Recommendation on Fish Stock

[Pluteaz]

Hey everybody, I was wondering if I could get some input on the list of fish I have in mind for stocking my tank. I currently have a royal gramma, kamohara blenny, and a joke yellow eye tang.

I was thinking of getting:
2 or 3 black snowflake clowns
1 court jester goby
1 greenbanded goby
1 black sailfin goby
1 or 2 firefish and/or scissortail dartfish
1 sleeper banded goby
1 blue streak cleaner wrasse
1 green Mandarin goby or Ruby red dragonet
I would like to have both, but I'm sure I don't have a big enough system to support both.

I have a 90g mixed reef. Would this be too many fish? I'm also not sure if any of them would fight with one another. I'm not getting anything new for another month, so I'm trying to get recs and research in before I plan on making moves.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Hey everybody, I was wondering if I could get some input on the list of fish I have in mind for stocking my tank. I currently have a royal gramma, kamohara blenny, and a joke yellow eye tang.

I was thinking of getting:
2 or 3 black snowflake clowns
1 court jester goby
1 greenbanded goby
1 black sailfin goby
1 or 2 firefish and/or scissortail dartfish
1 sleeper banded goby
1 blue streak cleaner wrasse
1 green Mandarin goby or Ruby red dragonet
I would like to have both, but I'm sure I don't have a big enough system to support both.

I have a 90g mixed reef. Would this be too many fish? I'm also not sure if any of them would fight with one another. I'm not getting anything new for another month, so I'm trying to get recs and research in before I plan on making moves.

Are you considering adding all of those fish or just one of the options? How old is the tank?

 

[Pluteaz]

Are you considering adding all of those fish or just one of the options? How old is the tank?

Over the course of a half a year I would like to add all from the list. The tank itself is just 4 months old. I won't be adding anything new until February.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Over the course of a half a year I would like to add all from the list. The tank itself is just 4 months old. I won't be adding anything new until February.

That’s a lot of fish in a 90 gallon tank. The mandarin or red dragonet is a bad idea imo. They eat a lot of pods and need a very established tank. There’s also a lot of gobies on the list. I wouldn’t put more than two gobies in a 90 gallon tank. 2 clownfish is better than 3 because 3 will fight. Firefish are great. I love them. But they tend to be pretty shy around larger, more bold fish like clownfish.

 

[Pluteaz]

That’s a lot of fish in a 90 gallon tank. The mandarin or red dragonet is a bad idea imo. They eat a lot of pods and need a very established tank. There’s also a lot of gobies on the list. I wouldn’t put more than two gobies in a 90 gallon tank. 2 clownfish is better than 3 because 3 will fight. Firefish are great. I love them. But they tend to be pretty shy around larger, more bold fish like clownfish.

Great, thank you for the insight! I haven't had this large of a tank before so I wasn't sure how many fish I could keep. So I will limit the gobies for sure and go for 2 clowns. Although you recommend not going for a Mandarin; I've always wanted to care for one. I know they are constantly hunting and finicky eaters, so I wanted to create a nursery for pods for a solid food source. I wanted that to be near the end of my stock to keep the tanks pod population time to up their numbers.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I don’t recommend them for tanks under 2 years old. I also don’t recommend them for tanks under 150 gallons. They eat ALOT of pods. They usually just starve.

Great, thank you for the insight! I haven't had this large of a tank before so I wasn't sure how many fish I could keep. So I will limit the gobies for sure and go for 2 clowns. Although you recommend not going for a Mandarin; I've always wanted to care for one. I know they are constantly hunting and finicky eaters, so I wanted to create a nursery for pods for a solid food source. I wanted that to be near the end of my stock to keep the tanks pod population time to up their numbers.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

It’s not that they are finicky eaters. It’s because they eat pods and pods only. 99% of tanks pod population cannot support a mandarin.

 

[Pluteaz]

It’s not that they are finicky eaters. It’s because they eat pods and pods only. 99% of tanks pod population cannot support a mandarin.

I see, looks like I'll be looking into getting one a decade or so down the road, when I can get a larger tank . Well that's unfortunate to note, but I don't want to starve the lil dude. Have you had any experience with aquacultured mandarins?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I see, looks like I'll be looking into getting one a decade or so down the road, when I can get a larger tank . Well that's unfortunate to note, but I don't want to starve the lil dude. Have you had any experience with aquacultured mandarins?

