Fish list advice

[Ishai Thatcher]

Hello all! I am a Reefer who has been out of the hobby for a couple years, and now I’m ready to set up my next tank!

ive spent all the money I could designing and purchasing a 125 gallon reef ready tank with all the lighting, monitoring, filtration and automation that is possible. I went all out.

my plan is for an sps dominant community reef, with the showstopper of the tank being a pair of ribbon eels (yes I know the difficulty). I have compiled a list of the fish I would like to get, and was wondering if y’all could skim over it and tell me if you think it’s reasonable for the tank size. This will be my full stock list, minus coral, nems and clams and cleaner crew.

Six line wrasse
3 tangs- gem tang, purple tang, yellow tang
Blue mandarin pair
Orange back fairy wrasse
Cleaner wrasse pair
Melanurus wrasse
School of chromis
School of Bengai cardinals
Shrimp goby pair
Starry blenny
Royal gramma
Clownfish pair
Fire fish
File fish
Cleaner shrimp
Pom Pom crabs
Arrow crab
Ribbon eels (2)

 

[EvanDeVita]

Hello all! I am a Reefer who has been out of the hobby for a couple years, and now I’m ready to set up my next tank!

ive spent all the money I could designing and purchasing a 125 gallon reef ready tank with all the lighting, monitoring, filtration and automation that is possible. I went all out.

my plan is for an sps dominant community reef, with the showstopper of the tank being a pair of ribbon eels (yes I know the difficulty). I have compiled a list of the fish I would like to get, and was wondering if y’all could skim over it and tell me if you think it’s reasonable for the tank size. This will be my full stock list, minus coral, nems and clams and cleaner crew.

Six line wrasse
3 tangs- gem tang, purple tang, yellow tang
Blue mandarin pair
Orange back fairy wrasse
Cleaner wrasse pair
Melanurus wrasse
School of chromis
School of Bengai cardinals
Shrimp goby pair
Starry blenny
Royal gramma
Clownfish pair
Fire fish
File fish
Cleaner shrimp
Pom Pom crabs
Arrow crab
Ribbon eels (2)

I'm not familiar with Ribbon Eels, but I would check for their compatibility with inverts. There are some at my LFS and they live under the rocks (like all eels) so I'm not sure if a shrimp/goby pair would be safe.
I do not recommend firefish either, they just aren't worth being in any tank.
Be careful with Filefish - they are a relatively risky fish to keep.
Some recommendations:
More wrasses (I love the idea of 3-5 leopard wrasses grouping up)
Instead of Bengali cardinals, there are beautiful tetras out there (I like Seal's Cardinals)

The stocking looks good to me though - with the right filtration this stocking list is fine! I love the idea of having two ribbon eels as the show fish of your tank and I cant wait to see more!

 

[nereefpat]

There are some pretty big challenges there.

The sixline wrasse won't tolerate other wrasses once it matures a bit.
The three similar tangs in a 125 may work, but I would be surprised if you didn't have issues.
Ribbon eels are really difficult to keep.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I'm not familiar with Ribbon Eels, but I would check for their compatibility with inverts. There are some at my LFS and they live under the rocks (like all eels) so I'm not sure if a shrimp/goby pair would be safe.
I do not recommend firefish either, they just aren't worth being in any tank.
Be careful with Filefish - they are a relatively risky fish to keep.
Some recommendations:
More wrasses (I love the idea of 3-5 leopard wrasses grouping up)
Instead of Bengali cardinals, there are beautiful tetras out there (I like Seal's Cardinals)

The stocking looks good to me though - with the right filtration this stocking list is fine! I love the idea of having two ribbon eels as the show fish of your tank and I cant wait to see more!

