Whoo! Stocking ideas.

bree

bree

New Member
Hellooo everyone!!
So after a couple years of looking after a tank with only a single tomato clown in it, I have gotten the chance to totally overhaul the tank and start fish from scratch!
Now this is a 30 gallon oceanic cube aquarium.
I have over 50Ibs live rock, and 1/4 inch live sand.
Some beginner corals which include mushrooms, zoanthlids, and some assort. polyps. But i will be expanding the coral collection for sure. :)
The creepy, crawlies i have in the tank right now are just a couple emerald crabs and a clean up crew of assort. snails.
Now this tank is located in a store and i need a variety of friendly, outgoing, hardy fish!
Or am outgoing school, with center piece fish possibly.
I had some idea...
6-line wrasse, chromis, pair of clowns, clown goby, etc etc?
What else could i add, what could i put together? Just throw some ideas at me!
And is it a good idea to possibly add another bag of live sand? When i first took over the care of this tank there was the sand that is already in there as well as another inch of crushed coral, which i took out.
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
I would add more sand yes. Generally u want about 2inches or so.fish. You could do clowns,fire fish,Christmas wrasse, sissor tail gobys
 
bree

bree

New Member
I love the Christmas Wrasse but they would jut be to big for the 30 i have... Its only a 24" square cube. so not enough horizonal swimming space hey?
But yes!! I am for sure getting a fire fish, they are amazing always planned on getting one, havent been able to order one in yet.
Any other ideas?
And for the sand i have a bag of natures ocean bio active aragonite sand. So i can basically just dump that in? And it won't cause any ammonia, nitrite, etc spikes?
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
It shouldn't. U have no fish in there now do u? BC when u put that in it will cloud the water for awhile.
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
As for fish. The tank size does limit u. You could do sea horses but they should b the only fish in the tank.
 
bree

bree

New Member
The tomato clown is still in there, but will be gone soon, i may have a new home lined up for him. :)
Seahorses don't really form to much interest to me to be honest, looking more fish.
On my list so far are:
1 Firefish
1 scissortail dartfih OR 2 zebra barred dartfish
1 Neon Goby (or pair if i can find one)
Anyone else?
OR if i cannot rehome the tomato clown
6 line wrasse
Gobys?
Others?
 
bree

bree

New Member
I was thinking cardinals as well, and even brought some in for the tank, but someone passing by saw them while i was floating them in the tank and bought them. haha
After more reading up on them, apparently they will start to bicker and pick each other off slowly till theres only one or two left, Yet they ARE a schooling fish which is why i originally brought in 6. So should i get a school or just 1?
 
S

saxman

Guest
Adding more LS will likely give you a spike, as in order to keep the bacteria in the sand alive, they require food, so yes, you'll get a spike. At this point, there's no reason not to add about 3/4" of well-rinsed dry sand. Unless you have burrowing fish/critters, 1" of substrate will be fine aesthetically. I prefer #3 or #1 grade aragonite (Tide Line puts out really good stuff), as it "lays down" much better than "sugar-fine", but doesn't trap detritus like CC.
As for fish...you might consider going "off the reservation" and keeping a dwarf lionfish (I'd go with a fuzzy, personally) as a centerpiece, plus a waspfish or two, or a small species scorpionfish. The fish are interesting, the fuzzy will become like a small aquatic dog, and you'll only need to feed them 3x a week.
Emerald Mithrax crabs can get large, and if they aren't provided with enuff food, they'll start looking at your fish. For starters, I'd remove one of them and keep an eye on the other. Two are too many for that size setup. Of course, if you decide to keep a lionfish, the crabs will likely be eaten if they're small enuff.
 
bree

bree

New Member
Good to know about the substrate...Hmm. Well i will for sure add more, what if i added live sand slowly, say a few cups per day? Maybe that would decrease the spike a little? I'm terrified of disturbing the tank to much as i am still so new to this and the tank has been doing so well! But i do know it needs more sand..
The lion and scorpians are just adorable, but venomous? And not quite as easy to care for i read. Plus they are likely to go for corals, i really do want to make this take FULL of beautiful corals so would like fish that will get along peacfuly with them.
But yea...I really do love the look of those fish...
And again are there any fish that i could put in with a tomato clown in a tank with the same size/ look, etc?
Visually this is the type of tank i am really wanting to go for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKq-3VlJVPQ
 
bree

bree

New Member
Anyone?
I added a 20 Ibs bag of live sand in today. So there shall be plenty in there now for for those sand lovers. :)
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
There r a ton of gobies u could try. After time aslong as u have Lr maybe a mandarin. These r tough fish to feed tho. Blennys is another fish there are alot of. Have u looked at any of the flasher or possum wrasse
 
bree

bree

New Member
Mandarin gobys just don't stay alive for very long, I had a beautiful female that lasted only a few days...
Holly Molly!! Those two are gorgeous, for sure considering one of each (would that work) was thinking males?
So maybe...
1x firefish
1x Male flasher wrasse
1x Midas Blenny
1x Royal Gramma Basslet
Single OR pair of ocellaris clownfish maybe...?
If those would all work out and be fine in the tank, in what order should i add them, clown fish obviously being last. :)
 
S

saxman

Guest

The lion and scorpians are just adorable, but venomous? And not quite as easy to care for i read. Plus they are likely to go for corals, i really do want to make this take FULL of beautiful corals so would like fish that will get along peacfuly with them.
Venomous, yes, deadly, no.  And they're very docile fishes.  As for corals, they won't give your corals a second look.  Once established, they're very easy to care for, and only need to be fed 3x a week. 
Just wanted to clear that up...
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Saxman is correct. The dwarf lions r good fish. Easy to maintain and I doubt would hurt corals. These reason there not reef safe is the fact they would eat most reef critters. Shrimp, crabs and small fish. I have mine w damsels and a puffer no issues.however feeding mine is an issue. I maybe just too easy but I couldn't get him to eat dead food. So he gets live marine shrimp.
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Saxman is correct. The dwarf lions r good fish. Easy to maintain and I doubt would hurt corals. These reason there not reef safe is the fact they would eat most reef critters. Shrimp, crabs and small fish. I have mine w damsels and a puffer no issues.however feeding mine is an issue. I maybe just too easy but I couldn't get him to eat dead food. So he gets live marine shrimp.
 
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