Tired of banging my head, help pick a fish

mark · #1 03-03-2006, 01:34 AM

Guess I'm probably focusing more on the negatives but seems every time I settle on a fish, I read or hear something like has a taste for clam mantles or love of cleaners. It's obvious I'm a little paranoid as there's lots of picture of people with beautiful reef tanks with angels and butterflies.

Realizing that each fish is unique but just how fearful should I be that, for example, a Long Nose Butterfly, a Flame Angel or Hawkfish is going to decimate my tank of of every invertebrate I can get my hands on.

Have a 145g with a Purple Tang and 2 clowns that never seem to go lower than 4 inches from the surface. Currently the only things are some polyps, mushrooms and xenia but I've gone through a bit of effort on this tank to have a reef but still would want some more fish (along with some SPS and LPS's, maybe a clam and love those shrimp).

Looking for something that can handle a 4-5" spoiled PT, would do more than float near the surface and lastly not go totally carnivore on me.

Edmonton Eskimo · #2 03-03-2006, 01:46 AM

you might have a hard time adding anything now that you have an established purple tang. They can be quite aggressive to any newcomers. Anything you add now can be a risk and then again you might not have a problem. If a fish is reef safe with caution myself I would steer clear of it. To try and catch a fish after it has eaten your prized corals or clams can be avoided by not getting it to begin with. Nobody can say for sure if a certain angel or butterfly will eat anything but chances are they eventually will. There are many reef safe fish that one can choose from but like I said your pt might be the final decision maker in what you decide to add. Your best bet would have been to add the pt as your last fish but I guess that doesn't help you now. One option is to catch your pt and house it in a holding tank and then add your new addition but how many times do you want to do that?

Snappy · #3 03-03-2006, 02:58 AM

Go with some different shapes and it shouldn't matter too much about your tang being established. I have a 120 gal with 25 fish and few problems with them not getting along.
I recommend a royal gramma, yellow coris wrass, bi-color blenny, blue tang, a firefish and a pair of watchman gobies for the bottom. This mix will give some good colour and give you fish action in all levels of the tank. It definately does in mine and they are all very reef friendly IME.

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #4 03-03-2006, 04:04 AM

Cherub angels are awesome little guys with the pugnacious attitude of a big fish. Mine put a Maroon female clown in its place & the Maroon was 4 times it's size.

Does your aquascape allow a new fish to escape into the rock work? If so, then a royal gramma or black cap basslet (expensive but beautiful) are completely reefsafe.

A lawnmower or bicolour blenny would also be a cute & useful addition (algae eaters). Since they usually hop around the rock work, the tank will most likely ignore it.

Anthony

mr_alberta · #5 03-03-2006, 05:09 AM

I've read a lot of people have troubles with their bi-color blennies bothering their clams and their SPS. Just an FYI. They are awsome little fish though.

If you want and angelfish, look at the Genicathus species of angels. The Bellus, Swallowtail, Lamarks, and Watanabei angels are all considered generally reef safe.

There is also a supposedly reef safe Butterfly fish called the Pyramid Butterfly, which is beautiful but uncommon to come by.

Some wrasses would be ok as long as the shrimp are in first and not overly small. Anthias are nice as well, but you need to be able to feed them a lot and you tank would need to be able to handle your feedings.

EmilyB · #6 03-03-2006, 07:14 AM

I'm just plainly curious as to why the fish you mentioned stay so close to the surface. I haven't experienced that with those types of fish. Are they staying in the flow?

Beverly · #7 03-03-2006, 02:53 PM

Sent you a PM.

ron101 · #8 03-04-2006, 02:11 PM

I'm in the same boat as Mark except in this case my tang is a sailfin. The only other fish in my 90 gal is a maroon clown. Im planning to isolate these two and redo the rock work (the clown seems ok with other fish but he doesnt like me playing with the rock) before adding any fish again. Just wondering what sort of success people have had doing this and if its possible ot overdo it (ie if the new fish get too much time alone and then the isolated tang now gets picked on).

mark · #9 03-04-2006, 02:56 PM

Thanks for the suggestions, more reading. The more rare fish, how does one go about sourcing then in Edmonton?

The rockwork is open (tang swims through it continuously) but still lots of little caves.

As for the clowns, they're Ocellaris. Had them for about 3 years and they're always up high, never in the rock. Does seem like they are playing in the flow, swim up to a nozzle get pushed to one end of the tank them swim back for more. At night they are right at the surface usually on their sides in a corner. Always wondered if a anemone would coax them down or would they just ignore it?

mr_alberta · #10 03-04-2006, 03:00 PM

You could always special order a fish. AI does this as well as Big Al's. The wait times vary though as they sometimes don't get what is on their order list from the wholesaler so you may have to wait until one finally comes in (could be days, weeks, months).

You could probably do the same at Ocean Aquatics (phone Wendell and ask) or JL's (phone Jeff and ask).

Good luck Mark!