livestock Q?

drobes

drobes

AC Members
Jan 23, 2007
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Colorado
Hello all, first post here.
I'm new to the hobby but have been busily sucking up information (a fair amount of it coming from the experts on these boards). My new tank is currently cycling. An 80 gallon with a DIY sump and refugium adding about an extra 10 gallons of water volume each. 110lbs of live rock and 20lbs of base rock.

I am now trying to decide what livestock I would like to add when the time comes and am looking for suggestions on a colorful reef-safe fish that will school with chromis and be suitable for a novice. I was thinking possibly a flasher or fairy wrasse??? but don't know too much about them. Also, I'd like to add a mandarin goby after my tank matures and don't want to inadvertently introduce a fish that will compete with the mandarin for the pods. I have heard that some wrasses such as the six-line wrasse will do this, are flasher or fairy wrasses "mandarin safe"?

Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated.
 
wow 130 pounds of rock in an 80 g tank? you could get the always easy clown fish. do you have alot of swimming room in that tank?
 
Really? do you think 130lbs of rock is excessive? Seemed like most of the nice reef tanks I've seen have 1.5 - 2.0 lbs per gallon. Rock takes up maybe a quarter of the visible tank area mostly located on the bottom half and back half of the tank. I know 130lbs sounds like a lot but rock weighs more than water and 80 gallons of water weighs 688lbs. That still leaves plenty of water and hopefully plenty of swimming room as I intend to eventually add a yellow tang.

Thanks for the suggestion, and I've thought about getting a clown anyways as they seem to have everything going for them but I'm also specifically looking for a fish that will school with a group of 3-4 chromis and I've heard that clowns will usually pick a spot to host and just hang out there. Does anyone have experience with wrasses schooling with chromis?
 
you only really need about 1 - 1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon...So, you could sell off about 40lbs of live rock to a fellow reefer..

On the fish side, i need to do a lot of research on the fish that want to keep...I would not suggest a mandarin untill your tank is very well established..8 months to a year to enable a good steady level of pods..If not, the mandarin will easily starve...

Niko
 
I personally thnk the amont of LR you have is fine. Some recommend 1-1.5lbs, some say up to 1.75lbs., and others will say 1.5-2.0+ lbs. I say as long you have swimming room and no dead spots, you should be okay.

I have two clowns that hang out with with my blue-green chromis. You can also get some yellow chromis- they look similar and add a different color.

Other colorful fish (but may not school with the chromis) are anthias and the royal gramma basslet- bright colors and they don't normally get too large. Certain kinds of wrasse can be aggressive so I'd be on the lookout for that.
 
Another recommendation would be to employ workers to keep the tank clean. You can buy a Brownbarred or Orangespotted Sleeper Goby to stir up the sandbed or even perhaps a lawnmower Blenny to get rid of algae on the walls and rock.

I would only recommend the goby with live fine sand and not crushed coral or even larger aragonite as they will starve.

Wait for some time on the Mandarin. I have 150 lbs. of liverock in my 90 gallon with TONS of pods (they are always in the filter) and I still cannot keep a mandarin for a long period of time (over a year).

Mike
 
Thanks for the tips! I'll look for some yellow chromis as this could be the easiest solution. I've heard that anthais will readily school with blue-green chromis but I'd rather not deal with the headache of a high maintenance fish.

Rothychyld, in the last sentence of your post did you mean that you had to wait over a year for your tank to mature to the point of introducing a mandarin or did you mean that you introduced mandarin but cannot sustain it for over a year? If it's the latter, I may have to re-asses my plans to add a mandarin down the road! I would have guessed 150lbs of pod infested live rock would have been cake to sustain a mandarin.
 
Sorry for not being clear. I would wait at least a year before even trying it. The current tank I have is 7 years old and I still to this day have not been able to keep a mandarin for more than a year. I have tried twice and I doubt I will try it again. Perhaps they have a short lifespan but I would be curious to hear if someone has been able to keep them longer than that.
 
iv had my mandarin and scotter dragonett in my tank for over 2 years and they only reason they are around its because they eat frozen food. ive seen a arget mandarin kept in a 350 gallon tank without feeding but it was the only pod dependent fish in there. have fun with the tank and keep us posted on it!
 
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