220 stocking opinions

[ARGYGANG]

right now i have in qt for my 220 a hippo tang a dog face puffer a niger trigger a pair of maroons and a few damsel fish, going for a aggressive tank. ive read fish wont mess with rabbitfish so is it wise to add one or two or is it risky? im also debating on a tesselate eel later down the road. any ideas what i should add or anything i should not add off the fish i listed? not really interested in lionfish any opinions are welcome. tank is a "reef" tank which is really just covered in a stupid amount of gsp i couldnt care about anyways. also is not a 8 foot 220 its 72x30 so would like to avoid the larger tangs etc.

 

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right now i have in qt for my 220 a hippo tang a dog face puffer a niger trigger a pair of maroons and a few damsel fish, going for a aggressive tank. ive read fish wont mess with rabbitfish so is it wise to add one or two or is it risky? im also debating on a tesselate eel later down the road. any ideas what i should add or anything i should not add off the fish i listed? not really interested in lionfish any opinions are welcome. tank is a "reef" tank which is really just covered in a stupid amount of gsp i couldnt care about anyways. also is not a 8 foot 220 its 72x30 so would like to avoid the larger tangs etc.

IMO the tesselata is a no go. Think they need huge tanks. 6’ definitely not enough. Black edge moray or I like the fibriata (yellow headed moray) however either of those could potentially eat the clowns and damsels.
I have rabbits in my reefs and we love them. Orange spotted in one and two magnificent sin another. They do have poison spines so use caution working i. The tank, but I have lion fish also and haven’t ever been stung (knock on wood).
Some of the bigger wrasses are cool. We purchased a Lime Green Wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens also called sunset wrasse) his name is Hank (thus my user name HanksTank). They are colorful, active and have great personalities. Other favorite, Broomtail Wrasse, Harlequin Tuskfish.
Just don’t go too heavy of load. I have a RedSea XXL750 which I thought was bigger but turns out to be 160 gallons in the Display 72x26 and I am moving it’s occupants to my 210 3XL900 as they are just too dirty for it. Especially puffers as they eat really messy. And your Dog Face is going to get huge.

 

[ARGYGANG]

IMO the tesselata is a no go. Think they need huge tanks. 6’ definitely not enough. Black edge moray or I like the fibriata (yellow headed moray) however either of those could potentially eat the clowns and damsels.
I have rabbits in my reefs and we love them. Orange spotted in one and two magnificent sin another. They do have poison spines so use caution working i. The tank, but I have lion fish also and haven’t ever been stung (knock on wood).
Some of the bigger wrasses are cool. We purchased a Lime Green Wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens also called sunset wrasse) his name is Hank (thus my user name HanksTank). They are colorful, active and have great personalities. Other favorite, Broomtail Wrasse, Harlequin Tuskfish.
Just don’t go too heavy of load. I have a RedSea XXL750 which I thought was bigger but turns out to be 160 gallons in the Display 72x26 and I am moving it’s occupants to my 210 3XL900 as they are just too dirty for it. Especially puffers as they eat really messy. And your Dog Face is going to get huge.

ive got a lunar wrasse, bird, and melanarrus im gonna add to it in a year or two right now they are a inch or so big picked all three up for $90. might try a ribbon eel then? you have any experience keeping more than one in a tank?

 

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ive got a lunar wrasse, bird, and melanarrus im gonna add to it in a year or two right now they are a inch or so big picked all three up for $90. might try a ribbon eel then? you have any experience keeping more than one in a tank?

There are more knowledgeable wrasse keepers than me, but in my opinion the melanurus wrasse is too small for you other inhabitants. The lunar and bird wrasse may be fine if added at the same time. Lunar can be aggressive.
Ribbon eels are very hard to keep, but have seen that there have been breakthroughs on them. You have to set up the tank for them with a series of under sand pipes for the to live in. But they are definitely beautiful. I just saw a video I think on here of someone feeding three ribbon eels coming out of a pvc pipe in their tank.

 

[ARGYGANG]

There are more knowledgeable wrasse keepers than me, but in my opinion the melanurus wrasse is too small for you other inhabitants. The lunar and bird wrasse may be fine if added at the same time. Lunar can be aggressive.
Ribbon eels are very hard to keep, but have seen that there have been breakthroughs on them. You have to set up the tank for them with a series of under sand pipes for the to live in. But they are definitely beautiful. I just saw a video I think on here of someone feeding three ribbon eels coming out of a pvc pipe in their tank.

