i have a 75 gallon with 85 pounds of live rock. ive had it set up for 3 weeks and in that time i have a thre stripe damsel, a blue damsel, 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, 15 hermit crabs, 8 snails (mostly turbos), and a lot of hitch hikers off the live rock. i want to get an anemone or two later and some feather dusters. the 3 stripe has a small case of ick thats is clearing up fast (though it may be departing to lay its eggs). im wondering what fish i should get. i will quarintine whatever i get fo a couple weeks so the ick should be gone. imk thinking of a dragon goby to help with the clean up but some of their reviews were bad, some good. what should i get next if not the dragon gobies.
what begginer fish?
- Thread starter Mbryant122
- Start date
You should not even consider adding another fish until the ich is cleared up. And to do that you need to remove the fish from the tank containing live rock, as any effective ich medication will kill the inverts in the rock.
You need to quarantine all fish- before they go in the display tank, not after. And you need to Google marine ich to get a grasp on its life cycle.
The display tank needs to remain empty of all fish for six weeks to break the life cycle of ich.
You need to quarantine all fish- before they go in the display tank, not after. And you need to Google marine ich to get a grasp on its life cycle.
The display tank needs to remain empty of all fish for six weeks to break the life cycle of ich.
If by dragon goby, you mean any form of Mandarin or other dragonet, no they won't help with clean up. All they will do is eat all the copepods that came on your live rock and then die unless you have a refugium. Dragonets pretty much only eat live near-microscopic crustaceans. They would be simple to keep, but a normal tank simply cannot produce enough of these creatures for them to eat, so they wipe out the whole population and then starve to death. A rare few have been successfully trained to brine shrimp or other simple to produce food, but most need copepods, and it would cost you at least $20 per month to keep buying live copepods and having them shipped to you.
For starters... You have two damsels, so you may not be able to get much in the way of peaceful fish, because damsels are little war machines. They attack any fish that enters their territories. Some of the bigger ones attack sharks. When you add more fish, you'll either want to rearrange the rocks, pull out the damsels for a few days, trap the damsels under something like a colander for a while, or stick to only somewhat aggressive fish that can handle damsels like dwarf angels. The idea is not to add peaceful fish that will get beaten up because they don't know the territory while the damsels do. Ideal would probably be to pull out the damsels, rearrange the rocks a bit, add the other fish, wait a couple of days and add the damsels. Generally, you have the least trouble if you add your fish so that the most aggressive ones go in last, because fish are much less aggressive to fish that were in a place before they were.
Next rule: only add fish at a rate of 1-2 per month. Why? Because adding them too fast causes your tank to cycle again, which will kill any fish less tough/mean than damsels and torture the damsels, making them meaner and more prone to illness.
Lastly, follow Cearbhaill's advice on quarantining. Healthy fish + sick fish = more sick fish. Sick fish become dead fish and then you end up needing to leave your tank empty anyway, so leaving it empty longer at the beginning is a small price to pay.
For starters... You have two damsels, so you may not be able to get much in the way of peaceful fish, because damsels are little war machines. They attack any fish that enters their territories. Some of the bigger ones attack sharks. When you add more fish, you'll either want to rearrange the rocks, pull out the damsels for a few days, trap the damsels under something like a colander for a while, or stick to only somewhat aggressive fish that can handle damsels like dwarf angels. The idea is not to add peaceful fish that will get beaten up because they don't know the territory while the damsels do. Ideal would probably be to pull out the damsels, rearrange the rocks a bit, add the other fish, wait a couple of days and add the damsels. Generally, you have the least trouble if you add your fish so that the most aggressive ones go in last, because fish are much less aggressive to fish that were in a place before they were.
Next rule: only add fish at a rate of 1-2 per month. Why? Because adding them too fast causes your tank to cycle again, which will kill any fish less tough/mean than damsels and torture the damsels, making them meaner and more prone to illness.
Lastly, follow Cearbhaill's advice on quarantining. Healthy fish + sick fish = more sick fish. Sick fish become dead fish and then you end up needing to leave your tank empty anyway, so leaving it empty longer at the beginning is a small price to pay.