Starting first reef tank, Need fish ideas, 75g

[DillonZecher]

After months of saving up and months of research I finally ordered my first tank, 75 gallons.

I am looking to mimic the Great Barrier Reef, I've always dreamed of scuba diving there but as we know it is slowly dying each day and I don't know if I'll ever have the chance. But enough of the sad and on to the happy. It will be a while until the tank arrives and I start cycling so I got plenty of time to decide on fish and corals.

I want to have:
1 biggish fish in the tank
1 or 2 fire fish
Mandarin Dragonet (I know that people you need a 100g tank, but I believe in myself) not until the tank is thriving
A tailspot blenny, lawnmower blenny and maybe a scooter
A little school of cardinals maybe (if anyone else has suggestions to good little schools of fish, I'm open to ideas)
Watchman goby with pistol shrimp maybe
And finally a cleaner crew

I saw this little black trigger fish at my lfs and I really liked it but I heard they arent good with corals

I'm gonna post another thread in a month or so about corals to get

Thanks,
Dillon

 

[jferrier74]

Avoid triggerfish with corals and most other non-aggresive fish. A friend of mine bought a trigger fish, black also I believe, and it killed everything he had before the day had ended. Hell of a hardy fish though. Mandarins do fine in small tanks provided they have a good supply of live copepods to eat , which usually means lots of live rock, which usually means you don't see this little guy sometimes, but sure is pretty when you do. Fire fish are nice docile triggerfish food. Gobies can mess up your tank bottom, but cool if you don't mind a little shuffling. Clowns are my favorite. Easier to care for, peaceful for the most part. Avoid large beautiful fish until you can keep the $5 damsels and easily cared for fish alive for a while. Also introduce them with the most aggressive last to reduce territory disputes.

 

[jay0705]

If your going reef it will hold back the amount of fish you can have. Reef tanks just can't handle the bio load of a heavily stocked tank. That said, a 75 is a very good starting size. Do homework on your equipment and a sump would be a huge help.
Fish wise, look into captive raised mandarins. Scooters will readily eat frozen food. A big "show" fish for a 75 would be limited bc you want to go reef. Nonreef I would say dwarf angel or fox face. There both reef safe w caution lol honestly a reef safe fish that I think you would like is a blue throat trigger. Add last and after you add any ornamental shrimp. These by most accounts are truly reef safe triggers.

 

[DillonZecher]

If your going reef it will hold back the amount of fish you can have. Reef tanks just can't handle the bio load of a heavily stocked tank. That said, a 75 is a very good starting size. Do homework on your equipment and a sump would be a huge help.
Fish wise, look into captive raised mandarins. Scooters will readily eat frozen food. A big "show" fish for a 75 would be limited bc you want to go reef. Nonreef I would say dwarf angel or fox face. There both reef safe w caution lol honestly a reef safe fish that I think you would like is a blue throat trigger. Add last and after you add any ornamental shrimp. These by most accounts are truly reef safe triggers.

Yea I'm getting a trigger systems triton sump and I'm setting up a refugium. The skimmer I got can handle heavy bio loads up to 90 gallons. I've been doing research for almost 5 months now mostly just on the equipment. Now I'm starting to focus on fish and corals. I like the idea of a trigger fish so I'll definitely look into the Blue Throat Trigger. I know to add the more aggressive fish at the end to give the more docile animals a chance to settle in and find a home.

Thank you

 

[jay0705]

Very good. Glad your doing your homework

 

[beaslbob]

IME the best thing to do is start the tank with macro algae in a refugium. That way the tank will be balanced and stabilized to make it forgiving of my type errors. LOL