Restocking Tank Fish help

[Huly]

As some of you know we were hit with a case of Marine Velvet in October. We lost all of our fish. Well some say to wait 8 weeks and some say to wait 12 weeks so we decided to go with the 12 weeks and it would be after football season. Needless to say we are restocking our tank. We received lots of gift cards to F&F for Christmas to help us and we have been working with Sean on our tank. So we need to come up with a list of fish we want and he will break them down in groups and order them in order they should be placed in the tank. (Let's just say he is going way beyond to help us maybe me crying in his store when I told him I lost my jawfish helped LOL)

 

So on to the good part we need to decide what to add. We have a 66 gallon Red Sea Max 250 with lots of rock work, sand bed and while our tank has been fishless we have built up our copopods as we both have been wanting a Mandarin but really needed out tank to mature.

 

Here is what we had prior to Marine Velvet:

3 blue Green Chromis

2 Orange Ocellaris Clownfish

2 black and white Ocellaris Clownfish

2 Pearly Jawfish

1 Kole Tang

1 Potter Angel

2 Royal Gramma Basslet

2 Orange Spoted Gobys (luckly gave them to Jan prior to outbreak as they turned our aquarium into a snow globe and buried our coral)

 

Here is the rock work/ set up in our aquarium (we have changed it around a little but still similar idea

 

The main thing I have to have is a jawfish! I loved mine! We also like bright fish and my cat Huly likes lots of movement. Last time we made a mistake getting 2 when you should only have one etc. What expierance have you had with any of these fish or what are your thoughts on what fish you would want and does something not get along with something else?

 

Fish I like:

 

Jawfish, Yellowhead (Opistognathus aurifrons) 1 or 2?

 

ORA Green Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) or

ORA Red Mandarin (Synchiropus cf. splendidus)

 

Ocellaris Clownfish, Tank Bred (Amphiprion ocellaris) PAIR

Black & White Ocellaris Clownfish - Tank-Bred (Amphiprion ocellaris var.) PAIR

 

 

Blenny? Will it mess with Jawfish or Mandarin

Goby? Will these turn up my sandbed like the Orange spotted did and cause a snow globe?

 

Bicolor Blenny (Ecsenius bicolor)

Court Jester Goby (Amblygobius rainfordi)

Midas Blenny (Ecsenius midas)

Yellow Prawn Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)

Clown Goby, Green (Gobiodon atrangulatus)

 

Other-

Yellowstriped Cardinalfish (Ostorhinchus cyanosoma)

Zebra Barred Dartfish (Ptereleotris zebra)

Potter's Angelfish (Centropyge potteri)

Flameback Angelfish (Centropyge acanthops)

Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse (Wetmorella tanakai)

Royal Gramma Basslet (Gramma loreto)

Yellow Stripe Clingfish (Diademichthys lineatus)

Blue Gudgeon Dartfish (Ptereleotris heteroptera)

Neon Dottyback - Tank-Bred (Pseudochromis aldabraensis)

White Tail Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus flavicauda)

Kole Yellow Eye Tang (Ctenochaetus strigosus)

Squaretail Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus truncatus)

Orchid Dottyback - Tank-Bred (Pseudochromis fridmani)

Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)

 

Wrasse-

Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri)

Scott's Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus scottorum)

Longfin Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis)

Six Line Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia)

What would be the most entertaining and colorful tank?

Edited January 16, 2013 by Huly

[matt]

You'd probably want to pick just one dwarf angel if going by conventional wisdom for this size tank. And perhaps that's reinforced if you do get another large herbivore such as a tang. I'm currently thinking about a potters for my 46...so although I havent kept one before you know my leaning

[BowieReefer84]

Skip any tangs, and stick with a pair of clowns (not two pairs). Fairy wrasse are really cool. Only get one bottom dweller unless you get a pair of something. Jawfish are really neat imo. Goodluck!

[Der ABT]

i had a neon dotty back in an old tank...thing was the meanest fish ive ever seen, drew blood on me a few times and almost killed several fish (actually killed 2 and one was a damsel thankfully)

 

so think twice about them, ive seen orchid dotty's be nice and ive seen them be mean but the ORA neon i had was a mess and i have yet to see a nice one in another tank.

 

Firefish are cool and active but jumpers (i need to cover my tank when i get hom since im saying this now)

 

big fan of mandarins/dragonets

 

heard 6 lines can get aggressive as well

 

otherwise good list going cant wait to see how it comes out, and if sean is helping you your in good hands.

[Huly]

You'd probably want to pick just one dwarf angel if going by conventional wisdom for this size tank. And perhaps that's reinforced if you do get another large herbivore such as a tang. I'm currently thinking about a potters for my 46...so although I havent kept one before you know my leaning

 

Skip any tangs, and stick with a pair of clowns (not two pairs). Fairy wrasse are really cool. Only get one bottom dweller unless you get a pair of something. Jawfish are really neat imo. Goodluck!

 

Yeah i just posted multiples of all fish that I liked from look and size and trying to determine best of best! The only mandatory fishes are my jawfish and a madarin. Not sure if their is a difference between red or green madarin? Trying to figure out what would be the coolest color combination and best fish now.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Huly

[smallreef]

LOVE the jawfish ( I have a pearly headed and hes awesome)

love the mandarin pair... hopefully your pod population has done nothing but flourish being fishless?

you could do either a midas or a rainfords goby, the midas does chase so he may not be the best blenny,....

the clown gobies are cute but they hide.... alot... which is why i just set up a pico,,,, and he still hides....

