Best Procedure for Adding Fish from Quarantine into Main Display Tank

[kmwcane]

Hello everyone! In my main display tank, I have the following fish (these have been in the tank for roughly 8 months): 6 lyre tail anthias (1m, 5f), 1 exquisite fairy wrasse, 1 brunneus fairy wrasse, 1 red tail flasher wrasse, 1 purple firefish, 1 yellowtail black blenny, 1 smiths blenny and 1 orange spotted blenny.

The following fish have completed quarantine and are ready to add to the display: 1 lineatus fairy wrasse, 1 solar fairy wrasse, 1 pink streak wrasse, 1 watanabei angelfish (female), 1 gold rim tang and 1 purple tang.

I normally would use an acclimation box to add fish but since I am adding so many, I was thinking that I could add them all at once (after the display tank lights are out) with the expectation that so many new additions would overwhelm the established fish and thereby curb any aggression. I was also thinking of moving a few rocks and adding a new rock or two to add some confusion for the existing fish. Thoughts about this plan?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@Jay Hemdal

 

[BryanM]

You have several issues here.

Purples are notoriously aggressive. I would probably add the tangs LAST, and staged, adding the gold rim first so he can establish his own territory.... Otherwise the purple may very well claim all of the rockwork as his.

You already habe established Exquisite and Brunneus wrasses, adding the new wrasses is almost certainly going to cause territory disputes.

Staged additions using an acclimation box is your best bet:

First: pink streak wrasse and watanabe Angelfish, acclimation box for 1-2 days
Second: Lineatus and Solar, in separate boxes. 2-3 days, paying attention to your established wrasses. IF they are aggressive to the boxes, keep the wrasses in the boxes until this goes away.
Third: Gold Rim tang
Fourth: Purple tang

I like the idea of rearranging some rock work. This kinda resets territories. Probably best right before you release fish from the acclimation box... Since the first pair of fish is the least problematic I'd probably skip moving anything around for those - I would save this for the wrasses. Probably would not bother for the tangs either, considering my recommendation not to add them at the same time.

I would also strongly consider using a mirror to help aggression, and for a couple days with the tangs I'd probably over-feed as well to help combat aggression.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello everyone! In my main display tank, I have the following fish (these have been in the tank for roughly 8 months): 6 lyre tail anthias (1m, 5f), 1 exquisite fairy wrasse, 1 brunneus fairy wrasse, 1 red tail flasher wrasse, 1 purple firefish, 1 yellowtail black blenny, 1 smiths blenny and 1 orange spotted blenny.

The following fish have completed quarantine and are ready to add to the display: 1 lineatus fairy wrasse, 1 solar fairy wrasse, 1 pink streak wrasse, 1 watanabei angelfish (female), 1 gold rim tang and 1 purple tang.

I normally would use an acclimation box to add fish but since I am adding so many, I was thinking that I could add them all at once (after the display tank lights are out) with the expectation that so many new additions would overwhelm the established fish and thereby curb any aggression. I was also thinking of moving a few rocks and adding a new rock or two to add some confusion for the existing fish. Thoughts about this plan?

Is the group of fish just clearing quarantine all housed together? If so, that simplifies things. I’m thinking specially if the purple and gold rim are currently together and coexisting well….

I wouldn’t use an acclimation box, you’d need multiple ones for this many fish. I only use these when I have a good suspicion that some of the existing fish are going to attack the new ones, and that seems less likely in this case. An elegant solution is to put a tank divider in; old fish on one side, new ones on the other - wait a few days then pull the divider in the evening.

Personally, I’d opt to match the water quality of the two tanks (especially salinity) and just move all of the new fish in, not a dark tank, but one with ambient room light to allow the new fish to get the lay of the land.

A more conservative approach would be to use an acclimation box and move the new fish in one at a time….

Of course, relative sizes of all these fish is going to have some bearing on all this - if any of your fish are a lot larger or smaller than typically seen, you may need to adjust things.