Fish List

[Squishie89]

Would like some input please on my stock list

90g mixed reef

 

Already have:

Female ocellaris clownfish

Male gumdrop coral Croucher

Yellow watchmen goby w/shrimp

Sexy Shrimp herd

Hermit crabs

Various snails

Urchin

Bubble tip anemones

Corals mixed

 

Want:

Watanabei angel pair

Dragon face pipefish pair

Spotted dragonet

Sunburst anthias (possibly more than one)

Orange/yellow lined cardinals 3 or more

Midas Blenny? Smiths blenny?

Other various reef safe crabs/shrimp

 

Thank you!

[YHSublime]

I think the only thing that is maybe questionable on your wants list would be the angelfish (or pair) as the tank size is small for an adult. I’d venture to say you’re lightly stocked atm, and I wouldn’t hesitate to add the rest of the list, space wise.
 

Those particular fish on the list though: my experience with anthias is they require frequent feedings. With cardinal fish they’re usually nasty to others, and with dragonets in general I can’t keep them past a few years, despite always looking fat and healthy in my tanks, they just disappear.

[Squishie89]

2 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

I think the only thing that is maybe questionable on your wants list would be the angelfish (or pair) as the tank size is small for an adult. I’d venture to say you’re lightly stocked atm, and I wouldn’t hesitate to add the rest of the list, space wise.
 

Those particular fish on the list though: my experience with anthias is they require frequent feedings. With cardinal fish they’re usually nasty to others, and with dragonets in general I can’t keep them past a few years, despite always looking fat and healthy in my tanks, they just disappear.

Thank you so much for the insight!

 

I am looking into getting an auto feeder to try and keep everyone happy as I only feed once a day right now. 

 

I was going to try and get the smallest angels I could do they could spend as long as possible with me. Was also hoping they could handle the space if I didn't have too many other free swimming fish. 

 

I've been iffy about the cardinals. I think with the anthias I might feel I've got enough movement.

 

The pod eaters are also iffy. I've been struggling to keep a good population and I won't even attempt any of them until I feel like there is plenty. 

[yagerboy]

Consider a smaller tang species instead of the two Angels

[gws3]

I can give some relevant experience from my Red Sea 425XL. It's pretty close to a standard 90 gallon in size, but 22" wide instead of 18".

 

I recently moved a purple tang out of it as it had gotten too big and boisterous for that size tank and a few of the other fish would hide a lot due to his energy. The remaining largest fish is a female watanabei. I think it was really a male with female markings, but that's another topic. I deiced to get a smaller female watanabei and see if they would make a pair and if the female would transition to a male. This worked out beautifully and the female turned into a male within a few weeks. He spends a lot of the evening doing his mating dance to impress her and chases her around the tank. This is fun to watch.

 

However, he's become a lot more aggressive as a result. He used to be very slow swimming and laid back. Now, the other fish have learned to keep out of his way, and he is now the boss of the tank and acts like a dominant male. It's borderline too small of a tank for the pair of them, but currently it's working out ok.

 

I would definitely not try to keep a mandarin and or pipefish in there with them. Those fish are too slow moving and delicate, they would be very stressed by the behavior of the mated pair. I wouldn't recommend keeping those fish in a 90 regardless unless you have a prolific amount of pods. I don't think their dietary needs would be met. In fact, I've tried both of those in that tank over the years and they do not last long term even though I was supplementing their diet with a constant supply of baby brine shrimp. The tank needs to be very rich in microfauna to be a good environment for them in my opinion.

 

I do have a bimaculatus and sunburst anthias in that tank. They are doing fine, but you want to be feeding a few times a day.

 

For tangs I would consider a yellow or tomini. Stay away from the tangs that grow larger and/or more aggressive. You can keep juveniles of larger tangs, but need an upgrade plan for when they get closer to maturity.

 

Other good fish to consider are chromis, more peaceful damsels, royal gramma, flasher and fairy wrasses, dwarf angelfish.

[gws3]

Oh, and for anthias, I would suggest a few of different species than a few of the same species. This has worked out better in my experience. Too much aggression in the smaller tanks with multiples of the same species.

[DaJMasta]

I don't know how compatible the pipefish are with the anemones in particular, and while I've heard they an do well in mixed reef tanks even with high flow, I haven't really had that experience (though mine is limited and with different species), where they don't seem to do well in high flow and need a fair bit of maneuvering room (the front half of the body is basically straight, only the back half can bend much).

 

I would think the dragonet would be no problem - an established 90 gallon tank with rock and substrate and no other dedicated pod eaters would suggest plenty of food to me - but the easy way to make sure would be to train it onto prepared foods.  I've had good luck with frozen, and it typically takes 2-3 weeks of training period, but I've heard of longer term in-tank methods that use pellets (Marc Levenson describes using a glass bottle with a narrow enough neck to keep other fish out).

 

I've heard mixed things about the cardinals too, but I've always liked the nonstandard varieties.  I think if you have adequate space for them to hide (crevasses and overhangs, but not necessarily caves), they will probably be fine, but I've kept a very cryptic variety that was often tough to spot with the lights on even in a tiny tank (red stop light cardinals in this case.)  Of course the more standard banggais or orbic cardinals would work, but the orbic cardinals can get very large (and are long lived), though a 90G would be plenty of space since they aren't active swimmers.

 

I'd second a fairy or flasher wrasse, the ones I've had have been very fun.  I saw a pintail wrasse in a local shop just last week and despaired that my tank is half the size it ought to be for one - but you've got the space!

Full sized cleaner shrimp would probably work - I haven't kept any with sexies long term, though - but some of the other anemone or cleaner shrimp can be fun, though perhaps a bit hard to see in that size of tank.

 

If you want small fish with personality, I'd also recommend a sharknose goby (or two), a clown goby, and something like a hector's goby.  The latter will just ignore you and be out doing its thing constantly, but the clown goby has the confidence of a fish 10x its size and likes to be out and visible, while the sharknose gobies will show cleaning behavior towards you at least sometimes and do an adorable wiggle before swimming over.  If you have any aiptasia and want something interesting, a filefish or a copperband could both be fun additions - the copperbands do have a reputation of being hard to get eating, but mine has a ton of personality (closest to a dog I have in my tank right now) and of course great color.

[Squishie89]

Wow thank you guys for all the insight!

 

I just personally don't want any tangs. So trying to get other types of open swimming fish. 

 

@gws3 your experience with the angels worries me. My gumdrop coral croucher was already almost bullied to death this year by a starry blenny. So I wonder if I should wait on them until he passes, if he ever does, he's over 11years old now. And I won't put him in danger. 

 

I have had a copperband butterfly before and it ate well, and also liked my corals 🙄 but maybe I need to consider them again.

 

I briefly considered wrasses till I saw they will probably munch on my sexy shrimp. 

 

I do have experience with keeping pipefish in a reef, including with anemones (they do fine). So I'm not worried about knowing what I need to keep them. 

 

I don't have experience keeping angels, anthias or cardinals. 

I'm looking to add uncommon, open swimming fish. The tanks needs movement.