First fish advice

[mjk42]

I'm planning to add my first fish to my tank this weekend. Cycle has been done for a few weeks now and NH3 is negative x2 with low nitrates. Tank is ~94 gallons with total volume of about 115 gallons. My favorite fish store is 2 hours away and we are planning to make the trip on Saturday. I want to add a pair of clown fish (ocellaris vs percula?) and was thinking about adding a 3rd fish as well because I'm not sure when I will be able to get back to the store. Is trying to add 3 fish at the start too much? It doesn't seem like the bioload from one extra fish would be crazy.... If I go with a third fish I was think of adding an aptasia eating file fish to get him settled in well before I have an aptasia issue (hopefully never!). If they don't have one, any other good options for a 3rd fish that might also help part of the utility crew? Too early for the small tang (kole or tomini)?

Appreciate the advice!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

You would be fine to add three fish at once, especially with a tank that size.

Up to you on which clowns you want!

You could do a blenny or a goby for your third fish if you wanted to!

 

[lapin]

Adding fish is fun . What ever you choose will be fine.
The hard part is controlling diseases,
A lot of people get the fish and wonder why they get sick and die.
Have you thought about QT?

 

[mjk42]

Adding fish is fun . What ever you choose will be fine.
The hard part is controlling diseases,
A lot of people get the fish and wonder why they get sick and die.
Have you thought about QT?

I am having a hard time deciding on a QT program. I already have live sand and some live rock that came with a few little crab hitchhikers so I am more in the ich management mindset. I have UV setup for lower rate flow for high exposure targeted towards ich. The fish store mi I toes the new fish for a period of time prior to sale but not a true intensive WT with copper etc. I am very into
Fisted by the WT need for daily water change etc for weeks and know that with my work schedule this simply won’t be practical. I was going to use the rapid formalin and methylene blue dips to high I know isn’t as good but figure it might be better than nothing…. In my fresh water tank days I learned generally that if the water conditions were good and efforts to reduce stress with good feeding and avoiding overcrowding I had very few issues with ich in many years.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

I have come to think about having a QT/hospital tank this sort of way:

I have a similarly sized system as yours. There are seven fish in it, inexpensive ones so they're probably replaceable for ~$500. I'm a bit attached to at least some of them, especially the older ones (my oldest is a royal gramma I've had for 14 years). And they're living things, some of which were pulled out of the wild for my trivial enjoyment (and it is safe to assume that every wild caught fish in a tank implies the removal of 2 or 3 from the wild, counting the ones that died along the way).

At any rate, that's $500 I could stand to lose from the next fish I add. A decent QT setup can be had for less than $500. Also, I'll have that equipment for years (as opposed to a similarly priced pile of dead fish in the trash).

Also, if I bring some disease in, I'll simply have to watch them die without any good means of treating them -- that's demoralizing, and I need all the morale I can get. I could set up a hospital tank on the fly, but setting up a tank to hold and treat that many fish effectively is a lot harder than having a tank that can QT one or two fish at a time as I add them.

Keep in mind that QT isn't entirely about treating disease, contra the 'rapid dips' you mention. It is also importantly about observation (that's literally what quarantine is, though that word is misused in reefkeeping lately), and getting the fish adapted to new foods and water parameters (adjusting the salinity on a QT is a good gentle way to acclimate fish to reef tank salinity). It can also be a waiting period during which the keeper has a chance to back out of bad impulse purchases, which are a thing when buying from a shop that's a distance away; that six-line wrasse looked like a great choice at the shop and it was on sale and the guy at the shop talked it up, but during a month in QT the keeper has time to reconsider adding such a hellion to the DT.

Otherwise, consider buying only truly cleaned-up fish from a vendor who is in the business of cleaning up fish and has a reputation for doing so effectively.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

my oldest is a royal gramma I've had for 14 years

edit: 11 years. Bad math.

 

[The Ugly Phase]

i added a 5" regal angel a 1" royal gramma and 3" midas blenny when i set my tank up never got a ammonia spike you should be fine if you feed nori on a clip you could add a tang now i have a baby yellow tang and just starting to get brown algae now