Fish Stocking?

[Sregnar35]

Fish stockings? I didn't know they had legs?

Sorry, I set myself up on that one! Anywho, I have a 75 gallon long (48x18x20) FOWLR setup I'm going to be constructing soon. I'm going to use a playsand dsb ( Quick side question, how much sand will I need for my tank, how many lbs. should I buy?). I would like to do an aggresive tank, a volitan lion and triggers. I will probably get 1 lion, but how many triggers could I safely stock in this tank with 1 lion and maybe an eel? I'm a fan of picasso and niger triggers. I like clown triggers too, but I'm not sure if my 75 gallon is big enough? Any recommendations on how to stock, or how you would stock this tank would help me very much. Also, what species, if any, of eel could I keep? Thanks

[kreblak]

With a 75 you will have a lot of room in the tank, but what fish you can put in depends on the size of the eel. A large eel will require large fish in the tank, otherwise it will eat them. Likewise, a lion will eat any small fish you have around. Also, inverts are out. Snails and hermits will become nothing more than snacks to those two. I would add a medium size trigger to the bunch. Maybe 5 inches or so. That ought to make for a nice tank.

[Sregnar35]

If the eel is going to limit me that much, I'll avoid getting one. I'd rather have fish, just throwing idea's out there. So let's say no eel, and 1 lion, what am I looking at for stocking that? Also, any thought on how much sand Kreblak, or is it Wesley?

[MonoSebaelover]

Lion Trigger combos never work. Volitan Lions will grow to large for a 75 so if you intend on upgrading to a minimum of a 125 they should be fine for awhile. Imagine a basketball floating in your tank. Nigers would work better if you were determined to do a Lion Trigger combo, but Nigers require a min of 180 when adult. Either a Snowflake, Chainlink or Zebra Moray should work fine. Anyway, hope this helps.

[Sregnar35]

Thanks for the help, it appears as if I'm planning maybe a little too big for my britches? I'm not planning on upgrading tanks, this tank is custom built into my living room wall. I'm going to post some pics once it's in.

[kreblak]

I would put in enough sand to give you a 4-6 inch deep base. I don't know how many pounds that will take. 10 lbs of sand gave my 10 gallon tank a 3-4 inch DSB, if that helps. This deep sand bed (DSB) is excellent for housing your biofilter, and has the added bonus of keeping the bottom layers extremely oxygen poor, thus allowing anerobic denitrifying bacteria to grow there that will convert your nitrates into carbon dioxide gas.

With one lionfish, you can have a variety of other fish, just try to keep agression down between your tankmates. If you have a volitans lion, any damsels or other smaller fish will become snackfood. Fish larger than 3 inches ought to be all right, unless you have a huge lion. Oriongirl has a lot of experience with lionfish, so hopefully she'll chime in soon.

[Sregnar35]

I've been under the impression that Lions are not to be kept with only other aggresive fish. I'd love to do some clownfish and a tang down the road, but I wasn't sure?

[MonoSebaelover]

If that is your goal definetly go with a Dwarf Lion. Skip all larger lions (Volitans, Russels, Radiatas, Antennatas). I would say stick with either a Dwarf Fuzzy, Dwarf Zebra, or my fav the Fu Manchu. Anyway, hope this helps.

[kreblak]

Fu Manchu lions are definitely cool. My LFS has one in their display tank, and boy does it look awesome! It seems peaceful, too. Not too huge, but big enough to be impressive.

[Sregnar35]

Now that you mention it, my LFS has a fu-manchu right now too. First one I've seen as I'm new to this hobby. Very cool lookin' little guy. But the volitan is just so striking when you see it in person. I guess the fu-manchu is a good alternative.

[BrianH]

I'm not sure if you want to put a DSB in that tank either. Since I'm a reef guy correct me if I'm wrong, but since the fish your planning to keep will eat all the clean up critters won't this create dead zones in the DSB since there will not be any critters to stir the sand and eat the detritus?

Brian

[kreblak]

That's a good point, although I don't think that eel and lions would go after worms and such. I wouldn't keep any hermits or snails with them, but I would think that the worms would survive.

[liquafaction]

In case you go with DSB, this will help you with how much to buy.


http://garf.org/

use the dsb calculator