Starting Over sort of... Stocking thoughts?

[redwingrob40]

My tank has been up for about a year and a half now. Its a 48L X 30H X 24D tank and I recently lost some of my wrasses . Within a couple of weeks I lost my ornate leopard, and then my golden rhomboid. Both fish were healthy and had been in the tank for over a year. Both underwent QT before going into the DT. The leopard just disappeared never to be seen again. The rhomboid disappeared for a few days, then came out looking ragged. I caught him and got him to QT but the poor guy didn't make it. There was some aggression from my yellow eye kole tang and yellow tang towards some of the other fish, so I'm guessing it may have been one of them. Earlier this year I had the same issue with a flame wrasse I tried adding. She went through QT and 3 days in a acclimation box, then that night I found her floating at the top all beat up. Needless to say both tangs are gone to bigger tanks of local reefers. I am wondering if I may need to add some rock for more hiding/sleeping spots?

So now I'm looking to add a few new fish. Here is my current stock list (these are the same fish that were in the tank during my losses):
2X Ocellaris clowns
pink spot goby
starry blenny
Lineatus wrasse ~3.5-4 in
Melanurus wrasse ~ 4 in

So here are the fish I am interested in (all would be juvi/female):
Earls wrasse
Golden rhomboid wrasse
Flame wrasse
Eightline flasher wrasse
1 bristletooth tang (tomini or similar) to help with algae control

Right now I am thinking that I could safely add 2 of the above wrasses and a tang. Any thoughts? I am leaning towards the Earl for sure, as this is one of my dream fish and then one of the others. Any issues with these fish getting along? Should I be worried about adding another small bristletooth type tang? My biggest worry is getting a $500+ Earls wrasse and losing him after going through QT and acclimation. Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any thoughts/advice.

 

[kyla bidwell]

I would definitely add more rock. The problem isnt the amount of rock, its the arrangement of the rock. You have some good looking coral though so you probably wont want to rearrange any of the rock you already have. It needs to have caves and holes for fish to hide. My fish each have their own "home" in the rocks.

I cant offer much advice on stocking as I dont know much about the fish you listed. But my foxface did a phenomenal job at keeping algea at bay. As a matter of fact, I had a bad green hair algea outbreak when I added my foxface, and it was all gone within a week. The foxface kept it from coming back too. When my foxface died, I got a sailfin tang. The tang dosent do the job as well as the foxface did. If you want algea control, and arent dead set on a tang, I'd get a foxface. mine also had the best personality of all my fish. I miss him! Will be getting another as soon as one comes to my lfs! Good luck and I hope this helps a little!

 

[eatbreakfast]

The wrasses and bristletooth tang should bw fine, though established wrasses may cause problems for new wrasses, a social acclimation box usually helps.

Clownfish can also behave aggressively toward any fish that ventures too close to their territory.

I think you have more than enough rock for your fish.

 

[redwingrob40]

Thank you for the replies. I had not considered a fox face for algae control, will do some research on them and see how they might fit in. Thanks for the suggestion.

Social acclimation boxes are definitely the way to go, I have the EA aquatics one and love it, and will def use it when I do decide to add the new fish. My plan is to add the new wrasse/wrasses first, and then add the tang or possibly fox face last.

 

[Ryan15236]

Ever consider maybe some anthias? 90 gallon could be a little on the small side for some species like lyretails and squarebacks but you may be able to some like dispars?

Love the wrasses. I have a melanurus and yellow coris coming friday and want to add a couple of fairy wrasses as well.

BTW I think I would consider some of the bristletooths before a foxface. Foxface are normally pretty reef safe put have been known to eat corals. I love Kole tangs but maybe also look into Squaretail and two spot.

 

[kyla bidwell]

Ever consider maybe some anthias? 90 gallon could be a little on the small side for some species like lyretails and squarebacks but you may be able to some like dispars?

Love the wrasses. I have a melanurus and yellow coris coming friday and want to add a couple of fairy wrasses as well.

BTW I think I would consider some of the bristletooths before a foxface. Foxface are normally pretty reef safe put have been known to eat corals. I love Kole tangs but maybe also look into Squaretail and two spot.

I apologize, I didnt know foxfaces were coral eaters. I thought they were completely reef safe. Ya learn something every day!

 

[Ryan15236]

I apologize, I didnt know foxfaces were coral eaters. I thought they were completely reef safe. Ya learn something every day!

I think more often that not they are fine in reef tanks. I have never had one but I did look into getting one for my 125 but read a couple of threads out there with people having problems with them. Mainly polyps I think? If you want one though they are a possible candidate if you want to research them some more and maybe some more people will chime in with personal experiences.

 

[eatbreakfast]

If they are well fed nipping isn't as big of a problem, they are more likely to nip when owners cut back on feeding to control nutrients.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Just a casual observer with a casual observation. Kyla's first post is probably more important than anything.
You lost a lot of fish probably due to pure stress. Creating a suitable habitat is really important. So it seems you're choosing fish that are somewhat compatable together but a habitat that's only marginal for each fish alone. It's like me and my mother in law in a one bedroom apartment. No mater how big the apartment is. More rooms make it easier.
Wild coughs fish come from a huge apartment.
So maybe choose fish that will do well in the habitat you have or fix the habitat to support the fish you want.

It makes me sad when my fish die.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Just a casual observer with a casual observation. Kyla's first post is probably more important than anything.
You lost a lot of fish probably due to pure stress. Creating a suitable habitat is really important. So it seems you're choosing fish that are somewhat compatable together but a habitat that's only marginal for each fish alone. It's like me and my mother in law in a one bedroom apartment. No mater how big the apartment is. More rooms make it easier.
Wild coughs fish come from a huge apartment.
So maybe choose fish that will do well in the habitat you have or fix the habitat to support the fish you want.

