What order should fish be added?

[Sashaka]

I'm not ready to add fish yet. Most of the fish listed below are still in sick or quarantine tanks. Several have to be purchased yet. I will be setting up a 180 gal FOWLR tank with 40 gal sump and skimmer rated for 300 gal. Below are the fish I have and/or want to get:

If anyone has suggestions for the order of stocking for fish, I'm all ears. The plan is to put Puff Daddy, the porcupine puffer, in the 180 and keep him there if he stays as sweet tempered as he is now. If he does not stay sweet, and I realize each fish has his/her own personality and it can change as they reach maturity, I'll give him his own tank at that point.

Regal and yellow tang (need to be purchased)
midas and stary eyed blenny (may not get along with each other and stary eyed would then be removed)
coral beauty (may not get along with majestic angel, so coral beauty would then be removed)
wrasses (3 seem to get along in the smaller tanks and I may purchase a few more)
majestic angel (the star of the tank!)
4 butterfly fish (all get along in current tank: spot band, two black and whites, vagabond)
engineer goby
cleaner fish
male anthias
Puff Daddy (as long as he behaves himself)

Any other suggestions? Cautions? Thanks!

I also have another skimmer if Puff Daddy still pollutes water too much. I also realize as these little 3 and 4 inch fish grow, I will need to invest in a larger tank...again. LOL

 

[Maritimer]

You should be all right with the midas and starry blennies - they utilize very different niches in the aquarium (midas in the water column, waiting for plankton; starry on the rocks, banging away at hair algae), and my two ignore each other completely. If you're lucky, the midas may hang out with your anthias - it's something they do from time to time in the wild.

I would tend to add the two angels simultaneously if possible (same for the tangs) or CB first, then majestic. I would also add the regal tang before the yellow, if simultaneous isn't an option.

~Bruce

 

[eatbreakfast]

^I agree.

 

[Sashaka]

Thanks Maritimer. I was thinking along those lines too. My starry eyed is a bully, though. He's killed several meat eating bottom dwellers on me. I have to watch him carefully. My plan is to try to add fish from each one of my other tanks all at once as batches-when possible-as they are used to living with each other, and then wait two weeks (is that enough time?) until they establish homes before adding the next batch. I would like to add a flame hawkfish (I lost mine in quarantine), but that may not get along with the sand perch too well. My sand perch is also a bossy bugger in his tank. I'm not sure whether I should add it at the same time as the sand perch or before?

Here is the order of stocking that I'm thinking about...

First : engineer goby. midas blenny, wrasses (2 sand sleepers and 1 rock cuddler) (may get a few more wrasses, but they would be added about a month later...after quarantine and meds. One of the wrasses will chase a bit but nothing serious-no one's hiding or not eating due to aggression between wrasses and they've been in the same tank about a year now)
Second : sand sifting goby, 4 butterfly fish together (all shy...bother no one)
Third : both angels together, starry eyed, sand perch (majestic is still a bit shy...starry eye is a bully with similar shaped fish)
Fourth : both tangs together (need to purchase yet)
Last: Puff Daddy, the 6" porcupine puffer (he ignores all fish right now, even the cleaner wrasses that are much smaller than him)
Is there any other fish you would consider with this combination of fish - or in place of one of the above mentioned fish - to add to the 180gal? I've been looking at some of the dwarf parrot fish, but I'm not sure how they'd do with this combo as I've never owned a parrot fish before.

The male anthias didn't make it, and I doubt that I will replace it with another anthias.
Right now, all fish for the 180 gal are pretty small-between 2-1/2 and 4" (except Puff Daddy and the black and white butterfly fish), so the tank is going to look pretty empty, but I want the fish to have some room to grow. I will have about 4 fish that are going to get rather large and may need more space about a year or two down the road (Puff Daddy for sure), but for now I'm hoping everyone will get along. If not, I'll set up the 75gal as a grow out tank too. Any thoughts about this order of stocking?

Thanks!
Sashaka

 

[Sashaka]

Is there a specific forum setup where people doing a build can share their progress and ask questions? Am I in the right place posting here? Thanks!

 

[Maritimer]

That stocking order doesn't sound too bad to me - but I've never kept a flame hawk or sandperch, never mind together. Good luck, is all I can say on that one!

Quoy's parrotfish is something of an obsession of mine, and I've yet to hear anything bad about one, save the one I had - who would eat not one single thing for a month, then passed on. I also had a striped parrot, Scarus iseri, who, while a nice enough fish to look at (and capable of changing color more quickly than any chameleon I've known) turned out not to be labrid safe - added to a tank containing fairy wrasses, he went on a spree of biting - and a parrotfish bite is a fairly serious thing.

