bit more before buying such an expensive fish. If you want a nice blue fish with a lot of movement try the blue reef chromis. 3 to 5 of them in a 75 would look great and give you some movement in the upper part of the tank. The Citron gobies, Blennies, Hawkfish, and inverts should all be compatable. I would watch the shrimp with the jawfish since the ones you mentioned get to around 6" or more. The Pseudochromis and Dottybacks I would be carefull about as they can be pretty mean little buggers. If you do add them make sure they are the last of the small fish you add. Once they establish themselves they can cause some problems with any new fish you add. I have a Royal Gramma and a Neon Dottyback in my 400 and they sometimes get into a spat when they cross paths. The Flame Angel or the Coral Beauty would be a good dwarf angel choice. Good luck and welcome to the forum.
Fisher already complimented you on your research so I will compliment you on your patients, which I have lacked recently. I have had established tanks for some time that were needing overhauling which created basically new tanks. I must say that I have somewhat taken for granted my established tanks and the frustration of cycling an aquarium. The deaths of your invertebrates is not of any concern as the majority of hobbyist purchase snails and crabs to help with algae and detritus which is fine but often purchase way to many for the real estate that they have. I am sure that you have seen estores that sell cleaner packages that include 30 - 40 hermits & snails in various combinations for your size aquarium, the mortality of them will be high as food rapidly disappears with a maturing tanks. It is a much better idea to purchase fewer clean crew members from you lfs than these packages. You did not mention where you bought you critters but I just mentioned that because packages like these seem to be big sellers on the internet. Hope you can make it to a meeting - there is in fact lecture on algae at the meeting next week. Keep us up to date on what fish you actually end up getting in the next couple of months.
Thanks for comments! I think your selection of fish is pretty good and shows you have done some research on compatability. The Jawfish is a good selection if you have the correct substrate. They need some coral rubble and larger sand particles to construct a burrow that will not collapse on them. Speaking of that, you should have the base of your live rock on the bottom of the tank so they won\'t dig under and tumble your rockwork or fall on your fish. I have one part of the tank well-grounded and am crossing my fingers that the fish takes to that location. There's a long and light piece of coral with rubble stuffed underneath. The rest of the live rock is grounded on the bottom. If you want a nice blue fish with a lot of movement try the blue reef chromis. 3 to 5 of them in a 75 would look great and give you some movement in the upper part of the tank. My only concern with the chromis was that so many fish were needed to keep them happy. Some websites have even suggested at least 5. I am a little afraid that with the current fish plan, 3 blue chromis would put me over the top. I think the get to be about 3-4 inches. But other than that, chromis would work very well for me. But I already need branching coral for the clown goby perches so the chromis would probably enjoy the latticwork as well.
thanks, answers to Q It is a much better idea to purchase fewer clean crew members from you lfs than these packages. You did not mention where you bought you critters but I just mentioned that because pack ages like these seem to be big sellers on the internet. My lfs is NSA, since they're about 10 minutes from my house. I'm always there watching the fish because their behavior is so different. I only determined I liked jawfish from watching some YouTube videos. NSA also did the aquarium setup since my household is pretty inept with mechanical tasks--I don't think we own a drill or nails. Hope you can make it to a meeting - there is in fact lecture on algae at the meeting next week. Thanks, I hope I can come. We have two small children so meetings are tough for me to make! Then again, I'm at home a lot to fiddle with the tank and do small feedings. Keep us up to date on what fish you actually end up getting in the next couple of months. I will!
