stocking questions??

[luvthereefer]

so recently i was given a 125 gallon tank complete with everything including fish.
They are a; one spot foxface
blue tang
sailfin tang
four stripe damselfish
cinnamon clownfish
niger triggerfish

the tank came with a bunch of base/live rock, but i think its just base rock with some coraline algae growing on it.
I plan on eventually going to live rock then inverts and corals.

but in the meantime i want to change my stock. I want to get rid of the tangs because they get too big, and the triggerfish isnt reef safe.

for example i was going to swap a tang for two young clownfish, would this be ok?? would the cinnamon be hostile? also would they nipped at by the larger fish?

is it safe to swap a large fish for two smaller ones, or would that upset the system??

or should i sell a fish...wait...then introduce new fish?

I really appreciate any awnsers you might have for me
thanxs in advance

[Black Phantom]

Swapping out larger fish for smaller usually isn't a problem. And your 125 is large enough that unless you go completely overboard you should be able to keep a good number of fish.
Live rock and base/live rock are pretty much the same. Once any "dead" rock is seeded it will eventually become live rock. Marco rock is a perfect example.
Just remember, when you add new rock to your system it will cycle and that's very hard on your livestock.

[reefwars]

i would only go with just the one pair of clowns and get rid of the cinnamon or try to pair the cinnamon,clowns dont like clowns they dont think their funny

[reefwars]

i also had a niger trigger in a reef had no problems minus being the bully around food lol alot of people have good results with them alot dont so its one of those take a chance fish and who knows

[Aquattro]

I've had a niger in my reef, he did well, other than moving frags around. I didn't have any cleaner shrimp, so not sure that would work. Currently I have 2 pairs of clowns in my 180, they all get along fine. 1 pair of percs, 1 of sebaes. The tank is also probably big enough for the tangs, unless you've got a ton of rock in there.

[ponokareefer]

Mixing clownfish is a big gamble and cinnamon clowns are one of the more aggressive type of clowns, so your chances of success are quite slim. Long term, it is likely that you would end up with one pair of clownfish once one pair starts to breed. I had previously had a pair of cinnamon's in with a pair of occelaris for probably 9 months, but then the cinnamon's showed signs of wanting to breed and attacked the occelaris out of the blue. I had to remove the occelaris as they were getting really beat up. The 2 types of clownfish that Aquattro has are less aggressive.

[Gripenfelter]

I have a Niger Trigger. He doesn't touch the shrimp I have in the tank but if I add anything new it's gone within 30 secs.

[Gripenfelter]

When adding new fish always put mirrors up against the sides of the tank and add fish at night. Leave the mirrors up for at least 12 hrs. The fish will attack their own reflection and ignore new additions to the tank.

I've done this several times with tangs and angelfish with great success.

[Myka]

^ Good advice.

Niger Triggers are as "reef-safe" as triggers come. They will often eat shrimp and/or snails and/or hermit crabs though. Otherwise, they don't usually bother corals. I would love to have one in my reef.

The Cinnamon clown and the Damsel may both become quite aggressive. You're right that both tangs will outgrow the 125.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Gripenfelter

When adding new fish always put mirrors up against the sides of the tank and add fish at night. Leave the mirrors up for at least 12 hrs. The fish will attack their own reflection and ignore new additions to the tank.

I've done this several times with tangs and angelfish with great success.

I have a yellow tang that was always nasty with new fish. Instead of mirrors, I printed off some pics from the internet of a yellow tang and taped it on the tank where the new fish would hang out. It was enough to make the yellow tank take pause when seeing them, and back off. I would move the pics around after a couple days, to keep the yellow tang from getting used to them.

This method worked long enough for the new fish to settle in, and take care of themselves. And after a week or two, the yellow tang would gradually become less aggressive to the new fish and I would take down the pics. After a few weeks, the yellow tang would only do token lunges at the new fish, just to show them he is the boss, but no prolonged harassment.

Speaking of nasty fish, though, my worst now is an old cinnamon clown. He seems to be getting even more nasty in his old age. He doesn't just chase fish, but nails them, and takes a bite out of them. He has already killed two perc clowns, and a pearlscale butterfly fish. He really whacks them and opens up a wound. He also whacks me, and bites me when I am cleaning the tank, as well as the mag glass cleaner. He actually hurt himself once doing that, and one of his eyes swelled out, and looked like it was going to pop out. But he got over that, and back to his nasty self.

Interestingly, though, I have a Copperband Butterfly that is not afraid of the clownfish. He gets chased, but is very good at dodging him and continuing on about his business. And there is one section of the tank, where I feed them, the Copperband will actually stand up to the clownfish, by sticking out his spines on this back and not backing off. The clownfish leaves him alone then.

Also, interestingly, the clownfish never chases the yellow tang, even when he is in his hosted coral (a big toadstool). They have been together for many years, though, so maybe that is why.