Hey everyone. Things have been going pretty well for awhile in my tank (no losses since my initial loss of two clowns due to a bad hydrometer last October), and I am going to start my final stocking in the next weeks to come. I have a 75 gallon with a 80 lbs of live rock, a 4" fine sand bed, remora pro with mag 350 skimmer, and the big cpr aquafuge with chaeto and sea lettuce. My fish are a banded sleeper goby, two ocellaris clownfish, a tailspot blenny, a neon goby, and a royal gramma. I also have a cleaner shrimp and some snails. I was thinking of maybe a one or two more fish and would love some opinions. First of all I really like the melanurus wrasse, but I have heard mixed reviews about their compatibility with cleanup crews. Anyone had any experience with this fish? I have also looked at the yellow-eyed cole tang and the bicolor angel. Right now the list is completely up in the air. I would love thoughts on the three I mentioned, plus suggestions. I know I am close to my stocking limit and probably only have room for one or two more medium sized fish.
stocking questions, melanurus wrasse and others.
- Thread starter hahnd37
- Start date
Most wrasses are going to be a "try and see" scenerio in regards to them eating shrimp. Melanurus is no exception. The only exceptions are true Leopard wrasses, they are the only ones I have never heard of harming any clean up crew. Yellow eyed kole tang is a good pick for your tank. Bi-Colored angels, hard to get established, and more often than not they are too aggressive for most people that do get them to live (I see them up for sale/trade a lot on local forums). I have seen the same thing with the Melanurus wrasse, actually seen 2 up for free on my local reef forum in the last 2 weeks because they were incompatable with the owners tanks, one of them was a 150G tank. Wrasses are like gobies, there are 1000's of different types and sizes. From possum wrasse to flasher wrasses to leopards to coris and then much bigger ones.
Suggestions... something flashy that swims.. maybe even a school (3+) of small fish like anthias, zebra bar gobies, or chromis. Zebra bar gobies are pretty bullet proof fish (only issue is they can/do jump out of tanks) but they are super hardy, like to swim at the top of the water in groups, and seem to mate up easily without fighting. I always have 3 of them myself. Last 3 I bought together and one turned out to be male (or changed, not sure how those fish do it) and is about 1/3 larger than the other 2 now and keeps them in check and has great coloring and big flashy fins compared to the other 2.
Suggestions... something flashy that swims.. maybe even a school (3+) of small fish like anthias, zebra bar gobies, or chromis. Zebra bar gobies are pretty bullet proof fish (only issue is they can/do jump out of tanks) but they are super hardy, like to swim at the top of the water in groups, and seem to mate up easily without fighting. I always have 3 of them myself. Last 3 I bought together and one turned out to be male (or changed, not sure how those fish do it) and is about 1/3 larger than the other 2 now and keeps them in check and has great coloring and big flashy fins compared to the other 2.
I can vouch for the melanarus. They are absolute pigs and will also take out your CUC. Although it is more a gradual decline versus a mass killing. I have seen mine pull nassarius snails up out of the sand and slam them on rocks or the glass to stun them. Hermits and other crabs are also fair game. Very cool fish though and I don't mind replacing some snails every few months. I also have conchs, a couple of large turbos and some trochus in my tank and the wrasse leaves those alone (maybe not as easy of a traget as the nass snails). If you like the melanarus and don't mind a CUC member going missing now and then, the radiant wrasse and mystery wrasse are also options. Lots of other wrasse options out there too.
Of the other 2 you listed, I would favor the kole simply because I would not have to worry about my corals getting munched but the 75 is right at the lower limit of what a Kole should be in. If no corals though the bi-color would be fine (would add him last though).
The tailspot may have an issue with it and you should look into that but what about a midas blenny? I wouldn't think the 2 blennies would have an issue since the midas is more of an open water swimmer with infrequent perching.
