Potential list of inhabitants?

[Pixburgh]

So we came up with a very rough list of inhabitants we would eventually like to house in our first reef tank. Obviously we won't be using all of these, we want to start small and build up as has been recommended . Are there any fish/coral/inverts below that you wouldn't recommend or aren't compatible. I've looked over the compatibility chart but i'm bound to miss something so just want to be sure.

Bubble Coral
Feather Duster (green/yellow)
Flame Scallop
Yellow Leather Soft Coral
Green Star Polyp
Bubble Anemone

Coral Banded Shrimp
Orange Linckia Starfish
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
Sexy (?) Shrimp

Orange Spotted Goby
Six Line Wrasse
Ocellaris Clownfish OR Saddleback Clownfish
Helfrich's Firefish
Blue & Gold Damsel
Orchid Dottyback

I had originally wanted to have Anthias but I read the listing on here and it spoke of them not being food for first timers. Thoughts?
Also I had wanted my list of potential fish to be a bit longer but I can't seem to find suitable fish for the beginner experience/reef safe/peaceful qualities that I need. Feel free to throw out some ideas there also!

 

[eatbreakfast]

My first thoughts are flame scallops are difficult to keep and have a tendancy to move themselves out of sight.

Sixline wrasses can be real terrors to other fish in a reef, tons of personality, but the older they get, the bigger jerks they become.

The damsels and dottyback are not a good mix for a helfrich firefish
How big is your tank? I always am a fan of wrasses of the Genera wetmorella, terelabrus, pseudocheilinops, paracheilinus, cirrhilabrus, and halichoeres, and all of these are just fine for beginers.
I am also a big fan of the other varieties of dartfish, jawfish, liopropoma basslets, royal grammas. Nearly any of these are fine in a smaller tank too

 

[Pixburgh]

Haven't set up a tank yet, just getting some ideas together before we start to make a plan. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

Ya I wouldn't do the damsels. And sometimes six lines can be evil.

 

[Pixburgh]

Ok, heres an updated list..

Bubble Coral
Feather Duster (green/yellow)
Yellow Leather Soft Coral
Green Star Polyp
Bubble Anemone

Coral Banded Shrimp
Orange Linckia Starfish
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
Sexy (?) Shrimp

Orange Spotted Goby
Ocellaris Clownfish (pair)
Orchid Dottyback
Royal Gramma
blue reef chromis
Midas blenny OR Yellow watchman blenny
Zebra barred dartfish

Thoughts on any of these ones that i've added to the list since I took some of the others off? From pictures it looks like the royal gramma and the orchid dottyback look very similar (minus the yellow end on the gramma) so i probably would choose one or the other. Also, it looks like we've decided on a 40 gallon breeder tank for our first set up. My question now is how many of these fish/corals should i actually add as to not over populate?

Thanks as always.

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

You could put all your corals, just don't put all of them too close together. The pistol shrimp would be awesome. And I personally like cleaner or fire shrimp. I think I would get rid of the orchid dottyback and try to limit your fish list to six fish. Hope this helps

 

[MrDJeep123]

There is beauty in simplicity. Less is more. To that end, the dottyback and gramma will more than likely fight. Both are territorial and will be aggressive. I would choose one of the 2 and add them last. Also the anemone should be added 3-6 months down the road.

 

[Eienna]

So we came up with a very rough list of inhabitants we would eventually like to house in our first reef tank. Obviously we won't be using all of these, we want to start small and build up as has been recommended . Are there any fish/coral/inverts below that you wouldn't recommend or aren't compatible. I've looked over the compatibility chart but i'm bound to miss something so just want to be sure.

Bubble Coral
Feather Duster (green/yellow)
Flame Scallop Very very difficult to keep. Best left in the ocean.
Yellow Leather Soft Coral
Green Star Polyp Easy keeper, but can be quite invasive. Keep it isolated on a rock away from the others.
Bubble Anemone

Coral Banded Shrimp
Orange Linckia Starfish I cannot recommend linckia. They're cool but their survival rate is dismal. Their diet is not well understood and usually starve to death since most linckia will not accept supplemental feeding. The orange, however, may actually be a fromia star rather than a linckia, and these can do better. Do your research (though you should with all potential inhabitants.)
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
Sexy (?) Shrimp These are extremely small and will usually become food for other animals. Only recommendable for tanks in which they are the top predator.

