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stocking question

P

professorbadnews

right now i have a pair of clowns, a "peach damsel" (cant find any info on this one), 1 yellow tang, and 1 Koran Angel in a 90 gallon. can i do another tang or two? what do you suggest as a few new tankmates for a reef set up???

thank you

joe
 
C

Carlo

What do your nitrates look like? If they are at zero then it's probably safe to add another one. If you are already above zero then your nitrates are only going to rise faster.

Let your tank tell you. Besides the nitrates you can also get phosphate buildups from the food you feed. Generally the more fish the more food the more nutrients... So it wouldn't be a bad idea to check that to but most PO4 kits come back at zero. You can generally tell if you have a phosphate issue buy visually looking at the tank for things like hair & other algae growth and cyano outbreaks.

Besides the condition of the water you also need to watch the fish themselves. When you get to many fish you can see a change of attitude or health in the fish themselves.

Generally speaking you should be good for another fish or two I'd think. But this is coming from someone who has always ran a high bio-load on tanks so keep that in mind.

Carlo
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
3 tangs in a 90 is a pretty tight squeeze. I think they'd get on each others nerves pretty quickly in such a small space. You could definitely add a couple of gobies, wrasses or cardinals to your arsinol, if your parameters are in check.
 
J

jaynduke

If you do decide to get a goby in your tank be careful. I had a 4-5 inch sleeper goby with them and that (Peach damsel)?? stressed him out pretty bad to the point of death. whatever that fish is. peach damsel or not he gets to be pretty territorial with other fish. so just keep an eye on him. send me some pics i would love to see how the tank looks.
 
C

Carlo

Phyl brings up a good point on the tangs.

Let us ask you. If you were going to try adding another tang, what would you add?

Are there any other fish you have considered? IE do you like any of the Cardinals?

Sometimes you can watch the tank to determine habits of the fish. What I mean is look where your present fish are swimming. Are they at the bottom, middle, top etc. Then lets say your present fish are top and middle swimmers you might be better of with a new bottom dweller. Same with open water swimmers versus fish that hang out near the rocks like possible a hawk fish.

Also something to think about. Foods Will the new addition eat the same foods you already feed or will you have to feed yet another food source to the tank which can make it more difficult to keep phosphates & nitrates low.

Have you thought about some shrimp or other inverts instead of fish for more variety of life in the tank?

BTW, non of this is a recommendation for any fish or invert, just something to use and think about.

Carlo
 
blange3

blange3

What kind of filtration, skimming and flow?

What kind of corals are you planning on keeping?

I'd keep the number of tangs to one, but if you absolutely have to have two, go with a Kole or a tomini.

As both Phyl and Carlo said, you need to keep the parameters in check, so if you already have an issue there, I would hold off or stick to smaller less active fish.

How long have the current inhabitants been in the tank? You will probably run into some aggression issues when you add the new fish. Make sure you quarantine to ensure its in fightin' shape before adding.
 
H

harryk

3 tangs woould be too much in that tank. How about the smaller Anthias species like a Bartletts or dispar. they are beautiful and kinda hang out in the middle of the tank.

Harry
 
P

professorbadnews

thank you for the replies. i dont know where to begin answering your questions. my water quality has been coming out zero. nitrates at 5. i have a 25 gallon sump with a big skimmer. the tank had been used by another njreefers member with the livestock, i just moved the equipment and fish from his house to mind. i particularly would like to keep shrooms, zoas, frogspawn (beginner stuff) for now. i have an excellent lighting system with 300 metal ha;;ide, 200 pc. i may try carlo's idea with a few cleaner shrimp. i will look up the tangs that blange suggested
 
blange3

blange3

Shrooms, zoas and frogspawn will be more tolerant of the heavier bioload.

A big skimmer helps, but overloading is never good. If you add a medium size fish, just add one more.

The shrimp idea is a good one and it gives you something completely different to watch.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
This is Marcelo's tank. Then it went to Jay. Now Professor. Cleaner shrimp are cool, but you could also look into hawaiian shrimp or something else with a bit more "cool" factor. Sexy anemone shrimp or harlequins (heavy feeding requirement) are cool too.
 
M

mladencovic

Phyl said:
This is Marcelo's tank. Then it went to Jay. Now Professor. Cleaner shrimp are cool, but you could also look into hawaiian shrimp or something else with a bit more "cool" factor. Sexy anemone shrimp or harlequins (heavy feeding requirement) are cool too.
Click to expand...

I have a couple of sexy shrimps (Thor ambeonesis) that are relay fun to watch perching on rics and montis. They are less shy then my cleaner shrimp, that is now 4-5 larger then them (they are less then 1"). Phyllis, did you refer just to harlequins or them as well about the feeding? Because, mine do not need any feeding at all. They are also extremely peaceful, unlike harlequins that will eat starfish and other inverts. On the other hand, all fish parking in front of the cleaner shrimp to clean them never ceases to amaze me (it allways reminds me on that whale washing place in Shark tales :) )
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
LOL at the whale wash in Shark Tales. Too funny.

Just referring to the harlequins in terms of keeping them fed. Mine are a tad fussy. They don't touch the several serpent stars that are in the tank and prefer chocolate chip starfish to just about anything else you could throw at them. They do a meager job at keeping the asterina population in check. I think they like the challenge of dragging a starfish 10x their size through the rock maze to the back of the tank... where they hang out until they get hungry again. They're kinda goofy to own because they really only ever come out to the front when they're hungry... so if I see them I know I need to get a starfish for them. Otherwise I don't see them. Reminds me of my siblings!

But they are really cool.

My sexy shrimp were a bit too out in the open and I think my maroon clown ate them for lunch. I do love them though if yo have fish that won't make a meal of them!
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The maroon is a 5+" fish. She's just huge. The sexy didn't actually hang out in an anemone. If I recall correctly (this was over a year ago) it hung out in a mushroom or some such. I wouldn't worry about a perc killing them unless it is HUGE (and I've never seen a perc nearly as big as my clown... come to think of it I've never seen ANY clown as big as my maroon).

John has them in his nano at work with a pair of percs. They seem to be getting along great.
 
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