Stocking 125 gallon with current inhabitants

[67chevellemalibu2]

I have a 6ft 125 gal tank.
Current inhabitants:
Pearlscale Butterfly
Copperband Butterfly
4 Ocellaris Clowns
One Spot Foxface
Flame Angel
Christmas Wrasse
Hoeven’s Wrasse
Longnose Hawkfish
2 Fire Shrimp
Coral Banded Shrimp
Chocolate Chip Starfish
Red Spiny Starfish
Dozen or so Hermit Crabs
2 Bumblebee Snails
Everyone gets along, with no aggression or issues.

I was wondering if I am at capacity ?
I really want to add another Wrasse and was also wondering if I added 2 Female Leopard Wrasses will one transition to a Male? I really like the colors of male wrasses, but they are hard to come by.

 

[GoVols]

Vote #1

For not, rocking the boat. Might get aggression...

 

[HB AL]

Not sure how strong your bio filter is but in my opinion you could add more fish.

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

Bump

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

It’s pretty quiet around here this weekend.

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

Bump

 

[Jmas4]

It seems you can add more fish. The problem is your existing wrasses might get aggressive.

 

[Jesterrace]

I have a 6ft 125 gal tank.
Current inhabitants:
Pearlscale Butterfly
Copperband Butterfly
4 Ocellaris Clowns
One Spot Foxface
Flame Angel
Christmas Wrasse
Hoeven’s Wrasse
Longnose Hawkfish
2 Fire Shrimp
Coral Banded Shrimp
Chocolate Chip Starfish
Red Spiny Starfish
Dozen or so Hermit Crabs
2 Bumblebee Snails
Everyone gets along, with no aggression or issues.

I was wondering if I am at capacity ?
I really want to add another Wrasse and was also wondering if I added 2 Female Leopard Wrasses will one transition to a Male? I really like the colors of male wrasses, but they are hard to come by.

Definitely go with singles of different kinds of wrasses, the problem is that there is no predicting the gender switch with wrasses and many become male by default. An established Melanurus can be a downright terror to a Leopard Wrasse. My established Melanurus was a downright jerk to my Blue Star Leopard for about the first 2 weeks and it still can be a jerk to it around feeding time, although thankfully they generally co-exist otherwise now. The other issue with Leopard Wrasses is that they are generally very delicate shippers and since like mandarins they are copepod eaters by nature, only the most adaptable ones survive for any length of time. If you do it I recommend waiting until your LFS does a bulk order of them and then pick out the one that is active and eating regular foods 2-3 weeks later. This will greatly increase it's chances of survival and ensuring you are getting a healthy specimen.

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I appreciate the advice because I was going to buy one from Liveaquaria.

 

[Jesterrace]

I appreciate the advice because I was going to buy one from Liveaquaria.

I know that technically they have the guarantee, but the fact remains that you really can't observe the fish the way it needs to be before you buy it. Just me but I would never buy a delicate shipper online.

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I really don’t like buying from the LFS, because they offer no guarantee. As we all know there is no guarantee of survival even if you see the fish eat.

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

It doesn’t say on liveaquaria or saltwater fish.com that they eat copepods.

 

[Z3speed4me]

My blue spot JUST transitioned to male coloring over the last month; thankfully I grabbed him (her at the time) at a LFS and saw it eat frozen mysis and instantly needed it! I would be a bit hesitant to buy one offline without seeing the eating habits... very similar to a Coperband, you find one in a store that eats "something" you take that thing home!

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I guess it would be a bad idea to add 4 Female Blue Star Leopard Wrasses?

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I ask because Liveaquaria has them on sale for $24.99 today only!

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

Bump

 

[Jesterrace]

I really don’t like buying from the LFS, because they offer no guarantee. As we all know there is no guarantee of survival even if you see the fish eat.

That is true, but to my knowledge all LFS will periodically do bulk orders when they are given deals on set species (Mine seems to do them on Leopard Wrasses every 2-3 months), as such it costs me nothing to see them come in and check back in a couple of weeks and see which ones are still there and alive and eating well. I didn't even buy or express interest in my Blue Star Leopard until 2 weeks after it came in and then it sat at my LFS for another week and was still the healthiest and most active of the Leopard Wrasses that they ordered. Keep in mind with Live Aquaria they only guarantee "Arrive Alive" and with a fish like a Leopard Wrasse that means nothing. Of the 6 Leopard Wrasses that my LFS ordered 2 were dead within a week of arriving, 2 sold and I have no idea what happened to them, and then there was 1 other in their tanks when I got mine and it was very lethargic and didn't appear to be very active. Mine on the other hand was cruising around the holding tank for 3 weeks and didn't appear to have a care in the world and had really good color and 3 months later it's still doing very well in my tank and readily eats seaweed and reef frenzy. These are the things unfortunately that you just can't get from ordering a random fish online even if they guarantee that it gets to you alive.

 

[Jesterrace]

It doesn’t say on liveaquaria or saltwater fish.com that they eat copepods.

All wrasses eat copepods, but it's pretty clear the Leopard is more geared for them and really small crustaceans. Take a look at the size of their mouths.