Orange Spotted Goby
Six Line Wrasse Most people who add a sixline end up regretting it. They are usually extremely aggressive upon reaching maturity and are real butts to remove.
Ocellaris Clownfish OR Saddleback Clownfish
Helfrich's Firefish
Blue & Gold Damsel Damsels ought to be called damnedsels. All but a very few are highly aggressive, and also difficult to remove, like the sixline.
Orchid Dottyback One of the less nasty dottybacks, but still a dottyback, so be careful.

I had originally wanted to have Anthias but I read the listing on here and it spoke of them not being food for first timers. Thoughts? Depends on the exact anthias. If you can get ones reliably eating frozens and have the commitment to feed them 3 or more times a day, you may do okay. Check out these links.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/hcs3/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/hcs3/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-04/ac/index.php

Also I had wanted my list of potential fish to be a bit longer but I can't seem to find suitable fish for the beginner experience/reef safe/peaceful qualities that I need. Feel free to throw out some ideas there also! What size tank is it?

Answers in bold

 

[eatbreakfast]

With the updated list and decided upon tank size in mind here a few of my thoughts:

I persnonally wouldnt put an orange linkia in that size tank, they are extremely sensetive to changes in water chemistry and have a diet where they do not accept supplemental feeding. They usually do best in tanks with a minimum volume of 75g.

The dottyback and the gramma will not get along, so choose one or the other.

Keep in mind that buubletip anemones walk an awful lot, so be prepared to move corals that are in their path.

The sexy shrimp is on the menu for most fish, but if you place it in the anemone it will be fine.

 

[Mjpisanti]

Ya I wouldn't do the damsels. And sometimes six lines can be evil.

Completely agree. If you are looking to go small and cheap choose chromis not damsels, chromis are tipically much more mellow and wont disturb other tank mates. Six lines can be absolutely vicious although they are gorgeous you need all other aggressive fish to keep one in check which you will not have. The dottyback is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion but will certainly dominate the tank in a 40g. I had one once who became king within days, never hurassed any other fish but stood his ground no matter what came near him. They eat very easily and I've used that same dottyback to cycle before, theyre very hardy and well worth it if you enjoy the fish.

 

[Pixburgh]

Appreciate everyones input! We're getting closer . Taking everyone's advice into consideration, here are the new potentials. To repeat, this will be for a 40 gallon breeder tank -> we officially picked one up yesterday.

1 Bubble Coral
1 Feather Duster (green/yellow)
1 Yellow Leather Soft Coral
1 Green Star Polyp (only if we can account for a separate piece of rock for it, if not.. it's out.)

1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp

1 Orange Spotted Goby
2 Ocellaris Clownfish (anemone choices for them, anyone? I keep finding mixed articles on the internet. I hear they're okay without but if possible I'd like to give them something)
1 Orchid Dottyback OR royal gramma (this will be ONE OR THE OTHER for sure)
1 Yellow watchman goby
1 Blue reef chromis (I read that they may need to be kept in small groups, should i reconsider this type of fish?)
1 zebra barred dartfish

With this list, there will be 7 fish in our tank. Too much? Also, our CUC seems inadequate.. thoughts or suggestions on this?
Oh and what's everyones opinions on nudibranch? Saw one for the first time and they look neat but not sure if they're realistic for my future tank.

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

If you take your time and add the fish real slow you should be able to have seven without a problem. And whenever I got chromis I always ended up with one because mine would kill each other. And I would go royal gramma instead of the orchid. I don't really know what anemones clowns like best but sometimes clowns will host corals. Nudibranches often eat specific things so they can be hard to keep.

 

[Eienna]

Appreciate everyones input! We're getting closer . Taking everyone's advice into consideration, here are the new potentials. To repeat, this will be for a 40 gallon breeder tank -> we officially picked one up yesterday.

1 Bubble Coral
1 Feather Duster (green/yellow)
1 Yellow Leather Soft Coral
1 Green Star Polyp (only if we can account for a separate piece of rock for it, if not.. it's out.)