Speaking of wrasses, which is your one that chases? Some of them are a little pushy - other wrasses have been described as "spawn of Satan".

There is a forum section for sharing a build's progress - you can choose whether you'd like to start your build thread in "Members' Tanks" or "Large (180+) Tanks": https://www.reef2reef.com/categories/members-aquarium-discussion.321/

~Bruce

 

[Sashaka]

That stocking order doesn't sound too bad to me - but I've never kept a flame hawk or sandperch, never mind together. Good luck, is all I can say on that one!

Quoy's parrotfish is something of an obsession of mine, ...Speaking of wrasses, which is your one that chases? Some of them are a little pushy - other wrasses have been described as "spawn of Satan".

There is a forum section for sharing a build's progress - you can choose whether you'd like to start your build thread in "Members' Tanks" or "Large (180+) Tanks": https://www.reef2reef.com/categories/members-aquarium-discussion.321/

~Bruce

Thanks for responding, Bruce.
I've had several flame hawkfish. Great personalities in little bodies, interested in everything going on in and outside the tank. I love the way their eyes move independent of each other to check the food fairy out whenever I go near their tank. I even love their little wiggle to warm me to get away. LOL So funny. My flame hawkfish have not been fish to hide, nor have they been especially aggressive to other tank makes, but I've never put one in the same tank as a sandperch before. Still, my sandperch is a stinker. I believe he ate my yellow coral sitter, so he needs to go in the tank with the big boys now.

My cirrhilabrus cf cyanopleura or ruby head fairy wrasse is a sweetheart, never bothers anyone but occasionally gets chased by the sandperch or the Halichoeres melanurus or Hoeven's wrasse. I think the issue is more tank size than anything. They are getting too big for the 29 gal grow out tank now, but the 180 gal is not ready yet. I also have a Halichoeres chrysotaenia or a Vrolik's wrasse currently in a different tank until the 180 gal is ready. I would like to add a Halichoeres iridis or what's commonly known as the Radiant wrasse as well as the Halichoeres chrysus or yellow wrasse to the mix as well. Both of these fish are supposed to play nice with other wrasses when added together...supposedly. We all know how that sometimes works out. From all I've read, it's the Thalassoma wrasses that I should steer clear of as they can be quite the bullies...to the point of killing other wrasses in the tank. So...I've stuck to cirrhilabrus and halichoeroes for the sweeter tempered of the genus.

I would love to get a Quoys parrotfish! I'd like one of the smaller of the species, maybe Scarus spinus, but I haven't seen any for sale. I've heard they are quite shy and don't do well with ANY kind of bullying from tank mates. That means I can only have one if I can locate it before I add the other fish. Otherwise, it would probably die due to the stress of being the newbie trying to find its niche among fish that have already established tank territories.

Thank's again for reminding me about the Quoyi parrotfish. I forgot about how beautiful that fish is and how small they stay. I'm off to go scouting for it now.
Sashaka
P.S. Thanks for the tip about where to post the tank build. I'll start it when I have a bit more time to put something together.

 

[Maritimer]

My biggest worry in the group of wrasses you describe would be compatibility between the H. melanurus and H. chrysotaenia - those two are very similar! The sandperch and melanurus may still chase the ruby head, but shouldn't do it as often in the bigger tank. (Then again, as you're combining several tanks, the whole dynamic may change.)

~Bruce

 

[eatbreakfast]

I would be wary of keeping a melanurus and chrysotaenia together. They are sister species, so aggression will be higher among those two.

 

[Sashaka]

My biggest worry in the group of wrasses you describe would be compatibility between the H. melanurus and H. chrysotaenia - those two are very similar! The sandperch and melanurus may still chase the ruby head, but shouldn't do it as often in the bigger tank. (Then again, as you're combining several tanks, the whole dynamic may change.)

~Bruce

Thanks for the tip about compatibility, Bruce. I'll watch them closely when I add them and if I see a problem, I will move either the bully or the bullied to a different tank. I love my wrasses and don't want them becoming stressed.
Thanks!
Denise

 

[Sashaka]

I would be wary of keeping a melanurus and chrysotaenia together. They are sister species, so aggression will be higher among those two.

Yes, Bruce thought the same thing. I've read that if one adds the fish at the same time into a large tank, it lessens the aggression. I'm guessing there could still be quite a bit of stress though as this is not a natural habitat for them coexist in with each other. I'll watch closely and remove one if there is any problems.
Denise