Stocking advice for an 80 gallon reef!

[tazren]

Hi all!

I am upgrading soon to an 80 gallon reef (pending light purchase) from a 10g nano. Current stocking includes 2 occy clowns and 1 bicolour blenny. The concept for my upgraded tank will be a mixed reef and eventually dipping my toe into SPS corals. I want a tank with lots of small/medium fish.

My draft so far includes the fish i've already discussed, and:
- 1x bangaii cardinal
- 1x pyjama cardinal
- 2x helfrichi firefish (the star of the tank, hopefully a pair)
- 1x royal gramma
- 1x starry blenny
- 1x midas blenny
- 1x leopard wrasse
- 1x marine betta
- 1x fairy wrasse (unsure of which yet)

What are your thoughts? From my research the only potential class would be between the wrasses. Does anyone have any other suggestions for potential stocking?

Thanks!!

 

[Waterislife]

Hi all!

I am upgrading soon to an 80 gallon reef (pending light purchase) from a 10g nano. Current stocking includes 2 occy clowns and 1 bicolour blenny. The concept for my upgraded tank will be a mixed reef and eventually dipping my toe into SPS corals. I want a tank with lots of small/medium fish.

My draft so far includes the fish i've already discussed, and:
- 1x bangaii cardinal
- 1x pyjama cardinal
- 2x helfrichi firefish (the star of the tank, hopefully a pair)
- 1x royal gramma
- 1x starry blenny
- 1x midas blenny
- 1x leopard wrasse
- 1x marine betta
- 1x fairy wrasse (unsure of which yet)

What are your thoughts? From my research the only potential class would be between the wrasses. Does anyone have any other suggestions for potential stocking?

Thanks!!

Marine Betta is a passive aggressive preditor that feeds at night

 

[BayouReefer]

I would consider a small tang like the Tomini they are good workers mine searches for algae all day long.

 

[tazren]

Marine Betta is a passive aggressive preditor that feeds at night

Would you advise me to steer clear then?

 

[Waterislife]

Would you advise me to steer clear then?

In my opinion yes because those other fish are small passive fish generally predator fish will fit anything in their mouth they can eat and sometimes bigger than they can eat I've never kept a marine betta they are cool looking but everyone I've ever seen doesn't move around the tank sits in a cave and waits for his meal to come by

 

[Jfinn]

Gramma v blenny - I wouldn’t have guessed it but my royal gramma and tail spot have clashed from day one. nothing major, they just open their mouths widely at each other. Aquarimate app warns of this too:

 

[Jesterrace]

Possibly some issues with the Helfrichi and the Royal Gramma (somewhat similar colors and shape) and firefish are very easily bullied. Also unless you specifically buy a mated pair it's unlikely that the pair will work out on the helfrichi. The Marine Betta should be okay with the fish unless they are really small but any inverts beside corals will be on their menu (particularly shrimp). The Bicolor and Starry may spar due to the similar shape and same space that they occupy.

As for the Leopard Wrasse, not sure what your experiences are with them if any, but it's a case of literally observing and picking the right fish unless you want a lot of frustration and a short lived fish. They are notoriously poor shippers and only the hardier individuals do well long term in captivity. I would wait until your LFS does a bulk order of them and then a couple of weeks later go back and see which one(s) are active and eating well and buy that one. I used this method with my Blue Star Leopard Wrasse and it has paid off immensely (readily adapted to Nori and adapted to LRS Reef Frenzy within a few days) as it isn't any harder to care for than my other fish and eats what they eat.