 

and depending on the corals you are going to have you may want to look into an angelfish like a lamarcks or swallowtail... less known to nip...

Dartfish are cool and you can do a group of 3... also a cool fish is a brotulid...

[treesprite]

you could do either a midas or a rainfords goby

 

I've had Rainfords goby in the past. It will compete with the mandarin for pods. It used to chase my Hectors goby around... after several months of that, the Hectors decided enough is enough, and that was the end of the Rainfords. Hectors goby which I also have had (currently do), is very similar to Rainfords but is yellow and black longitudinal stripes. Hectors is more likely to adjust to prepared foods than Rainfords. They are both very nice fish, stay small, but will compete for pods with other pod-eating fish. They should not be put in the same tank with same or similar fish unless tank is very large (mine is a 75g which is obviously not big enough for these 2 tiny fish to be in together).

 

I had an orchid dottyback (pseudochromis Fridmani) in the past. It was a very peaceful fish, got the daylights beaten out of it by a lowly damsel (its tail was all bitten off within 10 minutes of being in the same tank). Most dottybacks are considered aggressive, but this is the least aggressive. It won't get along with similar looking fish, like firefish and royal grammas (tried with both, at different times). I would get another one if it weren't for the other fish I have.

 

I had a Cherub (pygny) angel in the past. It is considered reef safe. It only gets to around 2", and is a nice blue body with yellow/orange face area. They aren't generally aggressive, but they can "take over" the tank and be invasive to other fish's territories which is why I got rid of mine (have had two, not at the same time).

 

I had clown gobies in the past. They nest in the branches of SPS corals and may kill the corals.

 

I had blue gudgeons in the past. They are very shy and easily intimidated. They supposedly prefer to by in a group to counteract their timidness. They may hide until they starve to death, which is what happened to the ones I got a few years ago. They shimmer under actinics - beautiful if they don't stay in hiding.

 

I have a scissortail goby (wish it was a pair but LFS only had one). A fantastic fish. Looks white/gray/black except under good actinic has a nice blue tint.

 

I have kept firefish for a long time, currently have 1 purple. I really like them, especially purple firefish. But only one per tank unless you are sure you have a male/female bonded pair. At one point I had 2 purples and 2 oranges living in a group in the same hole, then one died so the lone purple stopped living with the pair of orange.

 

Have never had a wrasse, but heard that they may eat any small shrimp you put in the tank, and may compete for pods.

Edited January 17, 2013 by treesprite

[Huly]

Thank you everyone! This is exactly what I was looking for. The more info the better!

 

As for my pod population it is crazy! We can see pods as big as staple at times. We dosed with multiple types of pods and probably did 3-4 dosings while we were fishless. We figured it was the best time to do it.

 

As for Coral we really have a thing for movement and color so we have Torch, Aussie Elegance, etc.

 

We want the same with our fish movement and color. I am just trying to find the best mix possible. We try to keep our fish small and since a Red Sea Max is a higher tank we try to have fish that like the sand beds, rock caves, and lots of swimming room for schools of fish. Kind of like layering your tank LOL. Thank you so much again for all of your advice and any others that want to throw something out there please do. We are meeting with Sean at F&F tomorrow evening to go over everything with our tank to make sure we are 100% ready to move forward with what we want. I am so excited to get jawfish back. I became so attached to them and I have to say they were my favorites. It crushed me when I lost them. I was ready to get out of the Hobby.

[matt]

Gonna get a blue spot jawfish? I love the look of those

[Huly]

Gonna get a blue spot jawfish? I love the look of those

 

Not sure leaning toward the Pearly as they are more peaceful from what I read

[surf&turf]

You didn't have these on your list, but neon gobies are cool, and the bigger fish like the cleaning services they perform.

[Huly]

You didn't have these on your list, but neon gobies are cool, and the bigger fish like the cleaning services they perform.

 

thanks that is good info!

[treesprite]

Just don't put them all in at the same time - it will give you an ammonia spike.

[matt]

Do you have your list done yet? Which way are you leaning on the angel? I'm in the market for one too

[Huly]

Do you have your list done yet? Which way are you leaning on the angel? I'm in the market for one too

 

We are still working on it with a lot of yes and no from Sean LOL but we are going to build a Sump before adding fish.

 

We have narrowed it down to these: (BTW Sean likes both Angels we are looking at both are more reef safe than most, it will just depend on color combos we go for) Trying to layer the tank in motion and color

 

Pearly Jawfish

Mandarin Goby

2 Ocellaris Clownfish (orange)

Bicolor Blenny or Neon Blue Goby

Carpenter Wrasse or Fairy Wrasse

Yellowstriped Cardinalfish

Blue Reef Chromis

Pygmy (Cherub) Angel or Potter's Angel

[matt]

Nice list :-)

[Huly]

Nice list :-)

 

Thanks!

 

Oh and our tank is beyond ready for a Manndarin. While we have been fishless we dosed our tank for pods a few times. Sean came to check everything out and help plan a sump in the next room and said we have enough pods to feed a army of Mandarins

[matt]

What did you dose to up your pods? Sounds like things are coming along nicely

[Huly]

We got Reef Nutriton Live Trigger Pods (I think we got it from Marine Scene)

and Algagen ReefPods Live Aquacultured Copepods (F&F or Marine Scene)