Stocking Wish List?

[emsvaughan]

Hi all,

I have over the weekend purchased the 1st fish for my tank, and as this was the 1st time ever buying and introducing marine fish, i was to say the least a little nervous.

I went with 4 Green Chromis, and a Pink scooter blenny.

Now for the remainder of fish, I would like the following

Pair of Clowns and Anenome
Yellow Tang x1
Flame Angel x1

The tank is a 260 litre with 50kg of live rock, and 36x turnover. I have 10 turbo snails, and 6 blue legged hermits( which are evil), a cleaner and a dancing shrimp. Im going to swap the blue legged hermits and get 10 Red Legged ones, and would liek an Arrowhead crab if possible.

Do you see any problems with any of this? could I add a few more fish, or should I leave it at that, which was my original intention?

 

[tropicalwaters]

The arrowhead crab MAY attack your fish. Also, how long has your tank been set up? clowns do not need an anenome, but if you are gong to get one i would wait a year foe your tank to be mature IMO, but thats your call.

 

[Nim]

5 fish may be a lot of load to add in a go.. though you have plenty of LR but I would still be a bit cautius and wait a couple of weeks before getting another and keep testing for Ammonia and Nitrites.

I would also refrain from getting an anemone as they are too demanding. Clowns dont really need them and I have seen clowns making a toadstool as their host.

What issues are you having with blue legs? Are these the dwarf blue legs or the electric blue legs? I find that the electric blues do a much better work of algae than the red legs but they do grow bigger then the scarlets. My scarlets are sometimes very active and sometimes just laze around doing nothing.. but then all algae I used to have has now vanished but I would give this responsibility to a mithrax crab and the electric blue.

Nim

 

[emsvaughan]

The blue legs are just evil towards each other what appears to be fighting between them.

Ive been testing every three days, and its always the same.

I did think maybe 5 fish might be too much, but the lfs, said it should be fine.

I wont add anymore fish for at least another month, and take on board about the Clowns and the anenome, maybe I should refrain from one. What makes them so demanding?

 

[Nim]

I am not sure as I am also a newbie in saltwater but what I have heard is that they need very strong lighting and a very good flow around. If the flow is a bit too strong or too weak then they go into hiding under the rocks and then they may or may not come out and you cannot force them to come out if they dont want to. Because they can move around the tank, it also might make keeping corals a bit difficult until the anemone has found its perfect spot.

I dont know what their feeding requirements are but it could be a mixture of photosynthesis and something else. Perhaps someone more qualified then me can answer that.

Nim

 

[nanocubeking]

The tank is roughly 68 gallons. So I dont see a big problem with your stock list. That should be enough live rock for the scooter blenny to live. Do you plan to have any corals? And what kind of lighting are you running

 

[Lynden]

Not all anemones are "very demanding". In my experience, captive bred bubble tips are hardier than stony corals, evidenced by the fact that I cannot keep any stony corals in my tank without them wasting away over a few months (likely due to competition by allelopathic toxins), but yet I am able to keep seven captive bred bubble tips. Furthermore, these anemones touch eachother and other cnidaria in the tank and there is no harm done to either party.

Furthermore one "can" keep a clownfish without an anemone, but they will be
1) disease ridden (in my experience, especially with perculas/ocellarises)
2) less likely to breed
3) simply look "out of place" (in my opinion)

I would say this stocking list is acceptable. I recommend a larger tank for a full grown yellow tang, but if you buy yours small you should be able to keep it for years without it overgrowing your tank.

 

[emsvaughan]

Thanks guys,

At present I am running 2 T5's both arcadia, one white, and one blue. I am currently tracking a couple of units on ebay, that have 4 T5's in them. So fingers crossed I can up the lighting levels a bit.
I have a couple of finger corals (New to this is right) and a few polyps, a florida riccordia mushroom, and a toadstool.

I am planning to add more LR.

I agree with Lynden, Id rather not have Clowns if I dont have an anenome, just because I think they look totally wrong without one.

 

[@ombomb]

1) disease ridden (in my experience, especially with perculas/ocellarises)

I think you've probably been unlucky there, i've never had a problem and I don't think the majority of people who keep one without a nem have.

 

[Musho3210]

1) disease ridden (in my experience, especially with perculas/ocellarises)

care to elaborate?

Why cant your tank keep the stony corals, running carbon should be a simple deed, and even if not, a large leather next to my sps corals with no carbon in a small tank doesnt cause serious chemical warfare.... Might be a simpler explanation....

Ive never kept nems (will soon after upgrade hopefully) but stony corals are very easy IMO/IME

 

[Lynden]

I get that idea from the fact that all my clowns have not thrived (have been infected with velvet, ich, or simply thin), that is except for the maroon, and only so after I introduced my first bubble tip. This list would include Percs, Ocellarises, Clarkiis, a Saddleback, maroons, and my domino nowadays that is too wussy to bother taking over even a single anemone. He currently "hosts" the sarcophyton. Bad luck, perhaps... but I sure as hell won't be keeping another clownfish in the future until the tank is similarly suitable for an anemone. Certain anemones (bubble tips, haddoni carpets) can be easy to keep if the right steps are taken, and captive bred specimens are often available; so I no longer see a reason to keep a clown without a nem. The "disease ridden" bit is only further exacerbated by the weakness of most captive bred clownfishes.

Why cant your tank keep the stony corals, running carbon should be a simple deed, and even if not, a large leather next to my sps corals with no carbon in a small tank doesnt cause serious chemical warfare.... Might be a simpler explanation....

I changed my carbon a couple weeks ago, and the result was that cyano growth exploded, thus indicating a reduction in allelopaths, and yet the small candy cane I have is still gradually fading away. This is largely the same story as with my other stonies (hammer, frogspawn, lobophyllia, and a previous candy cane). This to me indicates that the anemones are more durable and more able to compete allelopathically with the softies. The toxins put out by my sarcophyton are undoubtedly rather overpowering, given it's size.

 

[Musho3210]

a question (not hypothetical) does resistance to toxins (the softie coral one, my spelling sucks) = ease of care?

Are you sure there are large recorded masses of captive bred haddoni nems? Never have i seen a captive bred one nor news of someone spitting one successfully.

 

[Lynden]

a question (not hypothetical) does resistance to toxins (the softie coral one, my spelling sucks) = ease of care?

Not necessarily, but it can indicate durability. My main point was that, although the allelopaths were removed by the carbon, the candy cane continued to recede and the anemones, which according to common belief are "very delicate", kept on as normal.

The bubble tip is the only anemone to have been spawned in large numbers, but Macrodactyla can occasionally divide in tanks as well if I remember correctly, and certain others do, but only very rarely so. People also frag very large carpets from time to time (like a mushroom), though this is not always successful.

 

[Musho3210]

make sense i guess, when i get my nem i'll see the difference of care for myself....