planning ahead new 240

[Guest Nate and Roshni]

We would like to thank everyone at WAMAS for a great time at our first meeting yesterday. We met some great people and learned a few things. (won a few things too!   ). Nathan suggested that we look at glasscages.com for our new tank. We have, and now we are starting to plan our new setup. Although it will be next year when we finally can afford it lol, theres no time like the present to start planning. We currently have a 55g and 20g fowlr. We have a question on livestock. In our 55g there is a pair of black percs and in our 20g we have a pair of Ocellaris. If introduced at the same time, can these guys get along in a 240g? Also could we have a hippo tang, yellow tang, and possibly another tang(maybe a powder blue, naso, whitecheek, or purple). I know they might not get along because of similiar shapes, or we might not even have enough room to support 3 tangs. All thoughts are welcome! Thanks!

[michaelg]

Yes in a tank that size you should be able to have 2 pairs of clowns- expecially if each pair has it's respective host.  

On the tang front- there should be plenty of room for 3 of them- A purple and a yellow might be a problem- hard to predict.  A general rule I have always heard is to get ones with different body shapes and there will be less of a chance of WWIII.

 

Glad you enjoyed the meeting!

[Aquariareview]

Welcome to the group.

 

I am glad you found glass cages. I have several friends with their tanks and my next tank will be from them.

 

The tangs shoulds be easy to do. just add all at the same time and make sure that they are all young and small. We have a wamas officer that has 6 big tangs in a 150 gal tank and they get along fine. 3-4 tangs in a 240 gal should be fine.

 

The clowns may be a different issue. A mated pair of clowns can be brutal to all other damsels in the tank. It is a roll of the dice. They might be fine or they might kill enery other thing in the tank. In a 240 you have a better chance but everybody i know has a clown in the fish room or in their sump that can't get along with the others.

[michaelg]

But in general= aren't percs and oscillaris more peaceful?  Hopefully gaitortaile will chime in- I am almost certain that with the 6 tangs, he has 2 mated pairs of clowns.....  Now if it was a maroon clown- I'd say forget it (or a fire clown for that matter) those fish are just plain mean!  For some extra opinions- visit the clownfish forum at reefcentral.com

[Aquariareview]

They can be peaceful if introduced to the same tank,  but!!! Even the most gentle pair can rampage when they lay eggs.

 

One thing that will lessen their agression is a host Anemone for each pair at oposite ends of the tank. If the pair hosts it will not stray as far around the tank and will leave the other pair alone.

 

Michael is correct . They are gentle clowns (alone). But the mating factor is the wild card.

 

I used to have six mated pairs (3 percs and 3 oscillaris) in a breeding setup. (my first Saltwater Aquaculture system) Their mood swings were one of the most interesting parts of keeping them. one week they would come to the front of theirs tanks and beg for food and the next they would draw blood on my hand. The only thing you can trust about a mated pair of clowns is that they will be unpredicable.

[Guest Nate and Roshni]

Thanks everyone for the info. I think we are looking at this list for our new tank.

1- yellow tang

1- regal tang

1- yellow watchman gobie

pair of black percs

1- whitecheek or naso tang

and a small school of something lol maybe blue chromis

and maybe (we will see how it goes) the other pair of Ocellaris.

 

As far as the clowns go, we currently do not have host for them. We bought both pairs when they were fairly young. One out of each pair has doubled in size since that time. I do have a 6" clay pot in the 20g that the Ocellaris like to sleep in or beside these days. Im not sure what you guys mean by "mated pair"? Does that mean they have already produced eggs, or that you can tell that there is a sure female and male now? Currently i would say that i have a female and male, or at least thats in the process of happening. I guess worse case scenario, we will have to put a pair in the sump or fuge, or possibly keep a second tank. The whole reason for wanting them both in the same tank is really for convenience. Currently in our home, we have the 20g in our bedroom upstairs and the 55g in the living room. It has become a hassle at times bringing water and supplies up and down the stairs! We are moving in November and maybe two tanks on the same floor wouldnt be bad at all!

Thanks everyone!

[Gatortailale]

Ok, I see I have been called out to admit I have 6 tangs in a tank.  When I was new to reefing and setting up my tank, I read Tullock's book - which said if you want to do tangs - get 5 and that will spread out the aggresion.  It works!.  Don't tell the tang police on me :p   But I have had my 5 yellows since Jan-feb of 2001.  I added atlantic blue nov 2002 (I think around then)  Anyway, the atlantic looked a lot like the yellows in its juv. stage.  Now atlantic blue has out grown the 5 yellows. :0  

 

Clowns - I have maded pair of tank raised true percs - not dark like the wild true percs - but much more healthy than wild ones.  They host in anchor bubble coral.  I also have 1 clarkie clown that hosts in BTA.  Percs are on one end and clarkie on the other end of 6 foot tank.  No problems with agression, even when they have laid eggs.

 

In my 120, my purple was picking on my regal for a few weeks after introduction - no real harm other than the saber from the purple sliced up the regal some and made regal's scales look like fine shreds of fiberglass sticking out of fish.  Regal is smaller than the purple.

 

Could always try the mirror trick when you add tangs - or any agressive fish.

 

If you are getting a custom built tank, get 6-8 feet long and 24 - 30 front to back.

[Gatortailale]

ohh, I also feed nori sheets almost daily for the tangs - I think that is a large part why mine remain healthy.  They also get fed 2-3 times in evening with frozen brine, mysis, blood worms & other formula cubes.  Some nights they get the bonus flake food.

 

I also run a big aerofoamer skimmer for the bio load.

[Gatortailale]

My reef creations -charges a bit for their stuff, but you should look into driving down and picking up a sump from them for your new tank - wouldn't be that far for you from va beach to NC.  Last I looked, he has nice sump combo refugium.  That would be perfect for your new tank imo.  Lots of skimmers on the market - might want to look at and talk to folks that run tanks 180+ to see what they use and how they like it.

 

Also think about lighting and center bracing on tank.  You don't want a big 12" wide center brace in way of lights.  Reefmon got a custom oceanic 180 and had them make 2 braces that were 6 inches wide instead of one 12" center one.  Not sure how glass cages braces.

[Guest Nate and Roshni]

Thanks, we are looking at the 240 long at glasscages.com. Dimensions are 96 x 24 x 25. I haven't called them yet, but from the picture it looks like it had 3 six inch braces. Heres a pic from thier website.