What Next?

[Becki67]

Hello everyone,

I'm back! Here's what we have so far. 2 blue damsels, 1 tomato clown, 1 perc clown, 1 purple lobster, 2 sally lightfoot crabs (creepy!!), 5 emerald crabs and a gazillion snails (turbos and the ones that hide in the sand).

I fell in love with a maroon clown last night, but I just read some posts on here that he'll fight with my other two clowns so now I'm scared to buy one. Our tomato clown already attacks my boyfriend when he's in there messing with the rocks...he doesn't even come near me when I'm

What should we buy next, in your opinion? The water parameters have been great and steady for the last few weeks.

Thoughts??

 

[Marke86]

Alright becca heres my list "keep clowns to same species they will kill each other" take the sally light foots out theyll turn into fish eaters quickly
Gobies, flame hawk, hawian wrasse, coral beauty, flame angel, 6 line wrasse, and any kind of blenny I like the scooter ones.

 

[Becki67]

Damn...the scary crabs will eat my fish??? I knew they were evil when the BF bought them...they give me the willies. They jump and now I have nightmares of them jumping on me while I'm sleeping.

I love the coral beauty....we were thinking of buying one last night.

One more thing...as usual. What would happen if we took all the fish out and put them all back in with new ones...would that make a difference or is that a totally idiotic question? I thought we might move the rocks around each time so that they can claim new territory.

 

[Bifferwine]

Three different types of clowns will probably end badly. Usually two different types of clowns ends badly, but you've lucked out on that one if yours are getting along.

Marke is right about the sally lightfoot crabs, they are AWFUL!!! I used to have two, and I finally was able to get rid of them after they caught and ate a firefish and a sixline wrasse. Those crabs are definitely not fish safe. They are scavengers when they are little, but it only takes a few months for them to get big enough to go after fish, and if you see yours start lunging at things that move or swim by, you'll know you need to get them out ASAP because they are fast and they will not hesitate to make a meal out of any fish they can catch.

A coral beauty would be a good addition, if you have decided you are interested in that fish. A flame angel would also be another good fish (but not both angels).

 

[reeffreak]

It's pretty amazing that you have two different clowns that are getting along.It would be a miracle if the maroon would co-exist with them.I wouldn't risk it and IMO,I don't think removing and reintroducing them all together will make a difference.It does work for some fish,I doubt it for clowns though.

 

[Becki67]

Yep, the two clowns get along just fine. They hang out together and sleep near each other every night. I think they bonded against the damsels.

I want the coral beauty but now I don't know what to do until BF gets the ugly crabs out. I'm hoping my purple lobster eats them, but the BF likes them.

 

[salt newbie01]

I would remove one of the clown fish and only keep one type. If they get along now, chances are they will not for long. I would also be cautious of the damsels. After they establish themselves in the tank they might be pretty hard on new additions.

The small angels are great - especially if you are not keeping coral. I prefer the flame angel over the coral beauty - mainly because as the coral beauty matures it looses a lot of the oprange and just winds up being dark. Wrasses are great fish and the reef safe ones flashers/fairys stay fairly small - but beware most wrasses are jumpers and you have to have an enclosed canopy or hood over the tank. Gobys are great as well. they stay small and several are colorful and have cool personalities. I haven't had luck with scooters - the ones I have gotten would not eat frozen or flake food. They are like mandarins and hunt for pods. So if your LFS has one make sure they are eating at the store. Firefish are pretty as well but they are also jumpers.

Check out liveaquaria.com and then click on the marine fish tab at the top left on the page. They have a ton of fish listed and give pretty good info about them. plus great pictures. HTH - there are just sopoo many to choose from. To giove more suggestions we would need to know what your plans are for the tank. Are you going to keep coral or not? What kind of lighting do you have? All this type info will affect fish choices. Good luck and have fun stocking it. I love getting new fish!!

 

[Becki67]

Okay, here's a description of what we have and what we want to do.

We have a 75 gallon with halides, T5's and lunars. We have about 75 lbs of live rock and we do want to do corals, but we're waiting for a few more months since we're fairly new at this.

We've tried to be careful what we put in because of the corals. I've actually been on liveaquaria. com a lot and also saltwaterfish.com. They are both pretty good sites.

 

[Bifferwine]

Saltwaterfish.com can have misleading information at times. I would also avoid ordering from them if you plan on getting stuff online, what they say is their warranty isn't actually true (I know this from experience). www.marinedepotlive.com is another really good site for getting information on species.

 

[hibye]

take the emeralds out to they are just as bad as sally light foots andif u have a a big sump 40 or bigge u may want to put one in there if ur bf likes them

 

[UnderwaterWorld]

I don't think I agree with hibye's statement

Your stocking fish pretty fast though, if I was you I would wait a couple or two and see how your current ones do, I personally would not keep 4 damsels together, but that's just me, they may take out eachother or any new fish you add

 

[Bifferwine]

Emeralds are not nearly as bad as sally lightfoots. Tons of people keep emerald crabs without any problems. Myself included. They grow much slower than sally lightfoots and it's rare to see one large enough that could go after fish.