Poll: How often to you buy new creatures?

dbl · Feb 7, 2018

I just received a small order yesterday from a recent live sale. It's really the first thing I've put in my tank since the hurricane last fall. It got me wondering, how often to people buy new items/creatures for their tank? Be it a new fish, new additions to your CUC, or yet another coral for the collection. So, how often are you dropping things in your display?

tnc112105 · Feb 7, 2018

I go through phases.

When I catch the "itch", I tend to buy things more frequently, but most of the time I'll only add something new if I happen to see something that really catches my eye.

cracker · Feb 7, 2018

I'm very picky especially with fish. Sometimes it's months before I find a healthy ,out of the ordinary something I want .

Tuffyyyyy · Feb 7, 2018

I had 3 fish in my IM40 for the longest time. I'm finally up to 4 and have 2 more in the IM10. I didn't buy fish for the longest time because I had a bad run (buying from a big box store), but I've found a local store that's dramatically increased my success rate. My tank has been running for over a year now and my new cheato reactor is sucking all my nutrients so I'm trying to figure out what to add...I'm thinking about 2 more.

sfin52 · Feb 7, 2018

I only add coral at this point looking for very specific ones. When I was stocking it was a lot more often now it may be months in-between additions. It’s so bad my wife asks why do you want to go to lfs you arnt going to buy anything.;FacepalmI love to look.

I’m almost maxed on fish. Looking for a large finger leather or something similar so I can get a gcg (green clown goby). I don’t want to have issues with my ycg ,bob, who has claimed my only finger leather as his.

Crabs McJones · Feb 7, 2018

With exception to the occassional snail here and there, i'm pretty much maxed out for coral and livestock....I think ;Hilarious

Opus · Feb 7, 2018

There should be a button for "None - My wife has me in time out".

TMB · Feb 7, 2018

No new fish in a very long time, I'm maxed out there.

I might be in the minority here, but I follow a QT schedule for all corals.
What I'm currently doing is - I only buy corals about once every three months. Then I dip, observe, fight pests if needed, then move to display when I'm absolutely sure everything is clear of pests/disease.
After everything is removed from my QT, I set out looking again and try to buy in a very short window. When I have what I want - the 3 month clock of no new corals starts again. Could be longer if I find pests like I did recently (monty eating nudies).
For these **devils** I stretched the time to 6 months. 3 months trying to kill them all, and then went fallow of all monties for 3 more months.

The pests are easy to fight in a QT, and devistating when introduced into the display.

I will say that with the MENs, I lost that fight and ended up killing all of the monties trying to eradicate them. lots of work to end up failing, but imagine the damage to a large mature reef? Not worth it to me (because I've been there - done that).

Vote 1 for QT.

Brien · Feb 7, 2018

It all depends where you are in your aquarium life cycle.

cmcoker · Feb 7, 2018

I also quarantine everything, so it makes me wait unless I see something I "have" to have. Putting the time into quarantining and observing for issues makes me evaluate if I really want to deal with all of that for 'X' specimen. The last fish I put through QT had a diffficult bacterial infection to clear, and was very time consuming, so much so that it has been 7 months with no fish quarantine going. I did get the bug last week and now have a Yellowfin flasher wrasse in quarantine.

Rakie · Feb 7, 2018

Oh... When you say "creature" my mind immediately thought "non coral" -- inverts, fish, stuff like that.

Either way, my answer is pretty much the same -- I'm full up. Waiting for @mdbannister to come pickup at least a half dozen corals.

Instigate · Feb 7, 2018

As often as my wallet will allow. But my tank is less than a year old and still pretty barren so I've got plenty of space at the moment. I'm sure I'll slow down at some point.

saltyhog · Feb 7, 2018

My fish stocking is pretty well planned out but not iron clad. I only have room for a few more fish so they will be pretty specific.

I'm always on the look out for corals but I tend to put frags pretty far apart to allow for room to grow. Because of that, I'm getting pretty picky about coral choices too.

chris k. · Feb 7, 2018

I just bought a bunch at the frag swap that i havent seen locally. If it pops i want it.

dede · Feb 7, 2018

I also do quarantine everything and finding now that I only want to get in a larger quantity of coral or a couple of fish at a time due to the length of time and effort involved. It really takes away from the enjoyment of the hobby for me.

reefruss · Feb 7, 2018

This would depend on where you are in your build. I'm at 16 months and I'm still populating the tank so my purchases at this time might be different than when I'm getting more fully stocked and grown out.