What came first, the fish or the coral?

[kien]

Well, honestly, I don't recall putting much thought into which went first, corals or fish. I think I probably added both at the same time. I'm not sure if it really makes that much of a difference in terms of reducing the likelihood of nipping. Nippers gonna nip :-)

In terms of fish alone, if you can plan ahead, then I think the general consideration of adding the more timid fish in first would apply. This allows them to get established. Mind you even this is no guarantee down the road. An aggressive fish will be aggressive, period.

[mikellini]

I added almost all of my fish first, then started with corals. Maybe if you save nippers until after you have a well stocked tank, they might not do enough harm to any single coral to kill it.

This would have worked well, except one of the last fish I added had some kind of infection that wiped most of the rest out. So now I have two fish and about a half-stocked tank of corals.