Melanarus very well may be to small, not sure why I keep thinking they grow to be a solid 10+ like a lunare or bird. Honestly seems like I’m in a bit of a pickle here with stocking, filtration and water changes are not a issue neither is bioload I scored several hundred pounds of ceramic bio beads at a Amazon overstock event a while back, and will be working from home when this tank is stocked so not super worried about a big bioload as far as nitrates go. I might look into asking around/researching if it’s possible to keep for instance a niger/humuunnu trigger together and things of that nature. I may go heavier on the damsels and skip the eel all together, something like smiths or azure damsels. The situation with stocking is where I am moving to the people I am going to be living with are cool with a tank, but they want it to be a decorative piece in the home filled with fish. That puts me trying to find large fish that can live in a 220 together while also trying to give the tank a overstocked look/full look without actually doing any of that hints my interest for larger fish. any opinions on tangs that could do well in that sort of tank? as of right now the only concrete fish is a hippo tang, a dogface (who is oddly best friends with the hippo almost never more than a few inches apart) and a lunare and bird wrasse, so really have a lot of stocking options with those picks since the dog face is already rather large and does not have any aggression towards any fish, even allows a cleaner wrasse to clean him and a tiny royal gramma to share his cave. this is my first time stocking such a large tank it is already at the location I am moving to and has had gsp growing rampant with a bi weekly water change for a few months now and fallow.

 

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The fact that it is fallow mean you will need to stick slowly. Some on here will tell you the cycle crash but I can say with certainty that this is t entirely true. I added too many fish back into a 90 after going fallow to irradiate ich and had a huge ammonia spike that I had to do huge daily water changes and pull some fish to control. Also cycled a 210 gallon tank to remove 2.0 ammonia daily and kept dosing for 5 days after reaching that removal rate and put 3 5-6”
Fish in and the spikes the ammonia and caused a bacterial bloom. So add slowly regardless of how well you think the bio filter is established.
I think the puffer will get along with most fish but can become an apex predator if under fed. I have over 40 fish in my 210 reef but only 8 larger ones (tangs and rabbits) the rest are gobies blennies etc.

Only three Triggers that I will even try, pink tail, bigger and Blue throat as they are supposed to be the most community capable. I have had huma huma and Picasso turn violent and take out panther groupers three times their size. That being said, maybe if I had fed more frequently each day who knows.
If you can hold off on stocking the blue hippo and QT other tangs to introduce all at the same time I have had a lot of luck with mixing tangs. Have 4 in a 110 (smaller like lavender and lieutenant) and 5 in my 210 (Sailfin, dijardini, Tomini, blue hippo, scopus) with two magnificent rabbits. Have a purple upstairs in a 75 but he is slated to move into one of my predator tanks because I can’t have crabs and snails for clean up as the puffers eat them.
Other colorful fish for that tanks could be some of the smaller Angels (not necessarily dwarfs but they could work) but also not the huge ones. Night get away with a single Queen or something similar but not multiples. I’m looking at a tank for Queen, Passars, French, Imperator and maybe a Blue face or Majestic).
The damsels are what I would see as the main problem to stocking other smaller to medium fish. You could use anthias in place of damsels as some of them can be bigger but research as some like the Queen Anthias are beautiful but even experienced fish keepers have issues with them.
I have kept many expert only fish Marine Bettas, frog fish, mandarins, etc but I provide their starter foods like pods, live feeder shrimp for the betta etc. then wean them to frozen.

 

[ARGYGANG]

The fact that it is fallow mean you will need to stick slowly. Some on here will tell you the cycle crash but I can say with certainty that this is t entirely true. I added too many fish back into a 90 after going fallow to irradiate ich and had a huge ammonia spike that I had to do huge daily water changes and pull some fish to control. Also cycled a 210 gallon tank to remove 2.0 ammonia daily and kept dosing for 5 days after reaching that removal rate and put 3 5-6”
Fish in and the spikes the ammonia and caused a bacterial bloom. So add slowly regardless of how well you think the bio filter is established.
I think the puffer will get along with most fish but can become an apex predator if under fed. I have over 40 fish in my 210 reef but only 8 larger ones (tangs and rabbits) the rest are gobies blennies etc.

