Opinions on these fish?

[madducks42]

We setup a 90 gallon tank in April and despite a few equipment issues (some of you may have seen this fun thread - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/problems-with-ecotech-marine-vectra-m1-pump.303728/) it seems to be done cycling. Ammonia dropped to zero almost 2 weeks ago, Nitrites were at 0 but have gone up to 1ppm, haven't tested for Nitrates in the last few days but they were at 5-10ppm. We added a small CUC on Saturday consisting of a (12) dwarf blue leg hermit crabs, 10 nassarius snails, (5) Mexican turbo snails, (5) verity snails, (2) peppermint shrimp, (2) emerald crabs), (1) fighting conch, (5) banded trochus snails, (5) bumble bee snails. We had also ordered some scarlet reef hermit crabs but most of them were DOA and the two that were alive quickly became snail food : )


Our plan is to let the tank run for a week or two and monitor the water for changes. Assuming it remains stable, i.e. ammonia and nitrites stay at 0 and nitrates don't skyrocket we'll add 1-2 fish. Then wait 2-3 weeks add a couple more fish, rinse and repeat. We are also planning on adding coral but was going to wait until we had fish in the tank and it was running stable for a while, probably 6+ months down the road. From the research I've done it seems like adding things slowly is best and you should start with either coral or fish but not add both at the same time. I'm actually really entertained by the CUC so I'm in no rush to add anything. I'm starting to do research now on different fish and map out which fish we want. It seems like the number of fish we can fit into a 90 gallon tank depends on cleanliness of the tank and how much time we're willing to devote to maintenance and the size/temperament of the fish.

This is what is on the top of our list so far. I know we're not going to be able to get all of these so I'm trying to narrow it down a bit. Any input you guys have on them would be greatly appreciated, like aggressiveness level towards other fish or coral, if you have any how active they are (i.e. are they always hiding), etc. Also if you think there are other fish we should consider please mention them.

- 1 or 2 Ocellaris Clownfish. The kid wants Nemo so we're definitely getting one of these. Not sure if we want a pair or just one. I kind of like the idea of a pair. I'm also planning on having at least 1 anemone in the future, possibly two. Still trying to narrow down what type of anemone, it seems like they all carry a risk of moving and damaging coral. I’m sure I will have posts about that in the future, and the answer may be that it’s just not going to work in our tank. At any rate it will be a while before we would add an anemome since they’re much more difficult to care for and require a very stable environment. Is there any reason to hold off on getting the clownfish until we have an anemone in the tank? If we add the clownfish now and a year from now add an anemone will they still bond with it?

- 1 or 2 Black & White Ocellaris Clownfish. I really like these. But is it possible to have two pairs of clownfish in one tank? From my initial research it seems like that answer is a no but if we introduced them all at the same time is it possible that it would work? Especially if we had two anemones in the tank so they could each have their own territory?

- 2 Orchid Dottybacks. I really like these but I’m concerned about them being too aggressive, I know most dottybacks are uber aggressive but it seems like the orchid ones aren’t as bad.

- 1 Royal Gramma Basslet

- 1 Orange Spotted Blenny or Bicolor Blenny

- 1 Two Spot Goby

- 1 Red Mandarin

- 1-3 Blue/green Reef Chromis or Blue Reef Chromis. It seems like these are best kept in schools so I don’t know if we have space for them. Although I think a lot of the fish I’ve liked so far have been bottom dwellers or more inclined to hide in the live rock whereas these guys tend to swim around closer to the top of the tank.

- 1 Zebra Barred Dartfish

- 1 Yellow Candy Hogfish

- 1 Pajama Cardinalfish

- 1 Blue Dot Jawfish. I really like these guys but I’m concerned about them being prone to jump (we have an open top tank) and that I seem to like a lot of the bottom dwellers and I’m worried about crowding.

- 1 Yellow Tang or Power Blue Tang. We know that this will eventually outgrow our tank and we’ll have to find a new home for it. But we both really like them and haven’t found something else that looks similar, is reef safe (mostly) and wouldn’t have the same outgrowing problem.

Thoughts on these guys? We still need to figure out which fish we want to add to the tank first. And also plan out the order of how to add them, is it best to add the more aggressive fish last? Again I know we’re not going to be able to get all of them : )

 

[Reef2zach]

Good list! Definitely stocked a little heavy. First thing I personally think the yellow tang is much easier to care for then the powder blue. Ive had both. It's recommended to only have 1 dotty back per tank. They re very territorial, I've also had one and it jumped out so be mindfull that they are jumpers. I've also had a nem that I bought 3 years ago that's now 3 nems. They do split and I added 2 clowns to the tank about 6 months after getting the nem and it took them about another 6 months to actually host the nem. Chromis are very hit and miss and they seem to more or less bully the weak one to death until there is only 1 left. And a mandarin is an advanced level fish that typically needs an established tank and live food to sustain itself. I have a 300 gallon system and I'm skeptical if my manderin even has enough food to stay alive. He's constantly eating. Just my thoughts. Good luck!

