Big decision Thinking of selling fish

[dschflier]

Okay this is what I am thinking about and am looking for feedback. I have had the fish in my tank for a very long time and obviously have grown somewhat attached to them. That being said, I never really sat down and figured out what fish I wanted in my tank, over time I either aquired fish or bought ones that at the time I wanted.

 

I am considering selling off most of my fish except my pair of flame angels and maybe my lawn mower blennie. I think my flames are reef safe. I would then wait a little while, as I focus on really getting good growth from my SPS corals. When that begins to happen I would look at getting more fish.

 

If I go this route I would also be interested in getting opinions on fish people might recomend.

 

Many people recomend getting all of the fish at the same time although I am not sure that is the best way to go about it. I was thinking in 2 or 3 buys. Once again looking for opinions.

 

Some of the fish I was thinking are as follows

 

7 bartlett anthias

5 green chromis

Hippo tang Very small. I already have 4 very small ones in my 90 and would just keep one

another tang or maybe 2

I was thiking some jaw fish

gobbies

cross hatch trigger or another reef safe type

maybe a bat fish

 

Let me know what you think of my thoughts on the fish and if you think it is a good idea. Is it a bad idea to keep the lawn mower blennie, I think they can be aggressive.

Edited September 15, 2007 by dschflier

[dschflier]

I meant BIG DECISION

Edited September 15, 2007 by dschflier

[jamesbuf]

Why are you considering selling everything? The only thing that I would say probably isn't completely reef safe are the huma huma and the niger triggers. I've read about people having success with niger triggers which is why I tried it back in my 125gal days. I had no problem with it for a while, even noticing the niger would let the cleaner shrimp inside its mouth to clean. Over a few weeks time I started to noticed my hermit crab and snail population slowly declining. I ended up getting rid of it.

 

You would get rid of sooooooo much organic waste if you just got rid of the triggers and nothing else. They produce so much waste to be filtered out. You do have a few larger tangs if I remember correctly so you would probably benefit from swapping those out too, but the triggers would make a bigger difference in my opinion.

[dschflier]

Well that is a thought but swapping out the tangs and getting rid of the triggers is pretty much most of the fish in my tank with the exception of the emperor angel. That is basically my plan. I feel it is pretty difficult to put any new fish in with the tangs being so large and teritorial. The triggers for abvious reasons and the angel, even though I love the fish will not quitely tolerate intruders in his teritory.

[dandy7200]

I fixed title for ya

 

Can you give us the run down of all the fish you currently have in the system first?

[dschflier]

The fish in my 210

 

Emperor angel

Niger trigger

Huma Huma trigger

Purple tang

Sailfin tang

Yellow tang

Pair flame angels

Yeloow tail damsel

Blue chromis

Lawn mower blennie

 

I am thinking of keeping the following,

 

Pair of flame angels

Lawn mower blennie

Blue chromis and adding 4 or 6 more

Yellow tail damsel Believe it or not I actually like these damsels

 

 

As stated looking for feedback

[jason the filter freak]

don't get the chromis

[YBeNormal]

don't get the chromis

 

And why do you say that?

[jamal]

my yellow tail blue damsel is great and i get no agression. he is my first fish. well that will help your bio load. to james that may have been true for you but i have a niger trigger and it doesnt even look at my inverts. i have had it for a month and a half. besides my wrasse seems to be the most efficient at dispatching snails. so i only have crabs now anyway

[dschflier]

Why do you say that Jason? I may go with cardinals instead. This way I would have 1 slow moving school and another faster school of Anthias. What are peoples opinions of Bat fish?

Edited September 16, 2007 by dschflier

[jamal]

chromis tend to start at 5 or 15 and end up at one or two. i assume that is what he is reffering to

[dschflier]

I could be wrong but If I got them I would be getting an additional 4 or 6 from the 1 I have and I have reduced the number of crabs and will obviously be reducing the overall aggression. I would hope this would increase the survival rate. They are not a must have, but I think it would be nice to have 2 different types of schooling fish in the tank. If I decide on cardinals, it would slow the pace of the tank down a bit. Just a thought. If anyone is familer with another schooling fish that would be a good addition I would be curious.

[jamesbuf]

I really like my long spined cardinals. The always keep to a very tight school unlike my chromis.

[lanman]

I could be wrong but If I got them I would be getting an additional 4 or 6 from the 1 I have and I have reduced the number of crabs and will obviously be reducing the overall aggression. I would hope this would increase the survival rate. They are not a must have, but I think it would be nice to have 2 different types of schooling fish in the tank. If I decide on cardinals, it would slow the pace of the tank down a bit. Just a thought. If anyone is familer with another schooling fish that would be a good addition I would be curious.

 

I just added 3 chromis to the two that I got from a tank breakdown. They were instantly accepted into the 'school', and all seem happy. For the 'I am not a fish person' guy - I now have 1 Male/1 Female Lyretail Anthia (smallest one died), 6-line, Royal Gramma, Coral Beauty, Percula clown, and 5 blue-green chromis - in my 58-gallon tank.

 

I agree with having two 'schools' of fish in your 210. Assuming all transfer to my new 225g tank without any trouble - I will be adding a school of glassfish or cardinal fish, or something like that.

 

bob

[davelin315]

I don't believe that chromis are actually a schooling fish in our tank settings. At least in my experience, they have never schooled successfully, nor have I known anyone with long term success with them.

 

Personally, I think that batfish are a waste of space! They look awesome as juveniles and then grow up and then look like monos. They are also very aggressive as far as eating other fish when they are larger and can cause a lot of problems.

 

For the yellow tail blue damsels, that and the three stripe damsel are some of my favorite fish. I had a breeding pair of yellow tail blue damsels in my old 125 and they were awesome. Not at all aggressive and only staked out about a 6"x6" area as their nesting site.

 

If you get rid of the triggers, let me know, I'd take them in at school depending on size and price.

[dschflier]

I think I may do cardinals instead of the chromis.

 

I have decided to go ahead and do it. The prices will be fair in my opinion not cheap. The triggers are spoken for but if that sale dosen't happen I will post them. I will now change the thread to discuss some fish I am considering.

 

I am still not sure if the lawn mower blennie can be a problem or not. If anyone has insight on that let me know

 

After I get rid of many of the fish I will first get the least aggressive fish first. The following are the ones I am thinking of. Other suggestions are always welcome.

 

1st group: Copper band butterfly, Move my mandarin goby into the 210 and get a female mandarin, Anthias, cradinals, Cleaner shrimp(haven't decided on type) pepermint shrimp , will keep my yellow goby with pistol shrimp in tank. Will look at getting jaw fish and maybe some other small gobies, I will be keeping my pair of flame angesl in the tank as well.

 

2nd group I am thinking of keeping one small hippo tang and moving it to my 210 and would like suggestions on a mild mannerd tang that doesn't get that big.

 

3rd I was thiking of getting a pair of cross hatch triggers.

 

Any other suggestions or favorite fish people think would be nice additions let me know.