changing up my stocking, questions?

[AnnetteG]

Okay, so when I tore apart my tank today and redid it, part of the reason I did was since I have decided to keep this tank (LOL, yes, changed my mind yet again!) and make a FOWLR out of the bigger tank, I wanted to remove some fish that had been bugging me. So I got the sand sifters out. Sold one of them, killed one :wall:, the other one is in the fuge at the moment. I also removed and sold my royal gramma and diadema pseudo and my scooter blenny. All went to very good homes.

I moved my new pixy hawkfish into the fuge for the time being because I know they can be really territorial and I figured I would put him back into the main tank after I add in a few other fish that I want. You think this is a good idea? Or even necessary?

In the main tank right now are:
Coral Beauty
ocellaris clown
citron goby
target mandarin
4 bg chromis

I am planning on adding:
Midas blenny
zebra/ bar goby
green clown goby
and I'd like a small fairy wrasse or two, but don't know which one yet
or I'd like one or two anthias.

I've always read that anthias need to be in a school, but a guy I've been trading corals with told me he used to have 5 of them, the male bullied the females all the time till they either died or jumped out. Now he's left with one female who appears to be doing fine. Can I have just one? I do feed often enough, so that won't be an issue.

I might look at getting another orange spotted lawnmower blenny at some point in the future, but that's a ways off. I'm still not over Button jumping out. All exits are covered with egg crate now though.

One more question: I have a yellow watchman baby growing in the fuge right now. Once he is big enough, I will move him into the main tank. I understand he will dig a burrow, but he's not a sifter really, right? And he isn't going to go around redecorating the whole bottom of the tank and burying things I have on bottom, is he? That's what I'm trying to get away from. :)

(and before anyone says it, I do realize that the fish in the fuge will be munching on my pod population and I will be ordering more pods)

Thanks in advance!

[AnnetteG]

wow, so no ideas anyone? :silly:

Anyway, sadly, the female (I think) yellowhead sleeper died today. I feel just awful. :tombstone::( Poor thing died of a broken heart. :(

So anyway, I decided to go ahead and put the pixy hawk back in the main tank. She's happy again now. I also went ahead and moved the little yellow watchman in. He disappeared immediately. I'm sure he'll be fine though. He's only an inch long and there are a zillion places for him to hide in the main tank.

I'll be picking up my Midas Blenny and Zebra Goby mid June. After that, I'll likely wait till later in the summer to think about adding in a wrasse of some sort.

I'm excited to get to work on the FOWLR next! Hubby is repairing the sump for it now, hopefully it will be running again by the end of the weekend.

Still didn't take a pic of the new 'scape, but it looks really pretty. I'll do it tomorrow. I was still futzing around with coral placement today. Check out my avatar! I have the sun coral in a spot low on the right side of the tank and it's right in the flow where the water comes down over and under it and by it, so it's staying open almost all day now! Yay!

Oh yeah, I've also seen now that it was a good thing I decided to sell my Scooter. He was a really cool fish, but I really love my target mandarin too and now that the Scooter is gone, Spot is out and about much more and looks really happy and is totally getting fatter already. He's all over the tank now, where before he kept to himself on one side in the back. Have to get a new pic of him too! Soon, I promise!

[AnnetteG]

the moral of the story, for any newbies who might be reading this:

I have basically gone to a lot of trouble and a little heartache here, in order to get rid of all my "impulse buy" fish and go back to planning my stock list carefully, which is what everyone here will tell you to do from the start. So don't do it like me. :shakehead:

[salty420]

well i think "fish killer" is a little over the top... :)
glad to hear you have things worked out. your stock list looks great to me, i love the fairy and flasher wrasses, sounds like you have everything covered so they can't go carpet surfing! i don't know too much about anthias except they can be very difficult to keep in the home aquaria. good luck with them, they sure are beautiful - one of my favs! no, your yellow watchman won't sand sift so now worries there. hope you like your midas blenny (when you get it) as much as i like mine :)

[AnnetteG]

Thanks Salty, but fish killer is appropriate. I went ahead and moved the watchman up to the main tank the other night because I didn't think any of the current occupants would bother him. He disappeared, but I didn't really worry, since he was so small and there are so many hidey holes. I found him this afternoon stuck in the drain pipe leading down into the fuge. He got stuck in one of the side vents and didn't make it all the way out. I still need to figure out something to put over the overflow on the sides, I guess. I thought, after Button - who was around 3" - made it down the overflow to the fuge and lived, that anyone else who made it down that way would come out just fine, but I guess Button was just lucky that time. Until HE went carpet surfing. SIGH

I'm seriously bummed.

[salty420]

aww annette im so sorry :(
can you post a pic of your overflow or is there one around so i can help with some ideas on how to close it up to prevent anymore fish from taking a swim down there?

[AnnetteG]

Here's a pic. Someone suggested something before, but said it gets dirty fast, so that's why I didn't do anything yet. I have eggcrate on top of the overflow, so they're not going down that way. He had to have gone in between the slots. My husband just admonished me that "it's a big tank, you can't keep minnows in there". Gee, thanks. :silly: If I'd just left the little guy in the fuge, I'd still have him. :wall:

[SpockthePuffer]

aww I'm sorry about the watchman goby


I hope you like your Midas blenny, I love mine

[salty420]

hmm that would be tough to cover annette, without having something that you have to clean all the time. eggcrate would be the "easiest" thing, just cut and held in place with zip-ties..? i really don't know if that would even work... maybe your husband has a point (sorry to say)... looks like with the new stock you're looking at you shouldn't have any problems with them going down there.

[AnnetteG]

yep, I figured as much. bleh I hate it when he's right! I'll have to hold off anymore "minnows" till I get my nano one of these days.

[AnnetteG]

okay, so there is a guy in my reef club who needed to swap a Randall's Goby and I'm getting him! He's 2.5", he should be okay, don't you think? I won't have him till Wednesday night.