Help with livestock for a 190g mixed reef

badluckman · Mar 9, 2020

Hello!

I'm in the process of making a stock list for my 190g mixed reef, and I was hoping to get a little input regarding my current choices. I've probably made more than 1 mistake in the list ;Woot

So the tank currently has a few residents
6 chromis, a starry night blenny, yellowheaded sleeper goby, yellow/purple wrasse and a cleaner shrimp

I'm planning to add this "little" list
1x Yellow Tang or Scopas Tang
1x Tomini Tang
1x Powder Blue Tang - if it doesn't get too cramped with the other 2 tangs already?
?x Wrasses. I won't be able to stop myself from gathering wrasses.
1x Red Firefish
1x Royal Dottyback
6-10x Resplendent Anthias
1x Foxface - Not sure which one of Onespot, Lo and Bicolor though.
2x Yasha Gobies
1x Pistol Shrimp - Going to have to add more sand for this one, but I really like the symbiotic relationships between them and the Yasha.
Thinking of adding a mandarin as well, but if I get a lot of wrasses in there the pod population might not be enough for all of them right? If the mandarin doesn't eat prepared foods I wouldn't want it to starve after all.

I have a quarantine tank I'm about to set up but it's only 12g, so since it'll take a while to get the entire list through QT is there a special order I should follow when adding the fish? If possible I'd like to get the foxface and yellow tang into the tank to help the cleanup crew in their magnificent work.

Thanks for the help!

Mhart032 · Mar 9, 2020

Add the tangs last they are dominate fish. I would add the yellow tang as a last fish due to the dominance. I was lucky with my yellow tang, he was in a tank with a big vlamingii and was not the dominate fish, so whjen i added it to my tank with my Vlamingii is already knew the pecking order.

badluckman · Mar 9, 2020

Mhart032 said:
Add the tangs last they are dominate fish. I would add the yellow tang as a last fish due to the dominance. I was lucky with my yellow tang, he was in a tank with a big vlamingii and was not the dominate fish, so whjen i added it to my tank with my Vlamingii is already knew the pecking order.

Are the tangs aggressive towards fishes like the anthias, wrasses and gobies as well if they're added afterwards?

Mhart032 · Mar 9, 2020

Not as much, they will bully fish and outcompete for food with them, but overall the experience is better as last fish in the tank. I have a royal gamma that doesn't take crap from the tangs even the 7In Vlamigii doesn't mess with it. it was one of the first fish in the tank aside from the clowns i already had. The smaller more timid shy fish need the time to get comfortable and find their area, so anything firefish or gobys need to be one of the first. If you add them later they will most likely hide and die of starvation because they wont come out to feed. Wrasses are are different story, they dont care about other fish normally, most ive kept were not really social fish and kept to them selves. they would be more of the phase 2.

badluckman · Mar 9, 2020

Awesome, thanks for the help. I'll try to find the gobies, firefish, and anthias first and then proceed with the foxface and end with the tangs. Wrasses will be added as they are found, I only have 3 LFS and they're all 3hours or more away I can't be too picky when I get to go there.

Mhart032 · Mar 9, 2020

badluckman said:
Awesome, thanks for the help. I'll try to find the gobies, firefish, and anthias first and then proceed with the foxface and end with the tangs. Wrasses will be added as they are found, I only have 3 LFS and they're all 3hours or more away I can't be too picky when I get to go there.

No problem, there are plenty of online retailers that sell great fish as well. Liveaquaria is pretty decent, as well as some others. Just make sure to QT fish you get in, you dont want to start your tank with issues.

badluckman · Mar 9, 2020

Mhart032 said:
No problem, there are plenty of online retailers that sell great fish as well. Liveaquaria is pretty decent, as well as some others. Just make sure to QT fish you get in, you dont want to start your tank with issues.

I'd love to be able to order online, but Sweden only has 1 store I know of that ships live fish, and I live too far north to be able to use the service ;Facepalm

Setting up a basic QT during the next waterchange! Would hate to get something terrible in the tank.

