Help Me Stock My New Tank

[Jenste]

Hi all...I am taking over my mother's 35 gallon bow front and I would like some advise on stocking it.

I love percula clowns, pearly jaws, star fish, and royal grammas



how many would be acceptable, and what other fish should I consider?

 

[-Nemo-]

How many? Depends. Mostly on the size of each fish, but expect around 5-6 in there.
Percs, jawfish, royal gramma: all great fish.

I'd look at hawkfish (not all are "reef-safe"), some gobies, cardinals, Dwarf angels. Plenty of fish you could add in there

 

[Jenste]

I am also absolutely in love with mandarin gobies -
so I am figuring...
4-6 percs (i know they like to pair up?)
1 pearly jaw,
1 royal gramma,
and 1 mandarin


maybe a starfish later - how does this sound as stocking? (not instant stocking obviously while I let my tank cycle!!!)

 

[-Nemo-]

Only 1 pair of clowns in a tank that size.

Otherwise mandarin, be prepared. Practically all of them will not accept frozen foods. They naturally predate on copepods and little bugs like that. Regardless of whether the mandarin accepts frozen foods or not, you still should have a mature tank before introducing one. And even if it accepts frozen, I still believe it is important for them to receive copepods as a food source, but i'll let the mandarin owners comment on that one.
They also are constantly hunting for food, so any that don't accept frozen will very shortly eat up your supply of copepods. There's always the option of culturing copepods, but that's a whole different story

 

[bae1994]

for the manderin leave the tank atleast 6 months to mature

if you have a lot of lr you may not need to culture cocepods but its good to know how


i know with mine he is often picking at the lr but he also eats frozen and he is super healthy a little chuby tho not often the case tho

so if you want a manderin research cocepod cultervating

 

[seffieuk]

And even if it accepts frozen, I still believe it is important for them to receive copepods as a food source,

Spot on Nemo, even if your Mandy is eating frozen they must have a supply of copepods. So if you have less than 90lbs of live rock (which of course you will) you will need to set-up a copepod culture at least a month in advance. However it is very easy to do as long as you are commited to your Mandy and happy to go that extra wee way!

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Looks like a good selection of fish, except for the mandy.

You will have to culture pods for them and despite the fact it is fairly easy it is also an on going task that you have to constantly keep on top of. I tried keeping a dragonet in a 30g tank which had a fuge and loads of pods. Within a few months it had started to lose weight (despite it eating frozen food) and I passed it on to someone with a much bigger tank.

If you really want one then I would suggest culturing pods for at least 3 months before hand. That way you can see if the effort involved is worth it for you and if you want to stop culturing pods you wont be left with a fish that has no food source. also by the time you get the mandy you will have tons of pods

 

[milkton]

a mandy will work well but like all have implied, it isnt an easy job and needs alot of attention and care. This can be totally different though, if you are successful passing these hurdles:

1. a fish doesnt eat the food you give it because it simply does not recognize the floating objects as food because it has adapted to live foods already.

2. a fish will understand the owner provides a source of food, meaning it has adjusted to captivity.

there are simple tricks for fish to adjust to captivity; Movement, odor, and watching other fish eat the food.

the movement trick wont work well unless you have a good idea of somehow getting frozen brine shrimp to dangle around. the odor trick is associated with krill because they contain a powerful chemical attractant. and last is the watching other fish eat the food which is pretty obvious.

If you tried everything and the fish still wont eat, more than likely, the fish is going to die due to starvation.

hope this helps good luck

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The problem with dragonets and frozen food is not so much getting them to eat it (which can be done) but more the fact they are very slow eaters and every other fish in the tank will out compete them. Mine Would eat frozen no problem but unless I target fed it 2-3 times a day it would never get any food. By the time it stared at a piece of food for 5 minutes to decide if it wanted it or not one of the other fish would have swooped in and got it.

 

[milkton]

The problem with dragonets and frozen food is not so much getting them to eat it (which can be done) but more the fact they are very slow eaters and every other fish in the tank will out compete them. Mine Would eat frozen no problem but unless I target fed it 2-3 times a day it would never get any food. By the time it stared at a piece of food for 5 minutes to decide if it wanted it or not one of the other fish would have swooped in and got it.

very common and very true but considering Jeste's stocking list, it should be fine.

 

[mattbond]

Any responsible shop that stocks manderins will make sure that thier ones are taking frozen with no hesitation.
I work in a World of Water and thats our policy in fishroom, they generally stay with us a long time anyway, as most customers can't be bothered to provide copepods for them (another thing we always advise).
As regards to feeding, and i have had customers who have had thier manderins for over a year in 20-30 gallon tanks (90-115 litre) who have followed this method, order copepods online from reefworks, and then wait 2 months before adding to the tank, then buy your manderin
after that, if the tank is under 150 litres buy another vial and "top up" every 3 months as a supplement.
hope that helps, ive had no failures so far on this plan, but manderins are sensitive so please buy with caution

 

[seffieuk]

If you are interested in info re: Dragonetts please take a look at the Fish of the Week thread for Dragonetts its a cracking read.

It is possible to keep a Mandy in a small tank - however, they must have Copepods/rotifers etc and they must be either bought weekly or culture your own and harvest weekly, however have two cultures running as after a while one will crash!

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the OP, topping up a nano every three months with copepods wouldn't imo keep a Mandy alive, s/he would just take longer to starve to death

My pennies worth would be......... don't keep a Mandy unless you have a large tank with at least 75lbs of live rock, long term, in a small tank, it's a disaster waiting to happen


Seffie x

 

[mattbond]

Fair enough, our ones readily feed on frozen by the time they go into clients tanks, so maybe thats why it goes ok?
what's 75lb in kilos?

 

[seffieuk]

It would be great if they could survive long term on just frozen, but they can't, it does not have the nutrition they require

Seffie x