 

[S&SReef]

The candy hog will eat up your clean up, and I would stick to 1 pair of clowns.

 

[S&SReef]

Also the mandarin I recommend an enourmous fuge and established tank. I kept my tank fish free for 8 months and made a fuge 1/2 the volume of the tank to grow pods. I use pod hotels and change them from the fuge to the tank weekly

 

[ngoodermuth]

For the pair of clowns you can do one black and one orange! Just make sure one is bigger than the other or they are both very small.

The mandarin might be ok later down the road. Like 6months-year. You need a ton of live rock, like 90lbs+, so a minimalist scape in a 90g wouldn't work...something to keep in mind. Unless you are willing to train it to take prepared foods or hatch live brine for a feeder, then you can bend the rules a bit. But, that's much more involved.

Besides that I echo most of the above. I'd stick to one dottyback. I would maybe sub the candy hog for a halichoerus crysus personally. And maybe skip the chromis, or just add one. Go with the yellow tang instead of the blue, or maybe even a kole or tomini tang.

 

[madducks42]

For the pair of clowns you can do one black and one orange! Just make sure one is bigger than the other or they are both very small.

The mandarin might be ok later down the road. Like 6months-year. You need a ton of live rock, like 90lbs+, so a minimalist scape in a 90g wouldn't work...something to keep in mind. Unless you are willing to train it to take prepared foods or hatch live brine for a feeder, then you can bend the rules a bit. But, that's much more involved.

Besides that I echo most of the above. I'd stick to one dottyback. I would maybe sub the candy hog for a halichoerus crysus personally. And maybe skip the chromis, or just add one. Go with the yellow tang instead of the blue, or maybe even a kole or tomini tang.

Thanks for the info! I was wondering how the different colors and types of clowns worked as far as if they would pair up or not. Maybe we'll get one black and one orange then, I'm guessing it would still be a good idea to to get two small ones at the same time so they can grow up together?

I figured we'd be adding the mandarin way later on since they need considerably more care. I'll have plenty of time to do research and figure out if one would survive in our tank. Is there any concern with the Halichoeres chrysus jumping? I like a lot of the wrasses but it seemed like all the ones I liked that might work well in the tank had a tendency to jump : /

 

[Bluecbs]

The two spot goby almost always starve to death, liveaquaria class it as difficult. A diamond or tiger goby is a better option for sand sifters but i would only add them after at least 6 mnths down the road

 

[Bluecbs]

.....and do look into blennies too....

 

[jerburton]

I have been away from the hobby for a number of years, but having worked in it I have had personal experience with all of these choices. My first piece of advice is take it slow and don't overstock. Let your tank and maintenance (or lack there of) determine your choices . I agree with a lot of what the previous posts have mentioned but if you want some more info, here is my 2 cents:

Oscellaris Clowns: There is a reason these fish are so popular. First, there is basically no reason any clownfish should be taken out of the ocean anymore which is great. They obviously adapt very well to the aquarium. That said, I don't think I would have more than 1 pair in a 90 gallon tank. Watching a pair behave (especially when they have a host anemone) is very entertaining. I just don't think its worth introducing a conspecific pair and likely stress and hostility.

Orchid Dottybacks: These fish have a lot of personality but they are definitely on the boisterous side. They aren't quite as bad as other dottybacks, like the Arabian and McCullochi especially the captive bred ones. I wouldn't have more than one orchid dottyback in a 90 gallon tank unless you can purchase them knowing they behave themselves. I also wouldn't have orchids with royal grammas and vice versa.

Royal Gramma: Personally this is one of my favorite reef fish for the aquarium. I love watching them swim around under the caves and in the rock work. They are usually quite hardy, affordable, eat well and don't mess with too many other fish in tank. And lets not forget about that color pattern!

Orange Spotted Goby: There are couple of different species of "orange spotted" gobies that often get lumped into the same "species" even thought they do have some differences. If you are referring to the diamond gobies, then that should be a fine choice depending on your sand bed. It will however cruise your substrate and sift it thoroughly. These guys will most certainly out compete the next fish on your list (two spot goby).