Fishy212 · Mar 9, 2020

Mandarins are my favorite fish. If you plan on keeping a bunch of wrasses (3-5) I would be wary. You don’t want your mandarin to starve or have to fight for its food. Mandarins will always loose

You will have to culture your own pods or supplement them every month if you want your mandarin / wrasses to be fat. They will easily eat 2000-2500 pods daily. I was lucky enough to be able to train my mandarin to accept brine, mysis and some pellets. He’s so plump haha. I like your stock list! Best of luck if you decide on a mandarin.

badluckman · Mar 9, 2020

Fishy212 said:
Mandarins are my favorite fish. If you plan on keeping a bunch of wrasses (3-5) I would be wary. You don’t want your mandarin to starve or have to fight for its food. Mandarins will always loose

You will have to culture your own pods or supplement them every month if you want your mandarin / wrasses to be fat. They will easily eat 2000-2500 pods daily. I was lucky enough to be able to train my mandarin to accept brine, mysis and some pellets. He’s so plump haha. I like your stock list! Best of luck if you decide on a mandarin.

I might be willing to cut down on the wrasses for a mandarin. They are so darn beautiful!
Maybe if I start by introducing the mandarin before any more wrasses and see if I can get him to eat prepared foods? And if he does accept prepped I can still add some more wrasses too perhaps?
While in the QT I guess I'll add pods to the QT tank and some prepared foods to see if it accepts it.

By culturing own pods, will a big refugium with chaeto work good enough or will I have to add more from another source?
I want mine to be plump too if I decide on it haha!

sp1187 · Mar 9, 2020

the anthias I would add as a group. I started with 5 females of various sizes. (mine are lyretails).
I lost one. the remaining four set their pecking order, with the dominant female morphing into a male.
I'm not sure how it would work adding only one or two at a time, as I don't know how many you could QT in a 12g.
I don't QT so someone else would have to answer that. I took a look at your build thread. I like you have a lot of swimming area. you will be happy with your choice of adding anthias I think.

badluckman · Mar 10, 2020

sp1187 said:
the anthias I would add as a group. I started with 5 females of various sizes. (mine are lyretails).
I lost one. the remaining four set their pecking order, with the dominant female morphing into a male.
I'm not sure how it would work adding only one or two at a time, as I don't know how many you could QT in a 12g.
I don't QT so someone else would have to answer that. I took a look at your build thread. I like you have a lot of swimming area. you will be happy with your choice of adding anthias I think.

Yes, I think they would give the new additions a hard time if I added them in a staggered manner.
Does the Lyretail school at all or are they split up in the tank? One of my LFS currently has 12 of them in stock that has a pecking order already and I like their look better than the resplendent ones but I've heard that the Resplendent kind of stays in its group, which would be a great contrast to the blue chromis school.
Thanks for looking at the build thread! I'm still not sure how the corals really grow so I opted for more open spaces to make room for my placing errors ;Woot

Took a look at your thread as well. Magnificent DIY rockwork my man!
Hows that Angel treating you btw? Been looking at a Genicanthus but just the word "Angelfish" scares me.

sp1187 · Mar 10, 2020

badluckman said:
Yes, I think they would give the new additions a hard time if I added them in a staggered manner.
Does the Lyretail school at all or are they split up in the tank? One of my LFS currently has 12 of them in stock that has a pecking order already and I like their look better than the resplendent ones but I've heard that the Resplendent kind of stays in its group, which would be a great contrast to the blue chromis school.
Thanks for looking at the build thread! I'm still not sure how the corals really grow so I opted for more open spaces to make room for my placing errors ;Woot

Took a look at your thread as well. Magnificent DIY rockwork my man!
Hows that Angel treating you btw? Been looking at a Genicanthus but just the word "Angelfish" scares me.

there are times when they are all together, and then not. my though on that is in tanks our size, and with the lack of predators, you won't see shoaling like you will in a natural setting. I think it also is dependent on the flow in the tank.

thanks for compliments on mine.

haven't had any issues with the Lamark with coral nipping. if I could figure out definitely it were a female, I'd add another.