1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp

[1 Orange Spotted Goby
2 Ocellaris Clownfish (anemone choices for them, anyone? I keep finding mixed articles on the internet. I hear they're okay without but if possible I'd like to give them something) Bubbletip all the way for occies!
1 Orchid Dottyback OR royal gramma (this will be ONE OR THE OTHER for sure) The gramma would be the least aggressive of the two. Watch out because the royal dottyback looks almost identical and is often mislabeled as the gramma. The difference in appearance is that the dottyback has a clean break between the purple and yellow, whereas the gramma's colors kind of blur together where they change.
1 Yellow watchman goby
1 Blue reef chromis (I read that they may need to be kept in small groups, should i reconsider this type of fish?) The blues seem to be difficult for some reason. Blue-greens are hardier, though personally I like the darker blue color better. Groups are really only maintainable in larger tanks, as they have a tendency to slowly kill each other off in confined spaces.
1 zebra barred dartfish

With this list, there will be 7 fish in our tank. Too much? Also, our CUC seems inadequate.. thoughts or suggestions on this? I would recommend 2-3 nassarius vibex (NOT obsoletus) snails and a couple of trochus snails to add to the list. As for stocking density, stock slowly (think a month between fish), add the most aggressive last, and watch your parameters for signs that you've stocked it more heavily than the system can keep up with. That said, grammas stay pretty small, but the watchman and dart I'm not sure about. The occies get a little bigger than you'd think. The goby will be a bottom dweller and pretty well out of the way.
Oh and what's everyones opinions on nudibranch? Saw one for the first time and they look neat but not sure if they're realistic for my future tank.
My opinion is stay away. Nearly all are very specialized in their diets and will not eat the usual aquarium fare. Even if you do have what that species consumes in your tank, they will very quickly eat themselves out of house and home and starve to death.

Any other questions?

 

[Pixburgh]

Eienna, are bubble tip anemone's the same as bubble anemones? Bubble Anemone, Saltwater Invertebrates for Sale Online | PetSolutions

I think those are all of my inhabitant questions - can't tell you all how many mistakes you guys have prevented me from doing!

My other questions probably require a new thread as they are equipment based.

Can't say thanks enough!

 

[eatbreakfast]

Blue reef chromis are pretty difficult as they dont seem to be very hardy.

Bubble anemones and bubbletips are different names for the same thing.

Good anemone choices for ocellaris are bubbletips, which prefer being on a rock and long tentacles which prefer being on the sand.

Most nudibranchs are specialized feeders, try a small filter feeding cuke instead, like a yellow or a pink.

Zebra gobys are great, very peaceful and always out, just make sure the tank is completely covered as they have a tendancy to jump.

Stocking density is fine, as long as your parameters stay within acceptable levels and aggression is not bad you will be fine.

If you are using cured live rock, you can begin stocking relatively quickly. Start w 1 or 2 fish, wait a week or 2 and add more. Always give your bacteria a week or two to catch up to new additions. Never more than double your bio load on a given time, but not all fish have the same bio load. If your first fish were the pr of clowns than your next purchase could probably be any 3 fish from your list as the clowns have the largest bio load of all the inhabitants.

Also, seeing that you have 2 kinds of watchman gobies, I would try and add them as close to the same time as each other.

 

[Eienna]

Eienna, are bubble tip anemone's the same as bubble anemones? Bubble Anemone, Saltwater Invertebrates for Sale Online | PetSolutions Yes, they are the same. They are also known as BTAs, RBTAs (for the rose-colored ones), and GBTAs (for the greens, though this is less common.)

I think those are all of my inhabitant questions - can't tell you all how many mistakes you guys have prevented me from doing! Always research potential additions, and when in doubt, ask!

My other questions probably require a new thread as they are equipment based. Throw me a link?

Can't say thanks enough!

No problem!

 

[Pixburgh]

I think my clowns will be the most aggressive out of what i have so im supposed to add them last but if they have the most bio load wouldnt i want to add them first?

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

Your clowns probably want bother the other fish if the clowns are added first.

 

[Mjpisanti]

I always cycle with chromis they're the most affordable and Hardy. I usually get sets of 3 and have two make it through

 

[Eienna]

Oh, and avoid condylactis and carpet nems. Very predatory and most occies can't or won't host them.

I learned something about BTAs for clowns recently and that is that the nem's diameter should be at least 1 1/5 times that of the clown; otherwise the nem may be "loved to death."