Your thread inspired me to do what has been suggested at every national conference that I have been to - research species that come from a specific region. So often we add corals in our tanks that wouldn't be caught dead with in a 1000 miles of the other, and if it were just might be dead. Yet we expect them to inhapit a micro closed habitat and then wonder why they chemically fight each other, the same goes for fish who are left thinking "what the hell is that and where did it come from". I have decided that my 90 gallon tank that is just about done cycling will house species endemic to Hawaii, mostly because I feel that I can trust the collecting methods better than say the south pacific and there are quite a few species that while not endemic are found in Hawaiian waters. For a tang I can chose the chole tang, yellow tang and perhaps achillies, for an angel there is the fishers or potters. I am going to look for the a chole tang and a potters angel to fill these slots. I would like a wrasse and was initially looking at fairy wrasses but the corris wrasse is a Hawaiian species that I am willing to forgo shrimp to house. The arc eye hawk fish is also a fish that would add a lot of character along with the scareface blenny. I am enjoying doing the research and will keep you posted on what I end up with - I have alot more reading to do. Thanks for the inspiration.
Fish stocking to date After being pestered 100 times a day as to "where are the fish, where", I ordered from an internet site the following fish: 1. blue spot jawfish (BSJ). Not the cheapest fish to start with, but the pearly jawfish has some trouble being picked on by other tank members, especially clowns and royal grammas. (Royal grammas and pearly jawfish live in the same Carribean waters and don't seem to like each other at all.) So a pearly would require me to keep the rest of the tank peaceful, knocking out a lot of good livestock. BSJ is more expensive, more prone to hide, but bigger and very handsome. In the future I can probably add either a dwarf angel, clownfish or royal gramma without the jawfish being terrorized. My BSJ arrived in terrific shape and is doing well in the tank. He set up his tunnel in a cave and seems quite comfortable in there. All family members love the BSJ's activity and great personality. 2. Four yellow clown gobies. These guys have been more troublesome. While easy to keep I didn't realize they're very prone to ich from stress. So they all got miserable ich until I got Kick-ich, which is healing them up quite nicely. The BSJ had a few spots too but the ich healed up quickly. On days I put the kick-ich in I dismantle the skimmer for a few hours. So far the clown gobies are ok but look a little crummy. All are eating away though. The fish also seem to be selecting personal pieces of live rock and are not picking at each other, so a 75-gallon tank can definitely hold several of these small fish. 3. featherduster. This poor fellow didn't make it at all. My 75-gallon tank has two Koralia 3 powerheads in it, giving me too high of a turbulence level. The poor worm got tossed around no matter where I hid him. So I'll be sticking to animals that take at least moderate turbulance, and no more featherdusters for me. 4. pompom crab. He's been a lot of fun. He arrived with only one pompom, but the second seems to be growing back already. He is very small but fun to watch run around the tank. I would recommend this crab as quite entertaining. 5. skunk cleaner shrimp. He's been doing great, the store sent me a monster one. My fish are scared of him since he's bigger than anyone else. So I had a good experience ordering online, everything was alive and packaged nicely, one or two critters to a bag. My suggestion is to online order on a Monday--since the store hasn't restocked all weekend, at the worst the fish have been held 3 days. My mistake was ordering too many different things, because I've had to make some adjustments for each newcomer and am probably fiddling too much overall. I did put in some Amquel with the various fish when introduced, just to stop any ammonia spikes. But a week later nothing has died, so I am crossing my fingers that my good luck holds. I've been doing 10% weekly water changes since I'm a little concerned that overall the tank is being overfed. I don't know how else to make sure my slightly shy BSJ can beat the striped shrimp goby, which now hangs out in front of the cave stealing all the food. The online store by the way Coppers all fish livestock and gives antibiotics to most fish. Upon hearing that I didn't really see the point in quarantining fish, except to avoid capturing them in a liverock tank. In the future I may put new fish in a little plastic box in the aquarium for a few days to check for illness, but a QT just seems pretty stressful after a long flight. You may want to call and ask the online store about their medication policy before ordering.
You have done some homework and job well done! Personally If there are 2 fish I would never put in my tank it would be Royal Gramma or a Neon Dottyback. Beautiful but I've had nothing but trouble out of them when they have got bigger, mean is a nice word for it. Many have luck with them tho. Be sure and post some pics when you get the chance.
