Is this an okay stock?

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Experiment397

Experiment397

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2010
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Probably the Poly section
So for my 125 reef tank I'm going to have a decent amount of Liverock, the tank is fairly narrow for its size so a ton of Liverock and coral isn't going to happen. Im going to do lots of soft corals and anemones. Maybe some Lps but no sps. Here's my stock list I'm thinking-
9-12 green chromis
1 diamond watchmen goby
1 pair of clownfish (clarkii, Barberi, or maroon)
1 lawnmower Benny
1 yellow watchmen goby/ pistol shrimp pair
1 pair of firefish dart fish
1 pair of scissor tail dart fish
7-15 pajama cardinalfish
1 flasher fairy wrasse
1 canary Benny
1 Anthias
1 four line damselfish
1 bluefin damselfish
1 black velvet damselfish
1 blue devil damselfish
Do i have any combos that won't work? Nothing has been set in stone so I'm good for changin things up. this is also the order I'm thinking of outing the fish in, with the blue devil last and chromis first. I'm open to suggestions too so let's hear them:)


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Okay. I had heard that the clarkii was
A calmer clown compared to others so I was thinking of going with that one. Like I said this is just a concept, I will probably go with less damsels and less pairings and more singles of species. I have an fx5 and am building a sump for the tank so I should be fine on filtration. I also am ordering about 100 small cleaner hermit crabs and snails. This is my first sw tank so I'm planning out every step as much as I can


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Based on your list...IMO I think your good except for the damsels you mentioned. Everyhting is fine (assuming great filteration and routine water changes) just leave out the damsels...
 
Clowns and Damsels are the worst on the list. Also the longer you have them - the worse behaved they'll get with maturity.

As for the numbers. You'd struggle with that list on a fish-only tank. Never mind attempting it in a reef tank.

It won't work long term (or even short term) in a reef, far too many fish. 9-12 chromis? 7-15 cardinals? Countless pairs of fish? ..Then the rest.... way too many.

Also as it's your first tank, you will be very very lucky if everything is plain sailing so don't give yourself added pressure and hassle by way overstocking it. Keep it simple and enjoy it.
 
I agree with what the others have said, I would also not put a diamond goby in a new tank, I had 1 in my new 180 and it starved to death. I have never been able to keep one alive. I had 1 in a previous 100g that eat pellets and it still starved.

I am also not sure how aggressive the clowns you listed are but I have a pair of maroon clowns and the female beats up my 8" porcupine puffer and sometimes chases a yellow coris wrasse and anthias but I have anemones in different areas of my tank so im not sure if that's the cause.

The damsels will fight until you have 1 left, but you have a long tank so they might avoid each other.

Stock the tank slowly would be my best advice once the nitrates get high its a pain to get them down.
 
Okay. I'm not new to fishtanks just new to salt. I've done brackish and fresh for the last 10 or so years. I'll just go with some of my favorites from the list then and call it good. I was told the cardinals and chromis would be fine. I've seen tanks with 20 chromis in them that where half mines size. The dimensions of the tank are 72x18x24" the only fish from the list I won't get rid of are the fairy wrasse and the chromis. Everything else is ideas. I'm thinking of around 80 pounds of Liverock in the tank and another 20-30 in the sump. What clowns would be good? Also would a tuxedo damsel be better? Let me know any species that would be good in the tank, wrasses damsels gobies whatever. I'm going for mainly Fijian fish if possible.


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Also on food, my tank is getting its own mini freezer for frozen food and then an automatic feeder for freeze dried stuff and dried nori, no pellets or commercial flake. im going to be spending too much on fish to feed them that stuff, and I don't trust many food brands on giving them everything they need.


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I prefer pellets and frozen food, if you feed freeze dried and nori it will float on top of the water and when you get a sump the overflow will suck in any food floating on the water and create more problems.

If the sump is big enough you may not need the canister filter and that may also cause you problems with nitrates.

I feed my fish NLS pellets as a staple and never had a problem, If I feed flake I have to soak it first so it sinks.
 
Just an idea for the stock:
12 green chromis
8 pajama cardinalfish
1 flasher fairy wrasse
1 bicolor blenny

You can always add more fishes, but it's a major pain to try to remove fishes once you have an established reef going; keep in mind that these fishes don't stay the size of a quarter forever and will soon be much larger thereby generating much more waste.

You will want to have much more live rock than that; plan on having 125 lbs. for the main aquarium & as much as you can fit in the sump.

As for the food, stick to pellets & pods, and also make your own frozen food blend; the frozen stuff that's sold in stores is pretty expensive yet isn't quite a complete diet.
 
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