Two Spot Goby: I am sorry to say I would recommend against this fish. Their feeding requirements are just too tough to maintain longterm. I cared for one of these guys for about a year with pretty good success (eventually sold), but the big caveat to that was that it was the only fish in a shallow 80 gallon tank.

Red Mandarin: This fish is often a big reason why people get into the hobby. There is arguably no other fish that evokes such a "dropped jaw" from reefers and non-reefers alike. The newer captive bred ones certainly add to the sustainability of them but these are tough. If we subscribe to the idea of adding the most docile fish first, this guy would probably be at the top of the list, but then again they really need an adequate food source or proper "training". They also need a lot of rock work to poke around throughout the day. I would really hold off on this one until you feel a lot more confident and have evidence of a good pod population. Luckily, most of your list isn't particularly aggressive.

Blue Green Chromis: Like you mentioned, these guys do best in groups. I wouldn't get any less than 3. I have had success with them personally so I think they would be fine addition as you don't have too many other "water column" fish.

Zebra Barred Dartfish: Cool fish but you will want a screen or top. These guys always go carpet surfing.

Yellow Candy Hog: Lots of personality and will cruise the tank non-stop search for things to do. Including as already mentioned, messing with inverts. I like them but just keep that in mind going in - you may have to flip snails by hand as part of your maintenance schedule.

Pajama Cardinal: Not much to say, very good aquarium fish. I like how they seem to float effortlessly in the tank.

Blue Dot Jawfish: Another one worth a bit more discussion. I have cared for these guys in my own tanks as well as at the shop. These guys WILL JUMP! They can take a number of weeks before they figure out where they want to burrow and may switch things up if it isn't a good fit. In that time, they can easily spook and try to bolt out of the top. There are few fish that exhibit as much personality especially in the eyes as they just scan everything inside and outside the tank. I like these fish best in medium sized COVERED aquarium with a few other fish cruising around. Very cool but pricy if they "bounce" from their home.

Yellow Tang/Powder Blue: I agree with a previous post in terms of care level. Yellow tangs tend to be both more disease resistant and less aggressive. When you observe these fish in the wild you can see those traits translate to the life in the tank. Yellow tangs tend to slowly cruise the reef along with a number of other YTs while Powder Blues tend to search at an almost obsessive compulsive level. 90 gallons just might be a bit small for the long haul.

Hope that helps make your decisions a bit clearer!

Cheers,

We setup a 90 gallon tank in April and despite a few equipment issues (some of you may have seen this fun thread - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/problems-with-ecotech-marine-vectra-m1-pump.303728/) it seems to be done cycling. Ammonia dropped to zero almost 2 weeks ago, Nitrites were at 0 but have gone up to 1ppm, haven't tested for Nitrates in the last few days but they were at 5-10ppm. We added a small CUC on Saturday consisting of a (12) dwarf blue leg hermit crabs, 10 nassarius snails, (5) Mexican turbo snails, (5) verity snails, (2) peppermint shrimp, (2) emerald crabs), (1) fighting conch, (5) banded trochus snails, (5) bumble bee snails. We had also ordered some scarlet reef hermit crabs but most of them were DOA and the two that were alive quickly became snail food : )


Our plan is to let the tank run for a week or two and monitor the water for changes. Assuming it remains stable, i.e. ammonia and nitrites stay at 0 and nitrates don't skyrocket we'll add 1-2 fish. Then wait 2-3 weeks add a couple more fish, rinse and repeat. We are also planning on adding coral but was going to wait until we had fish in the tank and it was running stable for a while, probably 6+ months down the road. From the research I've done it seems like adding things slowly is best and you should start with either coral or fish but not add both at the same time. I'm actually really entertained by the CUC so I'm in no rush to add anything. I'm starting to do research now on different fish and map out which fish we want. It seems like the number of fish we can fit into a 90 gallon tank depends on cleanliness of the tank and how much time we're willing to devote to maintenance and the size/temperament of the fish.

This is what is on the top of our list so far. I know we're not going to be able to get all of these so I'm trying to narrow it down a bit. Any input you guys have on them would be greatly appreciated, like aggressiveness level towards other fish or coral, if you have any how active they are (i.e. are they always hiding), etc. Also if you think there are other fish we should consider please mention them.

- 1 or 2 Ocellaris Clownfish. The kid wants Nemo so we're definitely getting one of these. Not sure if we want a pair or just one. I kind of like the idea of a pair. I'm also planning on having at least 1 anemone in the future, possibly two. Still trying to narrow down what type of anemone, it seems like they all carry a risk of moving and damaging coral. I’m sure I will have posts about that in the future, and the answer may be that it’s just not going to work in our tank. At any rate it will be a while before we would add an anemome since they’re much more difficult to care for and require a very stable environment. Is there any reason to hold off on getting the clownfish until we have an anemone in the tank? If we add the clownfish now and a year from now add an anemone will they still bond with it?