I agree with Marti. If you're looking for a peaceful Caribbean basslet, check out a Chalk Basslet. They aren't quite as pretty as a Royal Gramma, but I really like mine. Just my $.02 =)
I feel like you might want to be more cautious with your use of additives as a method for introducing fish to your tank. The only benefit that I can see to adding a new fish to a small breeder box in your aquarium is that you can catch him easily, but does nothing to prevent illness from spreading to other animals in your tank if one is present. Please don't dismiss the effectiveness of a quarantine tank in introducing and acclimating fish. I am very very cautious about adding any chemical to my tank no matter how benign or beneficial it may seem. Once your tank is stocked you run a very big risk of adversely affecting the residents of your tank with your current methods. I am glad that everything is doing well - I would love to see a picture of your blue spotted jaw fish.
Re: Fish stocking to date Not to be a 'Negative Nellie' but are these guys in your DT? If so, then all of your other fish have been exposed to Ich. The 'Kick Ick' may work for a while but it will not kill the parasite and you will be fighting a losing battle as it falls off the fish, reproduces (into thousands more) and reinfests those fish as well as infests your others. Trust me, I have been there, done that and am just finishing up a six week stint of my DT going fishless to rid it of any parasites that are left in there. My fish are in a hospital tank as we speak finishing up a 3 week copper treatment and will remain there for another week or 2 after I drop the copper level back down to 0 to make sure nothing reappears on them. I know you said the site you purchased them from uses copper but more than likely the level they use is very low, probably just a preventitive measure but apparently not enough if your gobies still presented with it when you got them. As Chris mentioned, a breeder box is NOT enough to separate a new fish. You need a QT tank. Trust me, most of these boogers are pretty hardy and it will not stress them out as much as you think to QT them for a few weeks before adding them to your DT, plus, if it does stress them out just a bit, then whatever problem they may have will show up that much sooner since their resistance is lowered. Then you can get on with treating the problem before they are ever introduced into your DT. My advice to you is to do some research on the Ich lifecycle, that is the only way you can understand how and when it can be killed. Also, there are only 2 treatments that are proven to kill it......Copper treatment (at the correct level) and Hyposalinity (need a refractometer for this one). QT ALL new fish no matter WHERE you buy them! Tracy
FOWLR - 75 gallon Update Ok, ok, I've got all my fish sitting in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. The Kick-Ich does seem to help a lot with ich, but at higher doses my shrimp act funky. The main tank is sitting fallow for at least 5 weeks. The QT tank are two. A 10 gallon for the Rid-Ich, formalin and malachite green for 4 days. I've cleaned it out and it's now drying. Online forums suggested that the formalin additive gets parasites to drop off but may not kill them. Would have preferred a dip but no high concentration formalin available. My second 10 gallon QT tank now has maracyn-2 for cleaning up the fish bacterial infections that have set in--a little bit of fin rot. Big 40% daily water changes and some Amquel to keep the ammonia in check. Petsmart has a little thermometer/hydrometer combo that I hang on the inside of my tank that's been pretty useful. Both tanks fit nicely on the shelf of the laundry room. I have a little hang-on filter to hopefully remove ammonia on the second tank. It's been pretty annoying doing the Ph rebalancing I needed with the airstone required for the formalin. So far the fish seem to be doing ok, if a little peaked looking. I did formalin for two reasons. I'm not entirely sure that I don't have Brooklynella, which will not respond to copper. Formalin will treat velvet, ich, and Brooklynella, apparently. Also, my children get into my fish stuff and I'm not 100% sure they'll keep the quarantine stuff out of the main tank. Formalin damage would be much smaller than a copper disaster.
Hypo-salinity is also a very good treatment for parasites and the Brooklynella you mentioned. You would lower the salinity to 1.019 sg gradually, but you would probably want to pick up a Refractometer for a more acurate reading though. I have seen "Calibrated" hydrometers read .004 points off which could put you at 1.015 which you would then see your fish starting to suffer, or your sg could be at 1.023 and that would be completely ineffective. Anyhow, a refractometer is a very good investment and easy to read instrument.
