Ideas For New Addition

[johnnyjtaylor]

I want to add another fish to my tank but don't know what to get or what would be compatible with whats already in there.
My tank is 180l and has a pair of percular clowns,a pair of firefish,a pair of banggai cardinals,a pair of cleaner shrimp,peppermint shrimp,red leg hermits, the usual turbo snails etc, various soft and LPS corals.
One of my banggais(Mrs) has a real bad attitude and chases the firefish and even fights its own reflection in the side of the tank,so I don't really want anything thats going to be a another victim for her to pick on.
I quite like dwarf angels and 6 line wrasses but aren't sure that either would be a good idea from what I've read.
Suggestions most welcome

cheers Johnny

 

[SkiFletch]

6lines can also be punks when they grow up, and some angelfish are not suitable matches with corals... Perhaps some wrasses?

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Sadly we don't seem to have many smaller wrasses for sale around my way but after looking at many pictures there certainly are some nice ones. I would also like to get something that may eat flatworms as I've always had them and would love to see the little buggers get eaten! Theres a lovely little red stripe/eibli dwarf angel in the LFS but I don't know if I dare risk it being a coral nipper.

 

[Crazy fishes]

I think it was Lynden who wrote a thread on this. The dwarf angel is apparently an option since it does not 'coral nip' if fed sufficiently. The reason they are considered to be reef incompatible is people generally don't feed them correctly, we all try to skimp on food as to reduce the chance that the organics like nitrate and phosphate don't begin to creep up. As a result the lovely angel decided rather than starve I will eat something that tastes bad but keeps me alive.
So go get that dwarf angel and feed it sufficiently so it doesn't eat your corals.. They a fabulous additiion to the tank.

Regards

 

[Lynden]

Extra feeding will indeed help prevent a dwarf angel from nipping. All Centropyge are strictly herbivorous in nature if I remember correctly, but unfortunately in captivity if they aquire a taste for corals it can only seldom be reversed. The key probably lies in more or less continuous feeding, either through a slow dripper or with nori sheets.

 

[SkiFletch]

I was under the impression they were primarily herbivorous in the wild, but were also somewhat prone to being omnivores when food was scarce. Prolly why they end up nipping in tanks

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Sounds like I might give an angel a go

Extra feeding will indeed help prevent a dwarf angel from nipping. All Centropyge are strictly herbivorous in nature if I remember correctly, but unfortunately in captivity if they aquire a taste for corals it can only seldom be reversed. The key probably lies in more or less continuous feeding, either through a slow dripper or with nori sheets.

Nori as in sheets for sushi?

cheers johnny

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, one and the same

 

[rednwhite barmy]

I want to add another fish to my tank but don't know what to get or what would be compatible with whats already in there.
My tank is 180l and has a pair of percular clowns,a pair of firefish,a pair of banggai cardinals,a pair of cleaner shrimp,peppermint shrimp,red leg hermits, the usual turbo snails etc, various soft and LPS corals.
One of my banggais(Mrs) has a real bad attitude and chases the firefish and even fights its own reflection in the side of the tank,so I don't really want anything thats going to be a another victim for her to pick on.
I quite like dwarf angels and 6 line wrasses but aren't sure that either would be a good idea from what I've read.
Suggestions most welcome

cheers Johnny

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Yup, one and the same

Cool nice and cheap then

Anyhoo I decided to take the plunge and got a gorgeous fireball pygmy(C. acanthops). Within half an hour he set about eating the hard to reach algea down the back of my tank ,luckily for him theres plenty back there!

best pic I could get

 

[Crazy fishes]

Is that micro algae or macro algae he is eating in your tank? Lovely looking fish and they only grow to about 3 inches; if it wasn't a product of natural selection then I would swear that the japanese make it.

Regards

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Is that micro algae or macro algae he is eating in your tank?

Micro algea,why do you ask?
Haven't managed to get him to touch the nori yet so I've started to add a bit of garlic to the frozen foods I feed(which he readily scoffs down) and then giving the nori a bit of a soak in the garlicy juice from the frozen food to try to give it the same taste(hasn't worked yet!),although theres still plenty of micro algea to pick at as I'm a bit low on snails at the moment. He has nibbled at my xenia a couple of times but I don't think he liked it much(thankfully), I think it was more the flowing hands that interested him than the need to eat it.

cheers johnny