AquaTricia 40 gal FOWLR

[AquaTricia]

I will definately consider one, then. He does sound really cool, and as long as he doesn't eat my cleaner shrimp or the smaller fish I will put in the tank, then he's a real possibility.

 

[Sniperhank]

I can't speak on the shrimp, but if you get a large one it will be a snack. Mine is currently smaller than my coral beauty...got it when it was the size of my thumb. I've been trying for months to capture this behavior to share, but I swear it knows.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

New FOWLR

Why no wrasses? I think a m/f pair of flashers could make an awesome addition to this tank. Beautiful, hardy, and peaceful and will work perfectly in your tank, my personal favorites are the mccoskers with carpenters a close second


Edit: may catch a little flack for this but, imho you could also probably get away with a kole/bristle tooth tang in a 40b too, but they would limit the number/type of other fish you could add as they'll be a big amount of your bio-load and should be the only open water swimmer. I'd go with a small one and you may want to rehome it after a year or 2.

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[AquaTricia]

OK. Reply to both of you guys. I'm not even sure I can find a Betta to look at and would like to see one before I buy. BTW, what size tank is he in?
As far as Wrasses, it's probably a silly reason I don't want one. My clowns were the first fish in my reef. Then I bought a flasher. Three days later, it was gone. It couldn't have jumped as this was a closed cube; nowhere to go. I never found any part of it. Just disappeared. Amost killed me. They are beautiful, and I've been tempted, but the stigma remains. Losing all of my chromis was devastating as that tank was cycled for a week. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn't. Scared to put anything in there now.

 

[PB_Smith]

here are a couple of suggestions;


a longnose hawkfish;

they get about 5" max, are not constant swimmers and are chock full of personality. They are on the low end of medium aggression but will go for really small fish/crustaceans if they get hungry.

Polka Dot or Pajama Cardinals;

they get about 4"-5", are really mellow and can be kept in small groups if desired.

Same with the Bangaii Cardinal also in the pic, although Bangaii's tend to be a little more "assertive" without being a menace.
they also bark at the other fish.
(if you have Bangaii's and hear strange "thumping" or "barking grunts" coming from your tank, it is probably the cardinal expressing his opinion to another fish...LOL)

A Lemon peel or Yellow angel would be good as their bright color will stand out from across the room. I have a yellow coris wrasse for just that reason.
Same could be said for a Flame Angel as well.

Then there is a slew of interesting Dottybacks and Basslets that would be the right size for your tank. I saw a Royal Gramma in a store a few weeks ago that was almost 6", never saw one that big in captivity before. They wanted $50 for it.
You just need to research them because some are mellow and some are sociopaths.
I would steer clear of any damsels except clowns because most invariably because bullies.

there are a few Anthias that could also probably work, just make note of their max size as some get pretty big.

I agree, finding a good mix in that size can be a challenge.
In my 50 I finally settled on;
flame angel
longnose hawk
yellow coris wrasse
6 line wrasse (he may get evicted)
percula clown
bangaii cardinal
polka-dot cardinal
royal gramma
green mandarin (I got lucky, this one eats like a pig)
and a Fiji damsel that was the first fish I got in this system.

they are all relatively the same size and aggression level, there are occasional "get outta my yard" type of squabbles, but no real nastiness has developed between anyone.
It is funny to hear the cardinal go around "barking" at the other fish as he struts his stuff.

 

[AquaTricia]

Got your edit BigRed. Have no place to rehome. LFS will not take a fish back and I know no other aquarists. A tang would be a dream fish. Have to think about that one with my redone stocking list when I GET it redone.

 

[Sniperhank]

A kole or bristletooth would be fine. I was looking last night and want one for my 55, but am not sold on it being able to be ok with how many fish are there currently.
It got me to thinking how much it would be nice to have something similar to the aqplanner that freshwater have as a guide for the unseen hand of stocking.


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[PB_Smith]

here's the gang waiting for breakfast;

as you can see they are all about the same size which goes a long way to mitigate any aggression.

just a thought to keep in mind as you decide what to get.

 

[AquaTricia]

WOW!! Thanks, PB. In my initial research, dottybacks were indicated as pretty aggressive. I have a pajama cardinal and royal gramma in the reef. Guess you guys have figured out that I'm trying not to copycat my reef. I wanted chromis, even though I knew they were damsels, but nowhere could I find that they would kill off each other, though that's not what happened to me. But they could have. Am reconsidering bangaiis, because I'm running out of options and I can get captive bred. My dream fish is a mandarin. Long way down the road. Wish ORA would start breeding them again.