It makes me sad when my fish die.

While a good illustration, I would have to disagree that 'stress' is the cause. Stress does not cause tattered and torn fins.

Also, the fiah the OP was losing usually do well in captivity, even in tanks smaller than his.

 

[redwingrob40]

Thanks for all the replies! Def some good discussion and ideas!!!After doing some research.The fox face though intriguing is a bit risky, as I have quite a bit of LPS and had a bad experience when starting out with an angel who almost destroyed one of my a can colonies. But I will do some more research.

Losing a fish sucks, especially after putting the time to qt and socially acclimate,and I don't believe that it was stress that killed my fish either as I had some of these fish for well over a year and they all thrived. the ones I did see before dying were def picked on. After ridding the tank of the tangs there is almost no aggression in the tank, I have no hard evidence that it was the tangs, but by process of elimination things have calmed down a bit in my tank.

Ryan as for anthias there are def some cool looking ones, but I prefer wrasse. Btw the tank is 150 gal not 90, and I also prefer not to have anthias just because they do so much better with multiple daily feedings, and I would prefer not too feed that much.

 

[eatbreakfast]

... I also prefer not to have anthias just because they do so much better with multiple daily feedings, and I would prefer not too feed that much.

The wrasses on your list are all planktivores, and would benefit from a feeding regimen similar to anthias. Less food often leads to more aggression.

 

[redwingrob40]

The wrasses on your list are all planktivores, and would benefit from a feeding regimen similar to anthias. Less food often leads to more aggression.

Wow I was really misinformed I did not realize wrasse needed to be fed like anthias. Thank you for the info, is there an optimal feeding frequency for these wrasse to really thrive?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Wow I was really misinformed I did not realize wrasse needed to be fed like anthias. Thank you for the info, is there an optimal feeding frequency for these wrasse to really thrive?

Frequency is important. I would recommend taking the same quantity and diviiding it up to feed more frequently. What I do is feed a little bit every hour after I get home from work. In my case it ends up being 3-4 feedings before lights out.

 

[Ryan15236]

I would feed your fish 3-4 times a day just in smaller portions even if you didn't have Anthias. Fish like wrasses and Anthias have very high metabolisms because in the wild they pretty much eat constantly, in fact most fish do. I bet you find the overall health and growth of your fish will be better with multiple feedings. Keeps that metabolism burning full steam! That's just my theory on it anyways lol look into the eheim automatic feeders. I have one and filled it with a mixture of formula 1, formula 2, nls pellets, and osi flakes so they get a good assortment 3 times a day. Some days I top it off with a little mysis around lights out time

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

While a good illustration, I would have to disagree that 'stress' is the cause. Stress does not cause tattered and torn fins.

Also, the fiah the OP was losing usually do well in captivity, even in tanks smaller than his.

Youve never met my mother in law.

 

[redwingrob40]

TJ and Ryan great information, thanks!! gonna give the multiple feeding a try and see how it works. I'm starting to wonder if that may be part of my problem? Some of my losses do loosely coincide with me starting an every other day feeding schedule on the advice of a lfs owner. I do have an eheim auto feeder that I have used in the past on an old tank when I went on vacation. Need to figure a way to mount it on my new tank in conjunction with the screen tops....

 

[Ryan15236]

TJ and Ryan great information, thanks!! gonna give the multiple feeding a try and see how it works. I'm starting to wonder if that may be part of my problem? Some of my losses do loosely coincide with me starting an every other day feeding schedule on the advice of a lfs owner. I do have an eheim auto feeder that I have used in the past on an old tank when I went on vacation. Need to figure a way to mount it on my new tank in conjunction with the screen tops....

Just an idea as far as mounting the auto feeder. What I did with mine was mount it in my sump above the return pump section. I used a feed ring to keep the food within a small area and when it sinks it is sucked by the return pump and into the DT. I like this as it keeps everything down in the sump and as the pump puts the food into the DT it chops up the flakes into sizes almost mimicking small inverts like plankton as it flies all around the tank. I also mounted my ATO feed to dispense the water from the reservoir into the feed ring area to flush any remaining floating food down to the return pump then on to the DT.

 

[redwingrob40]

I like that idea I may have to try that!! Never thought of feeding through the sump... Hmmm

 

[redwingrob40]

So ended up kind of going a different route here. Ended up selling the melanurus wrasse cause he was getting a little too aggressive for my likes, I think that he caused my lineatus to jump So with all that being said I was down to my clowns, the starry blenny and the pink spot goby. Also started feeding the tank 2-3 times/day as suggested.

For christmas I ended up getting my Cirrhilabrus Earlei and he is nicely established in the DT after 6 weeks in QT.

Right now I have a small Juvi Cirrhilabrus Jordani and Cirrhilabrus Rhomboidalis in QT. After their 6-8 weeks in QT they will go in the DT via acclimation box.

After that my thoughts are to add a couple of flashers and the tang last. The flashers I am really interested in are Paracheilinus Attenuatus (if I can find one) and Paracheilinus Octotaenia. Anyone see any issues with this possible stock list?

2X Amphiprion Ocellaris
Salarias ramosus
Cryptocentrus leptocephalus
Cirrhilabrus Earlei
Cirrhilabrus Jordani
Cirrhilabrus Rhomboidalis
Paracheilinus Attenuatus
Paracheilinus Octotaenia
Ctenochaetus tominiensis (or similar)