Ok so no fire fish, and the file fish might be unsafe around the corals? I’ll just see how the eels behave around some like cheap peppermint shrimp to see if they are gonna go after my inverts. I was planning on putting some 1 in pvc pipes under my sand for the eels to hopefully call home. I was also maybe thinking about adding a couple of bimaculatus anthias? Can you get multiple melanurus wrasses?
Thanks so much for your advice. The tank is a 120 gal ( 4x2x2) rimmed tank with lid, plumbed to a 30 gallon triton sump with filter socks, a 20 gallon regufium, and marine pure bricks. I’m planning on running 2 ai prime fuge lights and 2 tunze ecochic underwater refugium lights. Gonna go with a skimmer rated for like a heavy bioload 175 gallon (as I’m adding a 32 gallon nem tank to the system, and maybe more tanks later). Power heads are 3 mp10’s and 2 mp40’s all with nemprotect guards, with 2 battery backups. Return pump is gonna be 1 vectra s2 with another s2 plumbed in line. I’m gonna run carbon off of that s2 return manifold, as well as the 32gallon + other tanks. I have an apex with a trident and 3 dos dosing pumps (bed 2 part, auto water changes, phytoplankton and no3po4x). I have 2 temperature probs and two 300 watt heater elements and one 200 watt I also have an apex par monitoring system. I got the atk v2 from Neptune systems for my ato. The ato reservoir will refill itself with some optical sensors and a solenoid connected to my rodi system. This same setup will also be on my auto water change reservoir for saltwater.
For lighting, I got a 48 in aquatic life hybrid with 2 ati true actinic and 2 blue plus. For the leds I got 2 EcoTech xr15 blues running coral lab ab+ Spectrum, spaced 15 in on center from the edge to give a little bit of a hot spot of par for my sps in the middle of the tanks. I also have one extra xr15 pro for the nem tank.
I’m gonna use kz products for coral aminos and trace elements. salt will be the b ionic sea water system.

I was planning on using ocean direct sand on top of Fiji mud for my refugium, but I’m undecided on if the mud is a good idea. What do y’all think? I’m gonna run chaetomorpha only most likely. I got some chaeto grow element fertilizer.

my goal is to be able to feed rather heavy meaty foods for the ribbon eels especially. I really put all my money into making the tank extra automated and safe. I want my fish and coral to be as happy as possible.

My sand will be Arag alive special grade abt 3 in deep (to cover the pvc in the sand for eels). My aquascape will be NSA style with reef saver shelf and normal reef saver with foundation pieces for the base all cemented and glued together.

for cycling the tank I’m gonna do a fish less one and use doctor Tim’s one and only, microbacter 7, algae barns turbo start, as well as a brand I picked up from a LFS. My thinking is the biodiversity of strains from the start the better.
All my fish will be quarantined before going in.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

There are some pretty big challenges there.

The sixline wrasse won't tolerate other wrasses once it matures a bit.
The three similar tangs in a 125 may work, but I would be surprised if you didn't have issues.
Ribbon eels are really difficult to keep.

Ok so no sixline! Maybe just 3 purple tangs? I have a good source for the ribbon eels and the tank is going to be especially catered to them. I’m aware of the challenge but that’s part of the fun for me. Most of the trouble keeping ribbon eels comes from if they were harvested with cyanide. They also are finicky eaters. But if they are comfortable and have another ribbon eel to take feeding cues off of, and if they weren’t caught with cyanide, they often do really well. Their mouth are too small and they are too blind to catch any fish. It’s also key to provide them a “cave” the length of their bodies which I intend to do with some pvc running the length of the tank under the sand with entrances sticking out. They also gotta be fed a good diversity of foods ( I’m thinking of cutting up lfs fish Frenzy chunky into some good sized pieces). The last thing that’s important for the ribbons is not feeding them with big tongs, you have to use a thin skewer so they don’t mistake it for an eel larger than themselves and shy away.

 

[Tastee]

Sixlines seem to be hit and miss. I have one in my 65g tank who is a model citizen, been there over 3 years now and gets on well with everyone. Others have issues.

I have had no success with Firefish, Bangaii Cardinals or Cleaner Wrasses myself, due I think to their need for regular feeding throughout the day. Currently my tanks get fed once a day at night and that does not appear enough for these fish. Cleaner Wrasses in particular have a very small stomach and need regular access to food. Lots of folk feel they should not be kept in home tanks at all.

