Coral cod

[watertight]

I'm thinking about buying a 240 gal tank, with a coral cod and a lionfish. The guy selling needs to get rid of it as he is moving and I can buy it cheap. I've had s/w experience, but only with small fish. He says it's very easy to look after and very hardy. Anything I should know before taking the plunge? I'll be buying the tank regardless, originally I was looking for a 6 foot tank to make a bar out of and put a couple of Oscars in, but this turned up, complete with fish. the cod is awesome, he shares the majority of the tank with a lionfish, the only fish that the owner has successfully kept with him. There is a divider that keeps a few smaller fish up 1 end of the tank as well. No corals, just c/c substrate and L/R. Any advice or feedback welcome!

 

[grouperlover]

A coral cod is basically a miniatus grouper just a different name...
But yea there both rreally easy to take care of you may wanna try a marbled catshark they stay relievily small and still are awesome

 

[surfinusa]

If I were you id also put some kind of eel in there.

 

[chilwil84]

a nice zebra eel and maybe some type of large angel and your set giving your filter system is large enough

 

[grouperlover]

ya that sounds good like a yellow head .. but if you like sharks you might try a marbled catshark or

 

[watertight]

Hmmm, shark...eel...I like what I'm hearing! I like mean critters - will look into it. thanks for your inputs

 

[chilwil84]

watch out for certain bad combinations with aggressive fish like no sharks with large angels and triggers, and certain eels are very prone to eating fish, and of course no small fish with groupers

 

[watertight]

The guy wants to sell me all the smaller fish as well, he has a divider in there, the 2 bigger fish get about 2/3 or maybe 3/4 of the tank, the smaller ones are in the end. I'm in 2 minds - I wouldn't mind keeping the divider in there, with some smaller ones, but I'd like to open the tank right up for the bigger ones as well. I guess it all depends on price in the end...

 

[chilwil84]

if you think you can get sell or give the smaller fish away in the future than go for the whole setup but i would think most people would not want a divider in the tank. it may also be stressfull to the smaller fish thinking they may be eaten. aggressive tanks can be very highly stocked with the right combination of fish but with the wrong fish u may end up with just one or two fish taking up the tank or an ugly setup with a divider that is a nice size tank that has some great fish available for it

 

[rara12]

A purple tang would prob work they can be pretty mean.

 

[watertight]

Well, I'm picking up the whole tank this weekend, complete with all inhabitants. There is a crayfish in there, but the guy who is selling it has taken him out during the last week and put into qt tank, he thinks it may have some disease and doesn't hold much hope for it, which is a pity, coz it's pretty cool. I'm assuming a cray with a disease wouldn't be too likely to cause the fish any probs? If it recovers I'll buy it off him later.
The other concern is the age of the grouper - how long do they live? This one is about 8 years old. I won't be too happy if it dies of old age a couple of weeks after I buy it!
Another question - I've got a spare 55 gal tank here, which I've just filled with water drained out of his tank, plus his second cannnister filter is hooked up to it, so we should have plenty of bacteria in there. We were planning on putting the grouper and lion (They are both similar sizes) in there during the move. They should only be in there for a day, or possibly moved here on Friday night and put back in the big tank Saturday afternoon, after it's been moved here. Would they be ok? Both are about 12" long. The rest of the fish will be stored in some big plastic bins I have here, probably for only 3-4 hours.
We are using all the existing gravel, about half the existing water and all the original filters, so should we expect a cycle of any sort? I'm really worried about this - I'd be gutted if they all died within a week of the move!
Sorry for all the ???'s, just want to make the move as pain free as possible...