Adding Fish Advice l

[ReefTanker91]

Hello fellow enthusiasts. I hope everyone is doing well.

When I started the adventure into fish/reef keeping I knew I would want to get a pair of dragonets. I’m still contemplating which color/design but did want some professional opinions into whether I may be maxed out on space for two more fish.

My DT is an 82 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. It is 3x2. The display has about 60lbs of tbs live rock. The sump has a brs media reactor with carbon running. Large protein skimmer. I also run a media sock with phosguard. Fish eat well through a avast marine plank feeder. Mix of reef jerkey, pe mysis, tdo pellets (two sizes) and some herbivore pellets as well. I’ll feed frozen mysis maybe twice a week. I do seed pods weekly and seed live phyto nightly. The tank has been up since 05/13/24 so going on 5 months. If I do get the dragonets it will be the biota ones from dr reefs. All my live stock has been from him and I’m extremely grateful he is an option as all of the fish arrive healthy.

Below is my current live stock list. Some of which came on the rock.

3 blue star Leopard Wrasse
2 yellow choris wrasse
1 Lo Foxface
1 Royal gramma
1 Tuxedo urchin
Pair ocellaris
Pair Banggai cardinal
Lawnmower Blenny
Randals goby
3 Cleaner shrimp
2 emerald crabs
4 fighting conch
Trochus snails
Astrae snails
Few porcelain crab
Many feather dusters
Few bivalves

I would really like to know your thoughts and experiences.

Thank you.

 

[Cheese Griller]

You've got a few things going against you here - your 5 wrasses (particularly the leopards) are big pod eaters, and will be the biggest limiting factor here. Your tank also has very minimal space for pods to hide and reproduce, so that will make it even harder. I've tried the captive bred dragonets before, and they come in so small that they need really specialized care if you want to keep them alive. Personally, I would skip out on them, they need a tank that is built with them in mind to really thrive- One with a dense rockscape to facilitate pods, and few other pod-eating fish, and your tank has neither of those things unfortunately.