Questions about my fish list

[Mr. Incredible]

I am making my transition from freshwater to saltwater.

I have a 93 gallon Marineland cube that I am about to get up and running, but I wanted help with my fish list. I know it is down the road, but I wanted to have an idea of what I can and cannot do.

I was hoping some of you can tell me 1.) If these fish are compatible with each other 2.) If this is too many fish for my 93 gallon and 3.) What kind of order do I need to put them into the tank?


Coral Reef

Fish:
Azure Damselfish
Bartlett's Anthias (multiple b/c of schooling feature)
Blue Regal
Cardinalfish
Catalina Goby
Damsel 4 stripe
Flame Angel
Foxface Lo
Green Clown Goby
Longfin Bannerfish
Ocellaris Clownfish (pair)
Purple Dottyback
Purple Tilefish
Six Line Wrasse
Spotted Mandarin Dragonet

Inverts:
Crabs
Pistol, Banded Coral, Fire Shrimp
Linckia Sea Star
Lobster
Tuxedo Urchin

Thank you in advanced! Please any suggestions on alternate fish is welcomed as well!

 

[JustinKBreen]

Right off the top I would stay away from damsel fish and the Catalina goby needs much cooler water than the rest.

 

[woody390]

completely agree the damsel can be very aggresive so I wouldnt not go for them and the catalina gobys need different requirements. the lobsters not a great choice either as you'll never see it as it wont come out in any sort of light and it will eat everything it can. if by blue regal you mean a tang then your tank isn't big enough but a kole tang is a very nice tang you could have in that tank. same issue with the longfin bannerfish and the foxface lo but you could get a one spot foxface. what sort of crabs as some can hurt your fish etc are you planning on this being a reef tank or just fowlr?

I would maybe consider a leopard wrasse instead of the 6 line
kole instead of regal
stay with just the clown goby as they will be competing with the madarin
I personally love puffers so if not a reef tank I would consider a valentini but always a risk with one

To start I would go with the clowns, then build up slowly with the dottyback, cardinals, anthias, I know it will be difficult. I also would cycle the tank first dont do a fish in cycle.

The best thing to research on is liveaquaria but you will want to add any agrresive fish last so the flame angle and the 6 line. and you will be better adding the foxface, gobies and definitliey the mandarin into established tanks so they need the tank to have been up and running for 4 5 months maybe to ensure they are happy. with regards to the inverts I would add them as you go along the more fish the more you feed so the more waste from feeding available for inverts so increase the inverts as the fish increase. but again number of fish will depend on if its a reef tank or not. hope all this helps and that you don't think ive picked too many holes in your stock!

 

[Mr. Incredible]

No this is perfect! Thank you both for the insight. I would have not noticed the water temp difference needed with the catalina.

It is going to be a reef tank, so no puffers

And what kind of crabs do you suggest? for me a crab is a crab for the most part, but my wife wanted one and a lobster if possible.

Thanks again!!!

 

[Mr. Incredible]

Also, with the blue tang, that is one of those fish that I "must have" for the kids, with Finding Nemo, all they want is Nemo and Dory. Is there a way I can have a small one, 1" in size and once it gets bigger, return it and get another small one and just keep going like that?

If so what size would I need to get it out of the tank?

Thanks again!

 

[shady3210]

Everything was covered pretty well above but i'll toss my 2 cents in:

Coral Reef

Fish:
Azure Damselfish Skip satans fish!
Bartlett's Anthias (multiple b/c of schooling feature) Very nice but I would just pick one schooling fish
Blue Regal Too big look into the kole tang or Tomini Tang
Cardinalfish Again I would just do 1 schooling fish and these prefer a school
Catalina Goby Covered but too warm for them
Damsel 4 stripe Satans fish!
Flame Angel Add with caution they may nip at corals
Foxface Lo Look into the one spot foxface they are a bit smaller
Green Clown Goby Only if you dont want the mandrin
Longfin Bannerfish Too large I would skip
Ocellaris Clownfish (pair) Great
Purple Dottyback Great
Purple Tilefish Great
Six Line Wrasse Skip these guys get super aggressive look for some of the other reef safe wrasse
Spotted Mandarin Dragonet Beautiful fish but this will be your last fish in. It needs at least a year old tank with lots of pods

Inverts:
Crabs
Pistol I would add a watchman goby to pair with him, Banded Coral Can be aggressive towards other shrimp, Fire Shrimp
Linckia Sea Star Difficult to keep may want to go with bristle or serpent
Lobster Skip
Tuxedo Urchin Great

 

[shady3210]

Also, with the blue tang, that is one of those fish that I "must have" for the kids, with Finding Nemo, all they want is Nemo and Dory. Is there a way I can have a small one, 1" in size and once it gets bigger, return it and get another small one and just keep going like that?

If so what size would I need to get it out of the tank?

Thanks again!

No they need a 6 foot tank and will be stressed out in a 4 footer. This fish is THE ich magnet in the marine aquarium the last thing you need is to try and keep it in too small of a tank or swap out for smaller sizes.

 

[TheTodd]

Agreed that the Tang is a bad idea. There are multiple posts every week with people putting fish into tanks that are smaller than generally recommended. They get Ich or have problems. It's like 95% of the stories. The size of the fish does not seem to matter. The inch or two smaller fish still wants lots of space to swim. Your kids will be sad when Dori gets sick and/or dies.

 

[woody390]

Especially with t being a cube and about half the minimum size for a regal I really would pass on it. Even from young you should try to keep fish in the size of the tank for an adult so unfortunately I'd pass even though its hard. If reef I'd maybe cut a few fish out you can generally have 1 inch of fish for every 5 gallons of water in reef, so you would be on about 18 inches of adult fish and the foxface will be about 7 of those and with the 2 clowns your on 13 already so may take some rethinking. For the crabs maybe hermits emeralds, Pom poms and porcelain crabs I know it's disappointing not to get what you want but if you overload and put fish too big in then it will just cause problems down the line