Nope. But these fish have to graze on something throughout the day. So you would need an auto feeder to give it snacks throughout the day

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I’ve heard of some people getting their wild mandarins to eat pellets etc but it would still need to be fed 4+ times a day

 

[Pluteaz]

Nope. But these fish have to graze on something throughout the day. So you would need an auto feeder to give it snacks throughout the day

Gotcha, well one day I will care for my beloved Mandarin. Thanks for the advice. Any fish you like and would recommend? That'd work with the fish on my list?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Gotcha, well one day I will care for my beloved Mandarin. Thanks for the advice. Any fish you like and would recommend? That'd work with the fish on my list?

I love my diamond goby. If you have a deep sand bed, that guy will keep it pristine. You might want to wait till around the 6-8 month mark to get one though because the eat pods in the sand. They consume a lot less than a mandarin though. I trained mine to eat pellets and mysis. Wrasses such as fairy wrasses are also great additions. They consume all sorts of bad stuff, especially zoa eating nudibranches. They also eat pellets etc like normal fish.

 

[Pluteaz]

I love my diamond goby. If you have a deep sand bed, that guy will keep it pristine. You might want to wait till around the 6-8 month mark to get one though because the eat pods in the sand. They consume a lot less than a mandarin though. I trained mine to eat pellets and mysis. Wrasses such as fairy wrasses are also great additions. They consume all sorts of bad stuff, especially zoa eating nudibranches. They also eat pellets etc like normal fish.

Awesome thank you!

 

[45ZoaGarden]

What are your plans for corals? I also like angel fish but they tend to nip at coral..

 

[Pluteaz]

What are your plans for corals? I also like angel fish but they tend to nip at coral..

Yea i would have liked an angel, but for that reason and for my tank size any angels I want are not an option for me. As for coral I currently have some Duncan's, a couple zoa polyps, a mystic sunset Monti, a rainbow Monti, a holiday porites, some green digitata, a ricodea, an "acan" a blasto, and a goni. The goni has been very reclusive ever since I bought it. It's still alive but has never really extended it polyps, not sure why.

I want to get some birds nest, some frogspawn, more zoa's and "acans", some pavona, another Monti, and a couple acros. That's what I have in mind so far, and I'm sure that'll change as the tank grows and I buy stuff here and there.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I would definitely do just 2 clowns and one firefish. Firefish fight each other a lot. Cleaner wrasses do not fair well in captivity, so I would take that off the list. A neon goby is a better option. If you culture pods, feed baby brine shrimp, dose phyto, and do everything else recommend, a mandarin might be possible. It would be a lot of work though. All of those gobies might fight some. Take a look at wrasses. They would work in your tank.

 

[Pluteaz]

I would definitely do just 2 clowns and one firefish. Firefish fight each other a lot. Cleaner wrasses do not fair well in captivity, so I would take that off the list. A neon goby is a better option. If you culture pods, feed baby brine shrimp, dose phyto, and do everything else recommend, a mandarin might be possible. It would be a lot of work though. All of those gobies might fight some. Take a look at wrasses. They would work in your tank.

Thank you for the insight!

 

[Jesterrace]

Agreed on skipping the cleaner wrasse. In addition to often struggling to get enough to eat they can make real pests of themselves bugging your other fish trying to clean them constantly in captivity. I feel that as a whole Cleaner Wrasses are a fish best left to the ocean. As for the clowns stick to the pair or it is likely the 3rd one will become a dead fish when the other 2 pair up. 1 Firefish only unless a mated pair. So I would go with this list from your original:

2 Clowns
Green Banded Goby
Sleeper Goby
Black Sailfin Goby
Sleeper Goby
Firefish
Scissortail Dartfish

 

[Pluteaz]

Agreed on skipping the cleaner wrasse. In addition to often struggling to get enough to eat they can make real pests of themselves bugging your other fish trying to clean them constantly in captivity. I feel that as a whole Cleaner Wrasses are a fish best left to the ocean. As for the clowns stick to the pair or it is likely the 3rd one will become a dead fish when the other 2 pair up. 1 Firefish only unless a mated pair. So I would go with this list from your original:

2 Clowns
Green Banded Goby
Sleeper Goby
Black Sailfin Goby
Sleeper Goby
Firefish
Scissortail Dartfish

Thank you for the advice From what others have commented prior they seemed to advise against multiple gobies. I checked some other threads and some have issues while others have no issues with multiple gobies. Have you kept multiple in a single tank?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Thank you for the advice From what others have commented prior they seemed to advise against multiple gobies. I checked some other threads and some have issues while others have no issues with multiple gobies. Have you kept multiple in a single tank?

My dad has. Yellow watchman with a diamond goby in a 150. They lived on opposite sides of the tank. He never saw any fighting between them but if you put three in a 90 gallon there probably wouldnt be enough space for all of them