Only three Triggers that I will even try, pink tail, bigger and Blue throat as they are supposed to be the most community capable. I have had huma huma and Picasso turn violent and take out panther groupers three times their size. That being said, maybe if I had fed more frequently each day who knows.
If you can hold off on stocking the blue hippo and QT other tangs to introduce all at the same time I have had a lot of luck with mixing tangs. Have 4 in a 110 (smaller like lavender and lieutenant) and 5 in my 210 (Sailfin, dijardini, Tomini, blue hippo, scopus) with two magnificent rabbits. Have a purple upstairs in a 75 but he is slated to move into one of my predator tanks because I can’t have crabs and snails for clean up as the puffers eat them.
Other colorful fish for that tanks could be some of the smaller Angels (not necessarily dwarfs but they could work) but also not the huge ones. Night get away with a single Queen or something similar but not multiples. I’m looking at a tank for Queen, Passars, French, Imperator and maybe a Blue face or Majestic).
The damsels are what I would see as the main problem to stocking other smaller to medium fish. You could use anthias in place of damsels as some of them can be bigger but research as some like the Queen Anthias are beautiful but even experienced fish keepers have issues with them.
I have kept many expert only fish Marine Bettas, frog fish, mandarins, etc but I provide their starter foods like pods, live feeder shrimp for the betta etc. then wean them to frozen.

Yep there is someone at the location keeping the bacteria fed but I agree they will be added slowly once it begins being stocked. maybe I will go the route of lyretail anthias instead of damsels as I’m sure you can fit quite a few in a 220. thanks for the help I may just try a small school of yellows with my hippo and add at same time.

 

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I like that. Love the yellows but haven’t gotten any since getting back into the hobby.

 

[ARGYGANG]

I like that. Love the yellows but haven’t gotten any since getting back into the hobby.

Yep hopefully it works out, I’ve had bad luck with anthias and uronema seems like anytime I attempt to keep any uronema prone fish they die within a month from it, not sure what to do about it tbh.

 

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Here is what humblefish has to say about it.

Uronema

Uronema marinum (updated Jan 24 2025) What You Need To Know: * Causes red sores most often seen on chromis damsels & anthias (see photos below). Angelfish, butterflies and other fish species are sometimes also affected. * Formalin can be used as a prophylaxis and to limit transmission of...

humble.fish

Fortunately I don’t think I have ever had it.

 

[ARGYGANG]

Here is what humblefish has to say about it.

Uronema

Uronema marinum (updated Jan 24 2025) What You Need To Know: * Causes red sores most often seen on chromis damsels & anthias (see photos below). Angelfish, butterflies and other fish species are sometimes also affected. * Formalin can be used as a prophylaxis and to limit transmission of...

humble.fish

Fortunately I don’t think I have ever had it.

Just lost this pearl scale to it this morning, it’s ruthless and annoying once you have it you have it. I’ve given up on anthias and butterfly’s at this point this pearlscale was my last shot I purchased 12 dispar anthias 6 months ago went through qt fine then at the end of the qt added to display within a month I had one left assume it is resistant to it, and she still lives today, although she is now a he.

 

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Wow that sucks. Is this the same DT you using. I did read there is t much to do once it is in the system. That being said I can understand your desire to stay away from anything that can get it.
Just like my wife won’t let me get triggers as we had a couple psycho ones. Others have them with lots of fish and do fine.

 

[ARGYGANG]

Wow that sucks. Is this the same DT you using. I did read there is t much to do once it is in the system. That being said I can understand your desire to stay away from anything that can get it.
Just like my wife won’t let me get triggers as we had a couple psycho ones. Others have them with lots of fish and do fine.

yes its very sad but no this is not in the 220 we are speaking about on this thread, that tank is 1000 miles north on the east coast as of now it has never had a fish in it and the gsp was dipped when added months ago when tank was setup so im hoping if i get anthias for it and a butterfly or two i can beat the dog out of all the fish i add with uronema meds and wont have to deal with it and can keep the fish i so desire to. but as of now i wont be sentencing another life to certain death until i arrive to my 220 which is hopefully clean of it. my current largest tank where i keep my dog face and hippo (they are both like 4 and a half or so inches) is a 100 gallon and its rampant in there if i were to add another anthias it would be dead in a week, i know its not velvet or ich because the puffer and hippo are not sick and velvet and ich dont give the fish a red lash that looks like satans lava whip cracked that son gun on its side.

 

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Well it is good that you probably won’t have it in the new tank. Just AT everything as per that humblefish article and maybe you won’t introduce any. I at a minimum observe fish for an extended time before introducing. That way if they have something it doesn’t go into the DT and I can bleach the QT and eliminate it.

 

[ARGYGANG]

Well it is good that you probably won’t have it in the new tank. Just AT everything as per that humblefish article and maybe you won’t introduce any. I at a minimum observe fish for an extended time before introducing. That way if they have something it doesn’t go into the DT and I can bleach the QT and eliminate it.

Good deal will definitely be super cautious about it. So I was wondering that, if you just monitor a fish but not treat it does that not still introduce nastys into your tank? For instance flukes ich etc?