what fish

[i've got crabs]

iv got a reef tank up and running, im new to this so iv got lots to learn.
I have 4 perc clowns, a chalk goby, 3 emerald crabs and a pain in the ass pistol shrimp that appeared from nowhere.
I also have a leather, zoas and some star polyps. what i wanted to know was what you would recomend for new fish in a very new unastablished tank,oh there is also 20kg of live rock in the tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

Did you allow your tank to cycle before you added fish? The 4 clowns will most likely end up fighting, even to the death. You should take 2 of them back to the store and just keep a pair. In a new tank, you should space out new additions by leaving about 3 weeks in between each new fish.

Your tank ends up being about a 68 gallon tank, so a wrasse of some sort would make a good addition. Or a small tang, like a yellow tang or yellow eye kole tang.

 

[i've got crabs]

yes the tank was cycled and the water tested weekly by my local marine center and all was fine. the clowns have been raised together in a tank and i purchased them at once. i was told that they should get on ok under these conditions. Just looked at the yellow eyes , very nice

 

[Bifferwine]

Maybe, but a more likely scenario is that they will start picking each other off one by one as they mature. I've seen more than 2 mature clowns kept in the same tank as each other before, but that's very rare -- 99.9% of the time, they fight and will fight til the death.

You also should keep in mind, that with a tank that size, you are limited to keeping 7 or 8 fish only. Do you really want half of the fish in your tank to be all the same kind? If you got rid of 2 of the clowns, you could keep more of different types of fish.

 

[i've got crabs]

that make sense and i see what your saying but i do like the way the clowns interact with anenomes,which i will get once the tank has matured. I will keep an eye on them and split them if i have to. Seven fish seems a bit tight but what do i know. how many shrimp crabs can i keep. thanks for the info

 

[Bifferwine]

It depends on the type of crabs and shrimp. You can keep a lot of shrimp together, as long as they have food. Same with crabs. With inverts like that, you risk them starving if you keep too many. There aren't too many kinds of reef-safe crabs, so if you want emerald crabs, 2 or 3 of those guys. Hermits, you can keep a dozen or so. Cleaner shrimp usually do well in pairs, and you can get peppermint shrimp in small groups of half a dozen or so. Fire shrimp should be kept solo.

 

[i've got crabs]

thanx for all your help im sure they'll be plenty more im going to need along the way. i'll let you know when the clowns kickoff.

 

[Bifferwine]

Hahahaha. Okay. :)

 

[mcmusashi5]

i just wanna say i like your screen name ive got crabs! thumbs up

 

[yote]

+1 Biff
And welcome aboard.