Stocking the tank

[BCOrchidGuy]

Stocking the tank can be a very exciting time in your life as a reef keeper, but it can be an expensive time for learning lessons. I will share with you a few mistakes I have made and you don't want to repeat.

1. Don't buy a fish/coral before you have researched it.

2. Don't buy a fish/coral before you have researched it more.

3. Don't put your new fish in the show tank with out isolating it for at least
a week, try for 3 weeks isolation. This doesn't have to be a large tank, a 10 gallon will do fine for most fish.

4. Don't add new fish to your isolation tank before your origonal fish has
been released from isolation, if you do add a new fish you have to start all the fish back to the beginning of the isolation.

5. Depending on the fish you buy, you may want to purchase two or so at
a time. Tangs for example can be very territorial, so if you add one
then a month later add another, the first one will have established the
tank as its personal pad. The second fish will be under stress of going
into the new tank PLUS having a bully to keep safe from.

6. Stock the fish with the least aggressive fish first, slowly work your way
up to larger more territorial fish.

7. Stock the tank lightly, unless you are going to a fish only with live rock
FOWLR tank. With every fish you add your bio load increases
and suddenly you will have algae blooms from hell.

8. Allow lots of time between fish added to the tank, IE, if you add two
Blue sided fairy wrasses, wait a month before you add any other fish,
reason being is you allow the tank sufficient time to adapt to the
nutrient load the fish put on it.

9. Research the fish stores in your area, find out if they are selling cyanide
caught fish or net caught fish. Ask lots of questions if they don't have
time to discuss your concerns try to find another store, if all else fails
look into one of the retailers on the list to the right and order
livestock through mail order.

10. Observe your fish before you add them to the main tank, observe
them after they are added to the main tank.


Learn from my mistakes, keep your fish out of the main tank before you have had time to observe them, catching a sick fish in a tank full of live rock is not easy, and it puts alot of stress on the fish. Stock your tank slowly and research any new fish you are considering. Once you have a few fish wait a few months before adding more fish, lets face it if you just go crazy stocking the tank soon you will be finding things that you really want in there but you wont have the room.... Oh one more thing, allow for growth of fish and of corals.

[Trevor Robertson]

Thanks, this kind of thing is very usefull to me as well as other newbies I am sure.

I am just in the final part of my cycle and I can't wait to get some fish in there

[BCOrchidGuy]

Trevor, before you get your fish search on this board for information regarding them if you can't find any information try to post and ask opinions. The people here are a wealth of information and ideas. Stock your tank slowly, and enjoy... Oh.. and post some pictures as you go along we all love pics.