Will my tank support one more fish?

[knowthemath]

I'd like to add one more fish to my tank, but I don't want to overload it. I love what I've have, but would like one that is a little bit more social.

I want to stay away from anything that likes to feed off the rock. My mandarin is quite happy eating the copepods and would like to keep that supply for him.

[petcrazy213]

After looking at you specs I'd have to say you're at you max and not to get another fish. Your Mandrin actually should have a bigger tank as it is and the Maroon clown, if I'm not mistaken will get fairly large. I think the other 2 fish are fine, I'm not very familiar with the one but the yellow watchman doesn't get all that big I don't think.

[rayjay]

You can remove a fish and then add something that you really want. A limiting factor to doing that will be if the maroon clown isn't removed, it could show extreme aggression towards any new tank mate.
To keep your mandarin alive, you will most likely have to find a good supply of copods and mysid shrimp or he will slowly starve to death over the next six months to a year. Your tank size and rock quantity is not nearly sufficient to produce what one mandarin needs.

[knowthemath]

Thanks for the info. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I was pretty sure of the answer before I asked.

My mandarin is still feeding well off the rocks, but I am trying to come up with another food source. Copepods are not as plentiful as they once were. I purchased before I adequately researched. May have to trade him if I can't get him to eat other things.

[wayne]

Refugium? Would likely help solve the pod problem for your manadarin, plus the extra water (if 5 gals plus) would give you comfort room for another midwater fish.

[knowthemath]

I'm not sure if I can work one out. My tank is on a built-in desk, but I'll to a little research. Right now my mandarin has a constant food source, but I am concerned that he may deplete it. Thanks for the idea.

[Cearbhaill]

I've purchased all sorts of pods and mysid shrimp from Aquaculturestore.com (http://www.aquaculturestore.com/swinverts.html) and Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (http://www.ipsf.com/)- recommend them both.

[stephenray75]

try to slowly get the madrin to eat frozen brine shrimp. thats what i did. the lady who owns a lfs wont sell the madarin if it wont eat frozen brine shrimp.

[knowthemath]

I think he was eating frozen plankton last night. I'm trying lots of different things with my tank. Seems everyone wants to each something different.

[Guy W]

For what it's worth, in my experience Maroon clowns are not as agressive as people have made them out to be. I've had a Maroon in my 125g tank for years, my dad has put one is his tank with no problems, and in our breeder tank we paired up 2 Maroon clowns with no problems and they began to breed after 8 months.

I've never seen any of our Maroons act agressively towards any other fish.

Now thats not to say they aren't DEFENSIVE. they will protect their area of the tank for sure, but I haven't seen them hunt down and kill anything, and all the other fish have figured out pretty quickly that the clown lives over there and the agression is over within a day.

Anyway thats just been my experience.

[knowthemath]

What are you feeding your maroons? I still have a decent supply of copepods, but am looking for alternatives. I've tried frozen mysis, brine shrimp, plankton and krill. Seems like he's more interested in the frozen food since I've added other fish that are partaking of the offerings.

Since he's paired up with the anemone, he's become much more social to humans. Now, if you're watching the tank, he's watching you. If my hand goes in the tank, he's stays right with it. He bites the stone on my ring, but doesnt' mess with the rest of the inhabitants.

One other note, I was told he would not form a relationship with the anemone since he was captive bred. As you can tell by the title of the thread, he loves his anemone, and the anemone seems to be okay. The anemone hasn't eaten since splitting, but the color is great and has nice healthy tentacles.

[Guy W]

Mainly we feed our maroons (and all our fish) Frozen Formula One, Frozen Mysis, and Freeze Dried Cyclopeeze... Ocassionally some live Brine Shrimp.

As for tank raised taking to an anemone, I think it would be rare for them not to take one if the have the chance. All clownfish want to have some kind of host... Be it an anemone, a clay flower pot, an LPS coral, or just some live rock. In my 125 gallon tank, my Maroon has found a nice area of live rock he/she likes and doesn't leave that area unless it's feeding time, and even then won't go far.

They just seem comfortable in their 'area', no matter what it is. I think it's a piece of what makes clownfish what they are, and one generation of tank breeding them won't get rid of that instinct.

[knowthemath]

That's really interesting. Before he took up with the anemone, he had staked out a section of rock. I wonder if he chose to leave or the yellow watchman goby asked him to move because the goby now has residence in his former home.

I just love this stuff. Always something interesting going on.

[Ray Pollett]

Originally posted by Guy W
For what it's worth, in my experience Maroon clowns are not as agressive as people have made them out to be. I've had a Maroon in my 125g tank for years, my dad has put one is his tank with no problems, and in our breeder tank we paired up 2 Maroon clowns with no problems and they began to breed after 8 months.

I've never seen any of our Maroons act agressively towards any other fish.

Now thats not to say they aren't DEFENSIVE. they will protect their area of the tank for sure, but I haven't seen them hunt down and kill anything, and all the other fish have figured out pretty quickly that the clown lives over there and the agression is over within a day.

Anyway thats just been my experience.

That is also my expereince with maroon clowns that are tank breed. Wild ones are more aggressive from my expereience.

Ray

[Ray Pollett]

Originally posted by knowthemath
What are you feeding your maroons? I still have a decent supply of copepods, but am looking for alternatives. I've tried frozen mysis, brine shrimp, plankton and krill. Seems like he's more interested in the frozen food since I've added other fish that are partaking of the offerings.

Since he's paired up with the anemone, he's become much more social to humans. Now, if you're watching the tank, he's watching you. If my hand goes in the tank, he's stays right with it. He bites the stone on my ring, but doesnt' mess with the rest of the inhabitants.

One other note, I was told he would not form a relationship with the anemone since he was captive bred. As you can tell by the title of the thread, he loves his anemone, and the anemone seems to be okay. The anemone hasn't eaten since splitting, but the color is great and has nice healthy tentacles.

When ORA first started selling clowns (tank breed) that was heard about them not taking to anemones. I never saw it in my tanks. They all took to anemones except the False percs. The false percs have only seemed to like the RBTA in my tanks. They do go for corals, usually hairy mushrooms.

Ray

[Ray Pollett]

As to pods, you can set up a small 10 gallon tank to breed pods. then move some every couple of days to the mandarin tank. It is fairly simple to do.

As to food for the maroon. I feed flake and small pellets. I use autofeeders ( ehiem) on most of my tanks. I have a large variety of types and rotate them.

Ray

[knowthemath]

I'm probably going to start a 10 gallon refugium beside my tank. I can't put anything below my tank, but I think I can do the one described here http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariumdiy/a/aa041400.htm .

I'll thinking about ordering a dev kit from one of the companies listed earlier. Have to do a little more research before I do anything.