Stocking a Tank Question

C

cmd33

Guest
I have been waiting for my tank to fully Cycle (and attempting to get the damsels I initially bought that are still alive out of my tank) for about a month before buying the fish I would ultimately like to have in my tank long term. I think I should be able to get the damsels out before this weekend, and based on testing my water two weeks ago the tank should be cycled by now. That being said, I’ve researched the fish I would ultimately like to keep and their compatibility with each other, and want to see if anything I’ve read is incorrect and would ultimately lead to problems.
The list of fish is below and my tank is a 105 gallon tank with approximately 130 lbs of live rock and a Protein Skimmer (not sure of the brand) and UV sterilizer (not sure of the brand on this either) in the Sump with T5 lighting. I also currently have two good sized hermit crabs and one turbo snail.
Fish
1) One Black and One Orange Ocellaris - told I should get a good size difference between the two in order to increase the likelihood of the two pairing up.
2) Blue Hippo Tang
3) Yellow Tang
4) Convict Tang
5) Flame Angel
6) Banggai Cardinal
7) Sixline Wrasse
8) Squarespot/Pink Square Anthias
9) Green Mandarin Fish
10) Vagabond Butterfly
Inverts
1) Cleaner Shrimp
2) Red General Starfish
Are any of the fish or inverts I have listed above going to cause problems for one another? Based on everything I've read they all should be compatible, but I wanted to see if anyone knows if they won't be based on experience. Also, is this list potentially too large for a 105 gallon tank?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is my first go round, and I want to be sure I'm doing things properly.
 

halamaya

Member
the starfish isn't reef safe if you plan on adding corals. Don't add your Mandarin until your tanks been up and runnning for atleast 6 months. maybe less cause your tank has a lot of rock. My sixline got really aggressive but in your larger tank he might be ok, everyone seems to be on one side or the other with these guys. Love the colors and price tag but not the attitude. My Leopard wrasse has been doing well for me, there are a ton of beautiful wrasse's out there, just make sure that it's reef safe if thats what your going for. Linkia stars are reef safe and come in a few different colors. I'm sure some experts will chime in just wanted to get you going.
 

jubbin2001

Member
If you are going for a FOWLR then I would say your tank looks pretty good. I don't see to many issues with compatability.
A word of caution though, Green Mandarins can be difficult to keep. They require a very mature tank, with lots of pods for it to munch on. I say this because Sixlines also like to forage for pods as well, but atleast it's not their main food source like the mandarins. Both of them spend all day cruising the rocks eating (well at least my sixline does). So if it were me, I would have the tank setup for atleast 6 months, and add both of those fish at the same time. Just so that there is a good healthy population of pods.
Why wouldn't you keep the damsels in there? I have some yellows in with my chromis, and they look really neat together. I dunno, personally I would keep them
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I would keep an eye on on your inverts with that Red General. You'd think things could get away from them, but I have seen them topple hermits and snails just to suck them out of their shells.
I would start slow with adding the fish, maybe 2 at a time, wait for a couple weeks, and keep going. You want to give your biological filtration a chance to catch up.
As I said earlier, I would certainly wait for atleast 6 months before adding the sixline and mandarin. The only reason the sixline I would wait on is because they compete for food sources. If you have the sixline in there first, I can see him picking on the mandarin. I actually found this out the hard way and lost a mandarin due to a sixline constantly picking on him. Hopefully by introducing them at the same time, you could avoid such an issue (having the larger tank does help..mine were still in a 55g, and for those fish you would think that would be enough room). I know waiting sucks, but in the long run it will totally be worth it. You want a really stable tank with lots of pods for that mandarin, they can be a bit.....persnickity. Best of luck
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