questions about my future shark tank

[cratestack]

Ok guys, I'm about to move into a new house and it looks like my dream of having a large tank(240g or larger) may finally come true. I DEFINATELY want an epaulette shark and a sting ray, plus I plan on moving my snowflake from my 55g. He's about 2.5 feet. I have a few other fish ideas, but don't really know what kind of bio-load a 250-300g tank has to offer after the inhabitants I've already listed. I plan on getting the best wet/dry filter, protien skimmer, and UV staralizer I can find and with that in mind, how much room would I have after a large tang(unicorn or naso as long as they wouldn't pick on the ray) were added? I would love to add a couple of lookdowns or a lionfish if possible. Any other suggestions?
Also, what would be a suitable cleaning crew? Crabs and snails if they are big enough? What about a big blue spiney lobster? I know eels like to snack on them, but I've read that they can grow to about 15 inches, which would be an awfully hard pill for my snowflake to ever swollow.
Thanks a lot for the help! I just ordered Scott Michaels' book, and was curious in the meantime.

 

[chandler04]

Id say for the cleaners a handful of conches, some starfish, one or two sand sifting sea cucmbers and a crap load of hermit crabs/ snails. Im not sure if rays and sharks eat those though. Also, you CAN put a Volitan in there, I woudnt advise on lookdowns, and a vlamingui tang (unicorn) or sohal tang would be nice. Unicorns take a while to develop their horn though I believe. You can put a lot in a big tank like that. How about a pair of blue dot stingrays and a pair of shraks? Then a lion and the tang. That would be a good bio load, especially if yer getting all of that equipment. You might need to make a refugium to hold plants to control like ammonia/nitrate/algae, and you wont need as large of a cleaner crew.

 

[tony detroit]

Chandler, FYI
1. Blue dot stingrays are very hard to successfully keep and to get eating, many zoos don't even keep them, they rarely live a year in captivity
2. Keeping cucumbers is always asking for trouble should they die and poison your tank
3. The lion is a possibility, but sharks get very rambunctious at feeding time and there have been many times sharks swam into the stingers on lions and have become infected.
4. A sohal tang may chase and nip a stingray like mine did
Cratestack-get a large wetdry, needle wheel skimmer, and an ozonizer, if you're going to spend 200 to set up a UV sterilizer, wait and spend the 250 on an ozonizer, it will do more than a UV ever will.
Most people like their lobsters for the first week they have them, after that, they're more of a nuisance, but to each their own.
Lookdowns will work in that tank for a while, but will need something rather large in time.

 

[gasguzzler]

Chandler, I hope you didnt mean the bluespotted ribbontail! Perhaps you were after the Blue Dot ray, dasyatis kuhlii? Thats the one I have been recommending lately.

 

[pufferman]

Lookdowns are not really suitable for any aggressive tank. They should be kept in a large peaceful community tank.

 

[cubuffs]

Tangs and sharks typically do not work. Since you want an epaullette I would skip on the tang. In addition, I have the blue dot stingray (the one that does great in aquariums) with my two bamboos, and they do great. Overall, skip on the tangs and be careful with a lion.

 

[cratestack]

Thanks a lot for the advice everyone. I clearly have much to learn before I set up this tank, but I'm really looking forward to it.
If tangs are not to be recomended, are there any other large, active fish that can be kept safely with sharks and rays aside from lionfish?

 

[moraym]

Definitely dump the cucumber idea, I've had one die in my tank and nothing good came of it. They're not too great, and oftentimes will die with little cause in an aggressive tank.

 

[chandler04]

Okay, fine, no cucumber. MY bad. Lions are fine, and I DID mean the blue dot. I had no idea there was a ribbon tail blue spotted thing. No tang then either. Maybe just sharks/ rays and lions.

 

[tony detroit]

I'd be careful keeping the lions, you can try it, but it is not worth the risk to me.

 

[gasguzzler]

Mine has worked okay for the last year and a half. Sometimes I get nervous when everybody is swimming around at feeding, but there has only been one incident. No harm, no foul!

 

[chandler04]

Wats wrong with lions?

 

[cincyreefer]

Originally posted by Chandler04
Wats wrong with lions?
Most of them drown when kept under water for more than a few minutes. They also normally don't appreciate saltwater. Definitely a species best kept roaming the savannahs in Africa.

 

[lionfish12]

 

[gasguzzler]

The fear with lions is that they would accidentally sting the other livestock and cause a bacterial infection. Of course, the animal would die. With good healthy filtration and UV sterilization this is less of a problem but the chance is always there. Keep at your own risk.

 

[chandler04]

Cincy, that WAS a good laugh I must say. Besides, every animal has the ability to inflict on another animal that they are with. Stone fish are highly poisonous, but that doesnt mean that they will kill some other fish in their tank (at least ones their size or larger) and porcupines can kill other animals, that is to say, if they are bitten. And sting rays CAN sting another creature, which is to say, IF it swims directly into its spine. So, a fish would have to swim and ram into the lions spnes first, that is to say that the lion doesnt get spooked and jolt in the other direction...