Fish for the top of the water column?

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melosu, I used to have a female Hutchii anthias. I thought the same thing about feeding bigger bites of food like frozen mysis, brineshrimp, formula 1 pellets and formula 2 flakes (took me a couple of months to get her into eating pellets and flakes). Often times, she will only eat 6 or 7 mysis or pellets and be done for 1 feeding. Once in awhile I'll catch her trying to consume more pellets than usual but just to spit them back out a few minutes later. If I'm not mistaken, I recall reading something about anthias' stomach is smaller than other "active" fish. That's another reason why they require multiple feedings.

Best of luck to you with your anthias! I'm planning to get a small school of anthias for my tank too ;)
 
Thanks FF. I appreciate the info. I really dont want to feed more than every other day. As I said they nip on the seaweed selects that`s in there everyday also. If I see something happening I`ll take them back. My tank has been algea free for 7 yrs now and I`m not going to jeapardize that for some fish so if they have to go back then they`ll have to go back. Thanks for the concern.
 
Wow, thanks for all the comments. The Anthias are beautiful and someone had actually recommended Bartlett's to me before. Someone else had mentioned Cardinals to me previously as well. Anyone have experience with these?

I personally like the Chromis too, but my aquarium is at my office in the reception area and I need to entertain my clients. Everyone ignores the Chromis completely. If they were the only thing in the tank, they may get noticed, but they are just invisible to people once they start seeing everything else in the tank.

I would love to keep them and add something else. But I don't want to overload the tank. I am already planning on adding 2 clownfish and finally a hawkfish. That will give me: 4 Chromis, Blenny, Goby, Wrasse, 2 Clowns, Hawkfish. I think this is pushing the bioload already if I understand how to estimate that correctly. What do you think?

I was thinking of moving the Chromis out and adding 1 (2 or 3 at most) of a more colorful fish to free up a couple inches in the tank. The Anthias & Cardinals seem like good options so far.
 
Again, what size system are we talking about.

You may want to update the "My Info" portion of your profile so we can give better informed advice. No way to really answer your question otherwise. If you have a 12g nano they yes you are way overstoked already, but if we are discussing a 90g plus you can probably do it depending on how it is setup.
 
Sorry. I posted my tank info in my first post and didn't think to include it in the last one. Here is the info:

_________________
Tank:75g Reef/38g Sump
4X96 FL; 4X96 Actinic
Protein Skimmer

Livestock: 80lbs LR; 4 Green Chromis; 6Line Wrasse; BiCo Blenny; Diamond Goby; Cleaner Shrimp; Assorted Snails/Hermits/Emeralds; Assorted Mushrooms; Leathers; Zoos; Hammer; Xenia; Star Polyps; Acropora
 
with a 38g sump my first thought is it can be done assuming you are going with a smaller variety of clown and are going to keep up on regular tank maintenace to include weekly-every other week PWC.

I will caution you that your shrimp is in danger if you add a hawk. I thought my large cleaner shrimp could co-exist with a small longnose despite warnings and nature proved me wrong.

I have successfully kept 10 fish (some even larger) in a 75g without a sump, so it can be done. It will save you the trouble of catching those chromis as well.

HTH,
 
I was concerned about the Hawk with the shrimp but was hoping they'd be ok if I got the longnose variety. Sounds like you didn't have luck with that though. Maybe I'll rethink my options there. I think the shrimp is more important than the Hawk for my clients. The shrimp involves one of my two favorite comments/questions I have had clients ask me about the tank.

1. Is that some kind of crab? (pointing at the shrimp)
2. I think you should put a goldfish in there.


Edit: I do a PWC every other week.
 
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