Need help adding fish to 33 gallon

[MiamiAG]

Got a Waterbox 35.2 AIO that is about a 30 gallon. I need some help with stocking this aquarium.

I have a pajama cardinal, firefish and a bi-colored pseudo. So, the pseudo was a mistake. I went to the LFS looking for a royal gramma, they didn't have one and they sold me the pseudo.

The pseudo has turned out to be a complete bully. I've resorted to taping some mirrors around the tank and that seems to have calmed him down... a bit.

Anticipating some comments - I do have plenty of live rock with hiding spaces. The pseudo patrols all of it and feels every cave is his. I've also tried to take him out. Short of removing every piece of rock and coral, he's uncatchable.

The question, what fish can I add to this aquarium that a) will fit long-term and b) will stand up to the pseudo?

Thanks

 

[Slocke]

So first I would recommend removing everything to catch the dotty back. I had to do it for a Falco hawkfish but I waited until it had gotten its second goby. The goby survived but only just. None of my corals or other critters were lost or damaged in the temporary tear down though.

If you're not able to do that though I suggest a fanged blenny of the Meiacanthus genus. Their venemous bite should scare off the bicolor.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Got a Waterbox 35.2 AIO that is about a 30 gallon. I need some help with stocking this aquarium.

I have a pajama cardinal, firefish and a bi-colored pseudo. So, the pseudo was a mistake. I went to the LFS looking for a royal gramma, they didn't have one and they sold me the pseudo.

The pseudo has turned out to be a complete bully. I've resorted to taping some mirrors around the tank and that seems to have calmed him down... a bit.

Anticipating some comments - I do have plenty of live rock with hiding spaces. The pseudo patrols all of it and feels every cave is his. I've also tried to take him out. Short of removing every piece of rock and coral, he's uncatchable.

The question, what fish can I add to this aquarium that a) will fit long-term and b) will stand up to the pseudo?

Thanks

its definitely best to remove the pseudochromis, it will command a tank that size. Other than that, you can add several damels which can still had life and color with a few different types.

But, thats pretty much it in a tank that size, remove the pseudo and open up options, or lean into the aggression and stick with damsels.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

One thing that you could try short of a full tank tear down to get the pseudochromis out is basically boxing the fish into smaller and smaller spaces until you can either catch it or remove the rock it's hiding in. The link below gives some specific ideas (yes, it's oriented toward large tanks, but the concepts work for small tanks too), but basically you drive the fish into a specific portion of the tank and block off the other portions. Once it's in a small enough space that it can't escape, you remove it. Not necessarily easy (and I don't know how plausible it may be for your setup), but it might be easier than tearing down the tank temporarily.

Method for Quickly Catching Difficult Fish Out of a Large Reef Tank with a Net

There are several techniques for catching a fish out of a reef tank. None of them are perfect or work equally for all fish, and many require time and patience. I have a 330 gallon mixed reef that's about 16 months old. In the past year, there have been a couple occasions where I've needed to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MiamiAG]

Thanks. I will try to remove the bully tomorrow.

any recommendations to replace the bully? I don’t want to run into this again.

 

[Slocke]

Thanks. I will try to remove the bully tomorrow.

any recommendations to replace the bully? I don’t want to run into this again.

Go with the original plan. A royal gramma.

 

[Tired]

Try a bottle trap for the pseudo. Or luring it into a large net or plastic bag with food.

 

[i cant think]

Thanks. I will try to remove the bully tomorrow.

any recommendations to replace the bully? I don’t want to run into this again.

I would go for the original plan of a gramma, or if you want an unusual behaviour and body shape then maybe a Pseudocheilinops wrasse (Don’t get this genus confused with the Pseudocheilinus wrasses).