If this isn't (or won't be) a reef, all the dwarf angels are options. Flame, coral beauty, potter's, nox, keyhole, etc. Some people keep these in reefs too with good luck but some aren't so lucky
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Of the other 2 you listed, I would favor the kole simply because I would not have to worry about my corals getting munched but the 75 is right at the lower limit of what a Kole should be in. If no corals though the bi-color would be fine (would add him last though).
The tailspot may have an issue with it and you should look into that but what about a midas blenny? I wouldn't think the 2 blennies would have an issue since the midas is more of an open water swimmer with infrequent perching.
If this isn't (or won't be) a reef, all the dwarf angels are options. Flame, coral beauty, potter's, nox, keyhole, etc. Some people keep these in reefs too with good luck but some aren't so lucky
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Ya, a 75G would be the smallest I would recommend for "bristletooth tangs" like the Kole and Chevron (actually Diver's den updated their Chevron page, used to be 70G minimum, now it says 180G). Obviously the bigger the better when it comes to tangs, but the Bristletooth family is the only type of tang I recommend for a tank under 100G. Another option if you didn't want to go with a tang is a Foxface, they are cousins to tangs and eat algae like tangs do and also do well in tanks under 100G because they are not hyper active like most tangs are.
Midas blennies are great fish and I have always had great luck with Potter's Angels not picking on corals... I just have a problem getting them to live past 3 years but I blame myself for that because the times I lost Potter's was due to tank conditions, not a fault of the fish. Potter's seem to be getting more rare these days though (haven't seen one at a LFS in over a year, even asking several LFS to try and find one at the wholesalers and no luck) and when you do find them the price has got up considerably in the last few years. I paid $40 for my first Potter's, $70 for my second, and now I see them on Diver's den a few times a month for $90+.
Midas blennies are great fish and I have always had great luck with Potter's Angels not picking on corals... I just have a problem getting them to live past 3 years but I blame myself for that because the times I lost Potter's was due to tank conditions, not a fault of the fish. Potter's seem to be getting more rare these days though (haven't seen one at a LFS in over a year, even asking several LFS to try and find one at the wholesalers and no luck) and when you do find them the price has got up considerably in the last few years. I paid $40 for my first Potter's, $70 for my second, and now I see them on Diver's den a few times a month for $90+.
Thanks for the suggestions. I am not planning on making it a reef, although I have been thinking that starting a 40 gallon breeder reef would be a great way to use my tax return next year. I am definitely looking for an attention getter. The royal gramma seems to be the flashiest fish in the tank right now. I am not overly concerned with losing a snail from time to time, but the shrimp is what I am most worried about. It's a tank favorite of everyone that sees it. Funny how that works out. I have all these nice fish and everyone is mesmerized by a shrimp. Its about 3" so it is a decent size. I wondered if a juvenile wrasse would leave it alone since it is well established, but it's probably not worth the risk. I originally wanted a flame angel, but I love the blue on the bicolor. Most blue fish seem to either be really large or really aggressive. Would the yellow tail blue damsel fish be too aggressive if it was a late add? I have heard they can be kept in groups of 3 too, but I don't want a roving gang to overtake tank.
Most small wrasses tend to not mess with larger shrimp, it usually takes several years for a wrasse to grow and get a taste for larger shrimp like peppermints and cleaners. My yellow wrasse was fine with small cleaner shrimp for at least 3 years.. then got an appetite for small ones, but since then I added 2 large ones and no one messes with them (I have many wrasses in my tank). Small shrimp like Sexy shrimp and anything smaller than that are more of a risk than larger shrimp. I would not recommend a damsel (other than a clownfish) to anyone... just too mean for the most part. There are exceptions, and more exception with the yellow tail damsel, but I still wouldn't risk it because they pretty much require you to remove every rock from the tank in order to remove the fish if you wanted to.
My 3" cleaner shrimp has never even been threatened by my melenarus. In fact, the shrimp is the one that bosses the wrasse around. Unless it is a very small shrimp it will be fine IMO.