- 1 or 2 Black & White Ocellaris Clownfish. I really like these. But is it possible to have two pairs of clownfish in one tank? From my initial research it seems like that answer is a no but if we introduced them all at the same time is it possible that it would work? Especially if we had two anemones in the tank so they could each have their own territory?

- 2 Orchid Dottybacks. I really like these but I’m concerned about them being too aggressive, I know most dottybacks are uber aggressive but it seems like the orchid ones aren’t as bad.

- 1 Royal Gramma Basslet

- 1 Orange Spotted Blenny or Bicolor Blenny

- 1 Two Spot Goby

- 1 Red Mandarin

- 1-3 Blue/green Reef Chromis or Blue Reef Chromis. It seems like these are best kept in schools so I don’t know if we have space for them. Although I think a lot of the fish I’ve liked so far have been bottom dwellers or more inclined to hide in the live rock whereas these guys tend to swim around closer to the top of the tank.

- 1 Zebra Barred Dartfish

- 1 Yellow Candy Hogfish

- 1 Pajama Cardinalfish

- 1 Blue Dot Jawfish. I really like these guys but I’m concerned about them being prone to jump (we have an open top tank) and that I seem to like a lot of the bottom dwellers and I’m worried about crowding.

- 1 Yellow Tang or Power Blue Tang. We know that this will eventually outgrow our tank and we’ll have to find a new home for it. But we both really like them and haven’t found something else that looks similar, is reef safe (mostly) and wouldn’t have the same outgrowing problem.

Thoughts on these guys? We still need to figure out which fish we want to add to the tank first. And also plan out the order of how to add them, is it best to add the more aggressive fish last? Again I know we’re not going to be able to get all of them : )

 

[madducks42]

This forum is awesome! I'm part of a reptile forum and I wish it was this active!

Given the input I've received from you guys and some other research I've crossed a few off the list of potentials. This is what I'm leaning towards now.

- 1 Black & White Ocellaris and 1 Orange Ocellaris, leaning towards introducing them at the same time and have them be the first fish in the tank.

- 1 Royal Gramma Basslet

- 1 Orange Spotted Blenny or Bicolor Blenny or Midas Blenny. Anyone have any thoughts on these?

- 1-3 Blue/green Reef Chromis or Blue Reef Chromis. Still leaning towards these guys because they seem to be less likely to jump than wrasses.

- 1 Pajama Cardinalfish

- 1 Yellow Tang. The boyfriend wants a yellow tang. It's his one request so we'll deal with rehoming it down the road if/when it outgrows the tank.

Thoughts on that line-up? I'm leaning towards adding the clowns first and then slowly adding. the other ones over a few months.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Looks good! The Midas blenny is one of my favorites.

 

[eatbreakfast]

This forum is awesome! I'm part of a reptile forum and I wish it was this active!

Given the input I've received from you guys and some other research I've crossed a few off the list of potentials. This is what I'm leaning towards now.

- 1 Black & White Ocellaris and 1 Orange Ocellaris, leaning towards introducing them at the same time and have them be the first fish in the tank.

- 1 Royal Gramma Basslet

- 1 Orange Spotted Blenny or Bicolor Blenny or Midas Blenny. Anyone have any thoughts on these?

- 1-3 Blue/green Reef Chromis or Blue Reef Chromis. Still leaning towards these guys because they seem to be less likely to jump than wrasses.

- 1 Pajama Cardinalfish

- 1 Yellow Tang. The boyfriend wants a yellow tang. It's his one request so we'll deal with rehoming it down the road if/when it outgrows the tank.

Thoughts on that line-up? I'm leaning towards adding the clowns first and then slowly adding. the other ones over a few months.

This list looks good.

Any of ylthose blennies are great. My favorite is the orange spotted blenny, but the midas blenny is in the water column more.

 

[Mmbra]

Clowns and blennys will jump too. Lost an occelaris and lawnmower blenny this way. Save yourself some heartache and get a mesh lid. Your kid coming home to nemo jerky on the floor is all bad. As a matter of fact id consider all fish jumpers.

 

[jerburton]

The Midas Blenny is probably my all time favorite reef aquarium fish, but they CAN jump!

 

[Bluecbs]

Your list is good, and if you're adding in that order, its good to go, yes, tang should be last.
For me, i would go for orange spotted blenny, love the skipping movement from rock to rock