question about new fish....

[sillysidewinder]

Just upgraded to a 25 gallon tank. was curious what some good fish would be for it. I have two clowns as of right now. I was thinking about maybe a six-line wrasse and a green mandarin. Would either of these be a bad decision? Got any other suggestions?

 

[jdnumis]

Just make sure your tank is established before the mandarin, because they need pods to eat. You want to get community safe fish. My coris wrasse is gonna be a bully as he gets bigger and when that happens, he will go somewhere else. I heard people having success with the 6 line. Hope that helps

~James

 

[sillysidewinder]

what are pods?

 

[jdnumis]

sorry about that

what are pods?

Pods are small micro organisms that come come from your refugium which the mandarin eats. There are different types like amphipods, copepods.

Hope this helps.

You can google it

~James

 

[sillysidewinder]

my 12 gallon has been running for a little less than a year. but i just upgraded to a 25 gallon today.

 

[dubs]

i think u need to cross the mandarin of ur list the need well establish tank 100g i think with ton of pods and they are one of the harder fish to keep try some gobies they are a little easier to care for and they have some nice ones the six line is ok if u get a good one i have mine 2 years plus no issues

 

[jdnumis]

Did you transfer everything over to your 25? If you did you should be fine. You will see in your fuge, looks like little cacoons, those are pods.

 

[tentacles]

Do yourself a favor and do not get a mandarin. There are a lot of other gobies that don't have the rigid dietary requirements that mandarins do. As for the six line, if you're going to get one add it last. Pink spotted watchman are docile, and a little different looking than "standard" yellow watchman gobies, maybe look into getting one paired with a pistol shrimp.

 

[sillysidewinder]

I've had a pistol shrimp in the past, it unfortunately died after a little while in my tank. however, my levels are much more consistent now. i like the look of the yellow watchmen gobie, however, don't they tend to hang out near the bottom of the tank sifting through the sand? I was hoping to get an "energetic" fish that has interesting swimming patterns similar to the file fish.

 

[sillysidewinder]

I have also been looking at some new corals for my tank. Some of the corals that I've been considering lately are a lobophylia, Trachyphyllia, and possibly a short tentacled plate coral. Are any or all of those iffy decisions?

 

[tentacles]

The YWG I have now sits perched on a little outcropping of his cave all day, in plain sight. I had a larger one that didn't come out as much, but I still saw him a lot. If you want a fish that's going to be free swimming I'd suggest fire fish or possibly a royal gramma (both have personality, nice colors and you can generally find them for <$20).

 

[Levito]

the corals are fine for your tank, as is the 6 line, but I wouldn't get a mandarin. It likely won't live long in your tank.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

yea i would definitely not recommend the Mandarin for a 25 gallon. i have a 125 and i had so many pods they were infesting my tank so i went to pick up a mandarin and in 2 weeks he ate them all and theres only a small population in the refugium. now he's starving and i can see his bones and i just ordered a whole bag of copepods and if that doesn't work im gonna need to sell him.

 

[basiab]

What kind of lighting do you have. I have a 24 gallon and have 96w of T5's and it handles the LPS corals well.
As far as fish go I am not sure how the clown will act now that they 'own' the place. I have a blue chromis, a fire fish, a neon goby, clown goby and Spotted cardinal. Have had a six line and a Royal Gramma but had to get rid of them when I wanted to add fish.

 

[sillysidewinder]

I've got (2) 65 watt acitinic PC lights, one fixture, no ballast. one bulb is blue and one is white. it also has 4 blue moonlight LED's

 

[sillysidewinder]

I was thinking about setting them to turn on at different points in the day. I run them for 8 hours. Any suggestions about a good schedule for the lights?

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

try not to keep them on During the hottest hours of the day like from 11-2 i keep my actinics on from 12 to 12 then the metal halide and whites come on from 2-10pm so i get to enjoy the tank when im home from school instead of wasting all the light time while im in school.

I was thinking about setting them to turn on at different points in the day. I run them for 8 hours. Any suggestions about a good schedule for the lights?

 

[sillysidewinder]

by the way Janine. I really like the royal gramma, I have seen those a lot and love their bright color. I am happy that it will live well in my tank.

 

[prattreef]

The Royal Gramma is an excellent choice as are most gobies. The mandarin is def. NO. A 6 line wrasse is fine for your tank, but they can become terrors.

 

[sillysidewinder]

I was thinking of getting one fish at a time to see how they react towards each other. but in the next month or so i was thinking about getting either a total of 2 or maximum 3 fish. 3 would be too much, correct? Obviously they would be smaller fish around the same size as my clowns.