Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
How many red strip tile fish could be kept in a 200 gallon?
Tile Fish
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KoleTang
Valuable Member
I've never kept them in groups so I cannot attest to that.
Just be aware of a few things:
- They jump like no other fish I have seen. You NEED a screen top. Even if you have a wooden canopy they will most likely crack their heads on it with the amount of force they jump with. When I would take the top off, I would literally have to hold the fish down with my hand because he would "dolphin" across the surface of the water.
- They are aggressive/big eaters. Mine never tried to harm other fish, but they will knock them out of the way when food shows up. Expect them to be as messy as a decent size tang.
- They will dig. And they don't burrow, they dig big trenches.
- I hear it can be difficult to get them started eating. So make sure you get fish that are proven to be eating at least frozen food.
Just be aware of a few things:
- They jump like no other fish I have seen. You NEED a screen top. Even if you have a wooden canopy they will most likely crack their heads on it with the amount of force they jump with. When I would take the top off, I would literally have to hold the fish down with my hand because he would "dolphin" across the surface of the water.
- They are aggressive/big eaters. Mine never tried to harm other fish, but they will knock them out of the way when food shows up. Expect them to be as messy as a decent size tang.
- They will dig. And they don't burrow, they dig big trenches.
- I hear it can be difficult to get them started eating. So make sure you get fish that are proven to be eating at least frozen food.
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Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
Well, I have one. I picked up a red tile and he is in QT with some other fish. He eats like a mad man. Anything and everything I put in there. I was hoping to either get another or pair of purple or bluejaw tiles. I have glass lids on my main tank.
Add some yellow and flashing ones to complete the collection. With that said, they need to be the most dominant fish in the tank. If not, doesn't matter how aggressive they are in terms of feeding, they will eventually lose out to larger and faster fishes.
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Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
How many do you have? What are their tank mates?
As I mentioned before, I used to have 6. They got along with each other and all stayed and swam together. I also had tangs and angels, which were added months after the tiles. The thought was that the tiles would be established and wouldn't be intimidated by these larger fishes. Well, that worked for a while until these larger fishes started to wonder into their spaces and compete for food.
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Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
And then what happened? Sorry for the all questions, I just never had one before.
Slowly, the tiles became more nervous during feeding time and were obvious bothered by the larger fishes entering their space. The purple tiles were the first ones that got sick, then the skunk, then the blues. If I were to do this again, I will only keep small reef wrasses and anthias with tiles in the 180g.
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eatbreakfast
Fish Nerd
You could easily do a dozen tilefish in that sized tank. They are very peaceful, though yellows can be a little pushy toward other tiles.
They behave a lot like a large dartfish.
Once past the initial collection issues they are quite hardy.
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Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
Well, I will have other fish too. Right now he is in QT with a Yellow Scopas, Snowbass, Golden Pygmy Angel and a cleaner wrasse.
Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
To be clear, is this the fish we're talking about? I've got no experience with them, but that definitely seems like a cool one to consider.
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Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
To be clear, is this the fish we're talking about? I've got no experience with them, but that definitely seems like a cool one to consider.
Yes....
