Need suggestions , tank inhabitants

[dvgyfresh]

Hi everyone,

I’ll start this thread with some bad news, I just moved into a new apartment and in the process lost all my fish (2 clowns , Banghai cardinal, splendid dottyback) I had kept them in a storage container with some rock and power head / heater well something got into the power head and died causing a mass die off of my fish. Luckily all inverts / anemones / coral seems to have made it. My question is , what should I do from here for stocking? 40b with 5 gal sump. I’m thinking either a clown harem or community tank please send ideas! I need to get some fish ASAP to increase nutrients. Thanks everyone

 

[vetteguy53081]

Run tank fishless for 5-7 days and test to assure no levels got elevated and give it a shot with 2 fish to start with
(Ammonia-nitrate-salinity-ph)

 

[EvanDeVita]

Hmm.... an idea I’ve wanted to see is predatory fish in a reef tank... maybe a fuzzy LIONFISH, waspfish, or aggressive nano fish like dottybacks, hogfish, etc...

what kind of tank do you want?

 

[dvgyfresh]

Run tank fishless for 5-7 days and test to assure no levels got elevated and give it a shot with 2 fish to start with
(Ammonia-nitrate-salinity-ph)

Will do, I think I should be ok. Rocks are live and I did all new water(same gravity / alk) + new live sand and did a bottle of bacteria just to be safe , I’m worried my nutrients will be too low for Xenia/anemones and macro algae.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Will do, I think I should be ok. Rocks are live and I did all new water(same gravity / alk) + new live sand and did a bottle of bacteria just to be safe , I’m worried my nutrients will be too low for Xenia/anemones and macro algae.

Xenia- moderate light and water flow, salinity 1.025, nitrates > .03

 

[dvgyfresh]

Hmm.... an idea I’ve wanted to see is predatory fish in a reef tank... maybe a fuzzy LIONFISH, waspfish, or aggressive nano fish like dottybacks, hogfish, etc...

what kind of tank do you want?

Good question, I like active fish that can usually always be seen swimming so something that aligns to that. I will probly not do a predator tank

 

[dvgyfresh]

Any wrasse suggestions? (not six line lol)

 

[ReefSapper]

Any wrasse suggestions? (not six line lol)

Pretty limited in the wrasse department in that size tank. May get away with a Flasher, that's the only species I am aware of that can fit in 'smaller' systems.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Pretty limited in the wrasse department in that size tank. May get away with a Flasher, that's the only species I am aware of that can fit in 'smaller' systems.

Wow thank you! That wrasse is very pretty and hopefully not as aggressive as six line , if I ever find on I might pick it up, are there any nano fish that school that could fit ina 40b?

 

[ReefSapper]

Wow thank you! That wrasse is very pretty and hopefully not as aggressive as six line , if I ever find on I might pick it up, are there any nano fish that school that could fit ina 40b?

Flashers are puppy dogs, they are not aggressive at all in my experience or research. Several different variants out there, the McCoskers and Carpenter flashers are the most common and both beautiful active fish.

 

[EvanDeVita]

Flashers are puppy dogs, they are not aggressive at all in my experience or research. Several different variants out there, the McCoskers and Carpenter flashers are the most common and both beautiful active fish.

Agreed. All my experience with McCoskers is negative - they’ve been aggressive for me. Red Sea 8-line are cool, but need to be added last. As for active ness, McCoskers are most active.
only schooling fish I can think of are cardinals or chromis, but I’ve heard that they tend to kill eachother. Not sure if this is true or not

 

[dvgyfresh]

Agreed. All my experience with McCoskers is negative - they’ve been aggressive for me. Red Sea 8-line are cool, but need to be added last. As for active ness, McCoskers are most active.
only schooling fish I can think of are cardinals or chromis, but I’ve heard that they tend to kill eachother. Not sure if this is true or not

Just reminded me that black / white damsels do school and even host anemones in mass might be a possibility

 

[EvanDeVita]

Just reminded me that black / white damsels do school and even host anemones in mass might be a possibility

Um..... you probably won’t be able to put anything else into the tank...

 

[CMMorgan]

What about a little harem of black and white (snowflake and phantom) clowns?
... and then add a blood red shrimp!

 

[dvgyfresh]

What about a little harem of black and white (snowflake and phantom) clowns?
... and then add a blood red shrimp!

Yesss that would be cool, I’ll probly be looking into something like this, petco can order whatever for pickup so I’m probly going this route , I’ll have one regular pair also

 

[EvanDeVita]

Yesss that would be cool, I’ll probly be looking into something like this, petco can order whatever for pickup so I’m probly going this route , I’ll have one regular pair also

If you like that, you could get a harem of solid colored clowns. Naked clowns (orange), midnight (black), Wyoming white (white) are the solids so you could do a bunch of those. They are designer so will be pricier than only normal occelaris

 

[ReefSapper]

Agreed. All my experience with McCoskers is negative - they’ve been aggressive for me. Red Sea 8-line are cool, but need to be added last. As for active ness, McCoskers are most active.
only schooling fish I can think of are cardinals or chromis, but I’ve heard that they tend to kill eachother. Not sure if this is true or not

That Surprises me about your experience with the McCoskers but fish are funny and certainly have individual personalities, my current flasher is a Carpenters and he is a model citizen.

 

[EvanDeVita]

That Surprises me about your experience with the McCoskers but fish are funny and certainly have individual personalities, my current flasher is a Carpenters and he is a model citizen.

Yeah, everyone has different experiences with fish. I have a Naoko Fairy wrasse that is a model citizen itself, I have a pair of clownfish with a male that is more aggressive than the female, all the damsels I've ever kept have been chill, my McCoskers wrasses have been mean, I currently have a Yellow Candy Hogfish that isn't mean (I actually traded a McCoksers for it), etc...
Fish are weird haha