New to salt

[Temjin]

Ive kept an number of fresh water tanks and am thinking about getting into salt. What would people reccomed I start out with? I dont want something to hard but I do want something cool to look at. My previous Freshwater fish included RTC, TSN, an Asain Red Tail to name a few (of the BIGGER ones. I sold it all in an attempt to start going Salt. The availible tanks I have are a 180 gallon,30 gallon, 10 gallon, and also a 90 gallon round corner tank (looks like 1/4 of a cirlce). What do you guys think I should do?

[Temjin]

Also I would prefer to keep something that eats other fish. I really enjoyed my RTC and TSN. They were fun to watch. What about an Octopus? Although I have heard they can be hard to keep.

[Doc]

GROUPERS!!!

There are some real nice groupers, LARGE, SIMPLE, VORACIOUS.

Check out;

Panther
Blue Spotted
Miniatus


There are some nice eels too. Green morays get HUGE, tesselatas, chain links, and zebras are manageable.

Lions are beautiful and rather easy to care for as well.

Bamboo sharks are my next "test". As eggs they ship well and are relatively cheap.

[bluedempsey]

i agree with doc
except with lions they are very sensitive to ammonia
eels are pretty hardy
groupers too

i would go with the largest tank bigger is easier

[guppy]

Picture a panther g., a blue spot g., and a zebra moray in the larger tank.

[Miles]

How much money are you willing to spend?

[HilJack41]

i would defenaly say 180, 180 are magical, it s just the perfect size tank. GET A LOOKDOWN FISH. we had one where i work no joke coolest fishi have ever seen. i gae it a tiger shrimo, the thing ripped it out of my hand wich suck ferocity i thoguh he was gonna morph into the hulk!! frigging so so so so s os so so so cool.i wishi had a video! i mena i just cant tellyou. and wolf eels are sweet, there not actually an eel so they can actually see and interact wiht you, true eels are escape artist and unless youget a large morrey are as fun as whatching poop float cuase thats pretty much all the do, and they are more of a scavenger then a hunter cause they can only smell their way arond. groupers are fun but skiddish a times, miniatus especially, i had one, sweet looking fish, but super super skiddish.


octopus are sweet, they are extreamly intelligent and have no bone in thier body. the only hard structure in thier body is thier beak, and they can fit thier entire body thoguh what ever that beak can fit through, so depending on the breed, your looking at a animal that is smart enough to find, and curious to fit himslef though any hole or crack the size of a nickle. they can also force open anythignnot really weighed down. and they will wxplore and they will find! so youhave to octopus proof your tank like there is no tommorow. also they live relitively short lifes. some becuase of the breed other times because they get depressed, these animals need stimulattion. notl iek fish who are happy swimming around the same rock fending off all intruders. no you have to give them games and toys. for instance we take plastick easter eggs fill some wiht treats, some with pebels, some wiht air, some wiht a random object and our girl will go and open them all exploring the contents and even shakes them, she loves the ones with air and watchign them float. making her food interactive is a good way to entertain them.

a few other things that create problems, they will eat everythign if you get a octopus tank you get, and octopus.
also if females lay eggs they become extreamly aggressive and will attack anythign by the tank
and they tend to be nocternal so they hide alot. so yeha.... here is a pic of a lookdown fish

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y170/HilJack41/LookDown.jpg

so cool they arelike paper thin but so big and flat! the school to and will gang up on **** so so so so so so so so so cool! oh and great barracuda! had one for thoses too!!! by far worth anymoney to get one! the lil guy was like 5 inches and woudl just frigg'n *uh!* just the lil goldfish didnt haev a chance in hell.

there are also really cool triggers... ok

i love salt

yey

[Temjin]

How much money are you willing to spend?


I got a couple dollars :) I dont think I want to spend over $150 on a single fish, but Im figuring spend a couple hundred on a bunch of fish isnt bad.

[Miles]

The fish are the cheapest part.. I was talking about the set-up?

Lighting, LiveRock, Skimmers, Sump, Pumps, Refugiums.. The possibilities are endless with reef tanks?

Do you just want fish? or do you want Corals and other 'reef' life?

I would do the 180g, and buy a ton of liverock to start out with :)

[Temjin]

ok so Im getting the impression I should do the 180g. Would this be harder to set up and maintain than a smaller tank? I almost expected everyone to say that I should start out on the 30gal:)

[Doc]

ok so Im getting the impression I should do the 180g. Would this be harder to set up and maintain than a smaller tank? I almost expected everyone to say that I should start out on the 30gal:)

The more water you have the easier it is to keep things stable IMO.

[Mattcomptonassvanhorn]

Yep I agree with doc the bigger the better. Nobody wants to keep a 30 gallon. the only thing you can keep is some damsels and a clownfish and maybe a fumanchu. :shakehead