New Tank First Fish

[Eversurf]

I have been researching the fish for a little while and I was wondering what is the best type of fish to start with and not limit my options for the future?

I will have a cleaning crew in there as well, hermits, snails and brittle.

Thanx

 

[dixaisy930]

What size is your tank?

 

[Eversurf]

55G US
40 lbs of live sand
40 lbs of crush coral
30 lbs of live rock

 

[SkiFletch]

General rules of thumb: Stick to wrasses, pygmy angels, clowns, gobies, dartfish, and certain types of chromis/psuedochromis. Angels/tangs/anthias are too bi, and damsels can be overly aggressive.

 

[Eversurf]

I'm going to go pickup 3 clowns this afternoon....well i'm going to go check them out and then pick em up tonight.

 

[SkiFletch]

I'm going to go pickup 3 clowns this afternoon....well i'm going to go check them out and then pick em up tonight.

Dont get 3 . Clowns do best in multiples of 2. In a triad over time one gets picked on usually until it dies 2 clowns is much more advisable.

 

[Eversurf]

I went to a few stores in my area and they are insane. The price was twice as much as I can buy them for online and they do not have a warranty.

I'm going to buy my stuff online

So 4 clowns
1 Tang

and I am looking for some fish that hang out in a herd/group/whateverthewordisforagroupoffish

 

[Eversurf]

I ended up getting

4 x Percula Clownfish - Wild
1 x Yellow Tang
1 x Bicolor Angelfish (A)
1 x Pink Tip Haitian Anemone


The anemone was free

 

[Eversurf]

I got my fish today Can't wait to put them in and I bet they can't wait to get in the tank

 

[hubbard_shark]

despite getting the anemone for free, make sure u have the correct lighting for it. otherwise, it will cause more problems for u, as dying anemones can eb a real mess. other than that good luck

 

[Eversurf]

What kind of lighthing do you recommend?

 

[Lynden]

SUPER-DUPER ULTRA MEGA HYPER METAL HALIDE!!!!!

What type of lights do you have already? T-5 or PC's would work, but ideally you should keep the anemone near the top of the tank. Condylactis are relatively easy anemones to keep, but still require strong lighting. If you do not have Metal Halide, feed the anemone, with a piece of shrimp, fish, et cetera, once a week.

Unfortunately, T-8 and T-12 NO bulbs are far too weak to support an anemone. VHO T-12 are similiar (if I remember correctly) to PC's (the PC's are probably a little better - I would hope) in PAR, photosynthetically available radiation.

-Lynden

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I don't want to stomp on another person's thread here, but maybe this question will help both of us out...

Lynden,

When you say "keep the anemone near the top of the tank", what exactly do you mean by this. Well, I know what it means and it is so that the anemone can get more light than if it was at the bottom, but don't anemone's move around on their own all the time?

I had a Condy anemone at one time for a couple of weeks, which like you point out, was a variety that needed a lot of light so I put it near the top of my rockwork but it never stayed there. In fact, it would always fall to the substrate and then hide underneath a rock which eventually led to it dying becasue of the lack of light. I tried in vain to keep in in one spot, but just couldnt do it.

Another thing about anemones in general is that you do not need one to keep a clownfish and you do not need a clownfish if you have an anemone. In fact, wouldn't four clownfish and one anemone result in a 'fight' for the anemone as a territory?

The Condy anemone is really an aggressive one but it is hardy so I think that is why people usually get them first. I researched a bit more into the anemone/clownfish relationship and found that clownfish do not host in the Condy anyways so my later plan to get clownfish was just put on hold. So, my point is that one would need to research what particular type of anemone is going to be hosted by the spacific type of clownfish that he or she is going to keep in the tank. From what I have heard, clownfish are sometimes more apt to host a coral than an anemone in an aquarium anyways.

I just read a good article on marine fish that school or shoal together and found out that there are not many that will and even if they do, there almost always needs to be a more aggressive or large fish in the tank to ensure that they will school/schoal. The fish the article pointed out were Chromis, anthyis (sp?) and some of the tangs like the Hippo tang and the Convict tang. Then it explained that schools/schoals are formed because of 'strength in numbers' against predation so the fish would most likely go on their own to set up a territory unless a larger fish or preditor was in the tank to create the need for a school.

Again, sorry to start asking questions in your thread, but I just wanted to point out what I had learned from my first anemone disaster.

 

[Lynden]

Unforunately some anemones will move, and not always to a place that seems best. But usually, if they die within a week or two, it has more to do with water conditions than with lighting levels. In the past, "reef"keepers kept anemones under T-12 lighting, but this only supported the creature for about a year or two. Seems like a long time, but remeber that anemones can live potentially forever in the wild (like a tree, sea anemones do not have any body parts that will 'expire' after a number of years, such as a heart). "Sticky" anemones like Seba's Anemone and Adhesive Anemones usually do not move as much as Long Tentacle Anemones, Condylactis, et cetera.

You are also right in that Clownfish do not require an anemone host, and vice versa. However, they both tend to do a little better in each other's presence. Clownfish potentially can host in Condylactis as well.

Convict Tangs are excellent schoolers, and use their numbers to overwhelm other grazers. I was actually a mere two feet away from an occurance like this; it was in Hawaii, and a large shoal of Convicts (or Manini) "attacked" several Naso Tangs. Even though the Naso's have two pairs of enormous tail spines, the Convicts drove them away with numbers. Apparently the mere sight of a Convict Tang is enough to get many species of grazers fired up.

-Lynden

 

[Eversurf]

My anemone seems to be doing well. It ate a bunch of brin shrimp today. I went and look at some lights and they are really expensive. I will have to buy them online. I saw a bunch of different things. Some had some blue lights and white lights in the same ballast what is up with that?

P.S. I don't care if you hijacked my thread