Fish selection for the beginner!! suggestions pls.

[Lostmind]

Here is a list of what I like so far (gleaned from reading my many books):

lawnmower blennie (5", eats algae, may nip at clams)
orchid dottyback (2.5", meaty food, may eat bristleworm)
royal gramma (3", meaty food)
yellow Assesor (2.5", meaty foods)
pearly jawfish (3.9", meaty foods, burrows)
coral beauty (3.96", varied diet, may nip lps and clams)
false clown (3.5", varied diet)
true perc (3.1", varied diet)
longfin fairy wrasse (2.9", meaty foods)
flasher wrasse (3.5", varied diet)
sixline/fourline wrasse (3", meaty foods)
sharknose/cleaner/neon goby (1.6", meaty foods, may eat ich etc)
purple firefish (3.5', meaty foods)

I currently have 3 green chromis in a QT tank doing well. I have to purchase some sort of clownfish to appease my gf so that she continues to support me in this insane hobby.

If you havent seen my other annoying threads, my setup in a nutshell is: 124gallon, 75 gallon sump, MH lighting, probably going to have a refuge within a couple weeks.

So, with that in mind, I am trying to decide on what fish to keep in my tank...

Now, I am unsure of how many fish I can cram into this setup when I also want to have some sps and possibly a clam in the future.

I would like to have an active tank, with several smaller fishes. Or, if I cant have that, I would prefer a tank with some interesting critters with good attitudes.

Can anyone make some recommendations for me?

 

[Lostmind]

Hopefully some of you at work tomorrow get bored and give me a hint or two

 

[Anonymous]

The gramma, assesor and dotty back are all semi terrietorial fish and may scuffle a bit, but you seem to have a big enough tank that they may be jsut fine. Its more of a bio load question rather than a "how many fish can I cram into" question. Form the list you could stand to put a few more fish in there but only a few more. The biggest fish you have in there is the coral beauty and they may nip at your corals. Most or all of these fish can be attained captive breed meaning you as a beginer should have better luck with wild caught fish so as many captive bred fish you can get I would suggest it.

Maybe a tank raised blue tang woud be good and very pretty to look at I am sure your girlfriend would love it.

When worrying about your bioload ask your lfs about your list and about the certain fish you are trying to keep. Ask how much waste they produce and if they are a messy eater or not. A good rule of thumb is 3 inches if fish per 10 gals or something like that.

 

[ozadars]

In a 125 gal i would put from this list;

-1 bicolor or a lawnmover blennie
-2 orchid dottyback or 3 royal gramma
-1 coral beauty
-2 ocellaris or percula
-3 sixline wrasse
-2 neon gobies
Extra;
-2 foxface

I think these will fit into a 125 but sure no more fish

 

[fishfanatic2]

Although you said you wanted small fish and active tank, what about a tang, like a yellow or purple? Most all tangs would do well in a tank your size, except the 12 and 24 inchers. Just my opinion.

Because of the size of your tank and large sump, you could probably get most all of tjose fish in there. However, it would be better for the fish and even look better if, instead of one of each, you did a pair of percs, a trio of jawfish, more than one neon goby, and a pair of firefish. Obviously, you wouldn't want to go with two coral beautys, but you get my drift.

 

[Lostmind]

I would love to have a couple of pairs (dont have to be mating) but I am worried about some fish not getting along with others of their own species. Thus, the reason I wanted some personal experiences and recommendations

Thanks for the hints guys. I am going to talk to my lfs today, but hoping for a few more responses!

 

[Lostmind]

I was worried about the tangs - mostly because everything I see on the boards about Tangs is that they need rather large tanks. While I have a fairly decent sized tank, I also wanted to have a bunch of fish in it and I didnt want to crowd a tang out and get beat up on the boards

 

[Anonymous]

Your tank is large enough for a tang and a tougher Centropyge angel. Ozadars has given you a pretty good list from what you were considering (though I personally don't care for foxface all that much, I'd rather have a Flavissimus in there, either F. forcipiger or F. longirostrus), although I would go with more neon gobies rather than fewer.

 

[Lostmind]

the flavissimus forcipiger is a very interesting fish, but it gets huge! almost 9" according to my book...

 

[WRASSER]

IMO with the tangs, i don't believe they need as much room as some people say they do. maybe if you have one, but when you have several in the tank, the volume goes down a little because it's shared volume. meaning they kinda school together. :wink:



good luck,


8)

 

[Anonymous]

Luck you With a 200 gallon water volume minus rock displacement, you can have a ton of fish. Your limiting factor will be space rather than bioload...especially if you add that refugium.

Get a tang of some kind for sure...you have the space.

How big will your fuge be?

You have so many possibilities...I'm green with envy :mrgreen:

Good luck

 

[Lostmind]

The refuge tank will (atm) be a 29 Gallon tank... my setup will allow me to add 2 tanks in the future, so I may have 2 x 29Gallon refuge tanks...

 

[Anonymous]

I noticed that lawnmower blenny is first on your list...if you do get one of these amazing fellas, please ask to see it eat at the lfs. My experience has been that if a lawnmower doesn't (eventually) eat prepared foods, the film algae in most tanks will not sustain it for very long. Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress!

Chris