Starting a new tank

verojeremy

verojeremy

Member
I was thinking of starting a new tank. I want to do fish that I can't have in my 75gallon because they would beat up on my mandarin or eat my clams. I am thinking about a leopard toby puffer, a Caribbean redspotted hawk-fish, and the rest of the livestock I want some advice/help on. I want to do a tank that isn't as big as my 75. So I was thinking of a 40 breeder and have it connected to my 75's sump. I have an swc150 skimmer, a fuge with chaeto and live sand, a phosphate reactor and about 80lb of live rock and a 1-2 inch layer of sand. I have 5 fish in the 75: yellow tang, mandarin dragonett, melanurus wrasse, pair of occ. clown.
 
geridoc

geridoc

Well-Known Member
If you can find a relatively small angler (relative to the hawkfish) you could be OK. Anglers will ambush prey nearly up to their own size, so a larger fish will be safe with the angler, and the fish you are describing will remain larger than the angler if they are larger to begin with. Of course, the angler may then turn to your clean-up crew for prey, so there will be pretty heavy predation on them since the puffer likes to chew on shelled animals to keep its beak trimmed.
 
S

saxman

Guest
The angler is a poor choice as a tankmate for any fish, IMHO, but especially anything that "picks" or browses on rockwork, such as a puffer. Add to that the puffer's propensity for gnawing on other fish's fins, and you have a recipe for bad juju.
Anglers can, and will actually (try to) swallow prey up to twice their own size, after which, they will typically die from the meal beginning to rot in their gut.
I know you've asked this on a couple of forums now, but the possible/probable outcome isn't going to change any...anglers are NOT good community fish.
Take a look:
About 0:46 into the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lrRQq5PTwMc
Another...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SPbExz-5LWQ
Unfortunately, the best example of this has been removed from you-tube, but I hope you get the idea...
I think everyone who considers keeping an angler with tankmates should see the vids in the links I posted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top