More fish suggestions - 75g

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

AquaBear

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
155
Location
Aurora CO
Hello forum! I've seen different suggestions for fish lists, they sound very good, but of course I have my own tastes. The 4 chromis I started in my tank have gone to fish heaven, so I guess I get to start over.

I have a fully-cycled 75g FOWLR tank (80# LR), 55# Florida Crushed Coral (aragonite) with wet/dry filter. How does this sound?

1 Sailfin Tang
1 Neon Goby
1 Royal Gramma
1 Coral Beauty -OR- 1 Flame Angel
2 Butterflies from the Chaetodon genus (I like the C. lunula, C. auriga or C. collare)

Does this sound like a reasonable setup for my first SW tank? I have an affinity for fish with elaborate fins. I would attempt a Copperbanded butterfly (LFS has a gorgeous one), but sounds like difficult to raise. With the exception of the goby and gramma, the bigger fish should all be about the same size, I don't want too much size domination, fin-nipping or fighting (thus no damsels). Should I include a couple more smaller fish to balance it out?

Oh, I already have 4 tiny hermit crabs in the tank too, for a cleanup crew. I plan on adding more crabs...do I need to add more reinforcement to the cleanup crew, like a starfish, perhaps?

Thanks for any recommendations.

--Aquabear
 
Sounds pretty good. I would add the goby, gramma, and angel first. Add the tang last. I would not recommend the butterflies if this is your first SW tank. They can be very hard to feed and require good growth on LR for grazing. Gain some experience and make sure your water parameters are stable before attempting any butterflies. Good luck! Lando
 
Thats gonna max out yoru fish capacity. Please be sure you have a fair amount of water movment at the surface to keep the water oxygenated. The sailfin can get quite large.
 
All good advice, thank you. Just a follow-up with each of you if I may...

LANDO: what would you recommend in place of the butterflies, if anything? My goal is for a mostly-peaceful tank, the kind you can sit and watch in the evening and almost fall asleep in front of (I had a partly-medical reason to attempt such a grand SW tank on my first try). My LFS guy suggested a Flame Angel and a Coral Beauty could co-exist if they were introduced at the same time. But I've seen people preaching against that on here....which theory do you believe? I wish it were possible, because they're both gorgeous.

FISHFREEK: Actually, the capacity of my wet/dry is pretty efficient, and I've got some heavy-duty airstone activity and automatic wave action because of the angle the water hits the glass at (it ricochets into a 180-degree corner). But I certainly appreciate the advice. I just looked at my fish encyclopedia and you're absolutely right...they can grow up to 15 inches. OUCH. I don't want one fish that large, despite the fact they recommend you should have at least a 130g tank to keep one. Oh well, I'll select a smaller species.

Thanks!

--AquaBear
 
Oxygenation is adiquite when your pumps are running but what if you lose power for a period? With out the pumps a heavily stocked tank will quickly become lack in oxygen and fish will begin to sufficate.

Just something to be aware of.
 
the only option I can think of for you is a couple of heniocus bannerfish. That would pretty much exaust your bioload though.
 
I'm curious about the number of crabs. I have a 75 gallon FOWLR and have a lot more than that, as well as several different kinds of snails and two scarlet skunk shrimp. I have close to 100 pounds of live rock. Just wondering if I over did it on the clean up crew.
 
FISHFREEK: Excellent point. I have a couple of battery-operated pumps on standby to keep the airstones going. Not as foolproof as having a gas-powered generator to keep all the equipment running, but should do in most cases.

LANDO: Good choice, and a fish I had considered because of it's beautiful markings. But according to my fish atlas, the Heniochus diphreutes is easily confused with the Heniochus acuminatus, which is more aggressive and more destructive to aquascaping. Of course, I've heard conflicting opinions and statements in various schools of thought through all the books I've read, so I guess it's not an exact science as some would have us believe. ;-)

DICJONES: I started with 4 and am now up to 8 Scarlet Hermits. I'm not really sure how many crabs are the scientifically "perfect" number for tanks the size of ours, but balance-wise, there should be enough that they don't starve, but what they clean doesn't grow faster than they can eat it. I was warned completely away from snails by somebody who lost a 100g to them in one month...stripped it clean.

I stopped at 80 pounds of live rock because I didn't want to have so much that the fish wouldn't have room to swim, plus it would make the tank harder to keep clean. There are a couple slightly different rules of thumb, but again, more opinions than conclusive theories. One place on-line I found recommends a minimum of 1 pound per gallon and a max of 1.75 pounds per gallon, averaging in the middle at 1.35 PPG. If you look at my setup, I'm sitting right at 1 PPG and my tank seems be thriving. Your tank is sitting right about 1.33 - 1.35 ppg, so you should be just fine, but I wouldn't add anymore. TOO much rock inhibits adequate water flow and you can accidentally wind up with anoxic areas, or create an airspace that a small fish could get caught in and get injured or stuck in.

I really need to get some of my pics on-line so everybody can see what the culmination of all the advice I've received over the last few months has resulted in.

Thanks everybody.
--Aquabear
 
Back
Top Bottom