 

[AquaTricia]

Great looking tank, PB. Will look at those tangs to possibly add toward the end of stocking. Angel has to be toward the end, too. If I get a Betta, sounds like he could go in early.
I never said this, which would help y'all with your suggestions, but I have a granddaughter that wants to be a marine biologist. She's pretty firm on that, so she uses me as an initial study guide. Then I blew it with the chromis. She's figuring out just how delicate closed systems can be. That's why I'm not considering the same fish as are in the reef.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

OK. Reply to both of you guys. I'm not even sure I can find a Betta to look at and would like to see one before I buy. BTW, what size tank is he in?
As far as Wrasses, it's probably a silly reason I don't want one. My clowns were the first fish in my reef. Then I bought a flasher. Three days later, it was gone. It couldn't have jumped as this was a closed cube; nowhere to go. I never found any part of it. Just disappeared. Amost killed me. They are beautiful, and I've been tempted, but the stigma remains. Losing all of my chromis was devastating as that tank was cycled for a week. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn't. Scared to put anything in there now.

Ya flashers do best when they're the first fish added, and then given a couple weeks to establish themselves. But with an empty tank it's a perfect time to try again , just be sure to get a lid or some eggcrate


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[AquaTricia]

Well, it's an empty tank all right, except for the shrimp that survived. But why would a wrasse just disappear? I took into consideration the fact that some sleep under the sand, and after 3 days I took a fork and gently raked the sand; no wrasse. I did have a (I'm gonna spell this wrong) narcissus and I always wondered if it got him, but they don't eat live stuff. Makes me gun shy. But they are so beautiful. And I have a tight lid. And cats.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

New FOWLR

Well, it's an empty tank all right, except for the shrimp that survived. But why would a wrasse just disappear? I took into consideration the fact that some sleep under the sand, and after 3 days I took a fork and gently raked the sand; no wrasse. I did have a (I'm gonna spell this wrong) narcissus and I always wondered if it got him, but they don't eat live stuff. Makes me gun shy. But they are so beautiful. And I have a tight lid. And cats.

Sounds like stress induced death, and then it was probably eaten by the other things in the tank, it happens some times unfortunately. While there's no way a nassarious could catch a healthy fish they are voracious predators that will eat what ever they can catch. If they are first in though the success rate goes up exponentially, and a cool behavior for your budding marine biologist to watch when the male gets to showing off . Another cool relationship is the pistol/goby bond, my daughter is fascinated watching my hi-fin/ candy cane pistol do their thing.


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[AquaTricia]

All right, all right, I will research wrasses again. I was new to salt back then, maybe I just didn't acclimate long enough or correctly. Salt is a lot different than fresh. (DUHHH!)
I want a midas blenny, but was told not to have gobies with blennies or a disaster will happen. Opinion?

 

[Sniperhank]

As long as they don't look like each other you're ok. A lawnmower blenny is fine in a tank with an engineer goby, for example.

 

[AquaTricia]

So what do I do, blindfold both of them?

 

[AquaTricia]

As anyone who has followed my posts knows, I began a FOWLR in early January. With plenty of problems going on in the family, I wasn't able to devote much time to the cycling tank. Once the time came for me to finally test, everything indicated that the tank was cycled. Problems with the LFS led me to get 3 medium blue green Chromis and a cleaner shrimp. A week and a half after that, all I had left was the shrimp. Then began the worst case of diatoms I've ever seen, but they eased up for a couple of weeks. Now I have diatoms again, just not as bad. The shrimp is still there. While I still had the fish, I must have had another cycle because all of a sudden I had nitrites. This could have killed the fish, but it was politely suggested that it could have been stress from all the moves to get them from ocean to my tank. Honestly, I'm afraid to add more fish. Do diatom blooms hurt them, or is it ok to add fish?
I had discussed a new stocking list with several on the forum, leaving off Chromis, and maybe adding Anthias, dottybacks, and wrasses. I like the sunrise dottyback, the bicolor, fathead, bartlett's and Princess anthiases (sp?), the McCoskers wrasse, carpenters wrasse, and, possibly a Klein's butterfly. Forgive the misspellings. I already have on my permanent list a Midas blenny, coral beauty, saddled (mimic) filefish, and possibly a few chalk bass. Now, obviously, I do not expect to put all these fish in a 40b, but I'd like the opinion from the group as to what I should forget and why, what will or won't go together, and in what order the finalists should be added. I'm not asking for a lot, am I? Thanks everyone. ?


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[AquaTricia]

Ok, ok, no bicolor or princess anthias. No Klein's butterfly. I keep researching different sites, so my own change of opinion. And yours?


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[Sniperhank]

Liveaquaria is the most accurate in terms of best estimated tank requirements.

 

[AquaTricia]

Yes, I went there, but they have different tank sizes listed than the current books. If that is the case, then most, if not all of the fish recommended by the guys on the forum I can't have due to tank size. So I am stuck with really small fish. Bummer!!