I am going to try Bangaii again but when I do I will have an AFS feeding small pellets at least once a day as well as our frozen at night. Waiting until this tank (1YO 130g) matures a bit more before trying this.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I'm not familiar with Ribbon Eels, but I would check for their compatibility with inverts. There are some at my LFS and they live under the rocks (like all eels) so I'm not sure if a shrimp/goby pair would be safe.
I do not recommend firefish either, they just aren't worth being in any tank.
Be careful with Filefish - they are a relatively risky fish to keep.
Some recommendations:
More wrasses (I love the idea of 3-5 leopard wrasses grouping up)
Instead of Bengali cardinals, there are beautiful tetras out there (I like Seal's Cardinals)

The stocking looks good to me though - with the right filtration this stocking list is fine! I love the idea of having two ribbon eels as the show fish of your tank and I cant wait to see more!

Also, for corals, I’m planning on doing a par map of the tank once it has water and the aqua scape. This will allow me to find the best spots to put my different kinds of corals, I’m gonna try to put the same kinds of corals together to limit chemical warfare. I wanna have a little clam/ flower pot garden, a zoa garden, a blasto garden and a couple a scolymia throughout the tank. I’m gonna get a lot of high end acros, milliapora, and montipora. Maybe a couple euphyllia strains and hammers throughout. For the anemone I’m going to get a Colorado sunburst.

I want the tank to be able to earn me some money back. As I’m gonna put a lot of effort into keeping it completely pest free.

how is it sounding?

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

Sixlines seem to be hit and miss. I have one in my 65g tank who is a model citizen, been there over 3 years now and gets on well with everyone. Others have issues.

I have had no success with Firefish, Bangaii Cardinals or Cleaner Wrasses myself, due I think to their need for regular feeding throughout the day. Currently my tanks get fed once a day at night and that does not appear enough for these fish. Cleaner Wrasses in particular have a very small stomach and need regular access to food. Lots of folk feel they should not be kept in home tanks at all.

I am going to try Bangaii again but when I do I will have an AFS feeding small pellets at least once a day as well as our frozen at night. Waiting until this tank (1YO 130g) matures a bit more before trying this.

I can’t have an afs due to the need for the lid to fit tightly for the eels. But I can see a possibility of dosing refrigerated foods throughout the day instead of the no3 po4x on one of my dos dosing pumps. Do you think that would help with those quick moving fish metabolisms like the fire fish, cleaner wrasse, anthias and chromis and Bengai? I’m also gonna do my best to keep the pod populations booming by dosing phyto and live algae barn pods, so I imagine that will help the mandarins get what they need?

 

[EvanDeVita]

I can’t have an afs due to the need for the lid to fit tightly for the eels. But I can see a possibility of dosing refrigerated foods throughout the day instead of the no3 po4x on one of my dos dosing pumps. Do you think that would help with those quick moving fish metabolisms like the fire fish, cleaner wrasse, anthias and chromis and Bengai? I’m also gonna do my best to keep the pod populations booming by dosing phyto and live algae barn pods, so I imagine that will help the mandarins get what they need?

I also had a six line that was a model citizen, but it was added last. I didn’t want to tell you not to get one because I wasn’t sure how you’ve experienced them.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I also had a six line that was a model citizen, but it was added last. I didn’t want to tell you not to get one because I wasn’t sure how you’ve experienced them.

From what I’m hearing, I’ll just get a couple melanurus wrasses, as it seems like they do a comparably good job at controlling coral and fish parasites.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I also had a six line that was a model citizen, but it was added last. I didn’t want to tell you not to get one because I wasn’t sure how you’ve experienced them.

Thank for the advice you guys might have helped me dodge a bullet!

 

[EvanDeVita]

Ok so no fire fish, and the file fish might be unsafe around the corals? I’ll just see how the eels behave around some like cheap peppermint shrimp to see if they are gonna go after my inverts. I was planning on putting some 1 in pvc pipes under my sand for the eels to hopefully call home. I was also maybe thinking about adding a couple of bimaculatus anthias? Can you get multiple melanurus wrasses?
Thanks so much for your advice. The tank is a 120 gal ( 4x2x2) rimmed tank with lid, plumbed to a 30 gallon triton sump with filter socks, a 20 gallon regufium, and marine pure bricks. I’m planning on running 2 ai prime fuge lights and 2 tunze ecochic underwater refugium lights. Gonna go with a skimmer rated for like a heavy bioload 175 gallon (as I’m adding a 32 gallon nem tank to the system, and maybe more tanks later). Power heads are 3 mp10’s and 2 mp40’s all with nemprotect guards, with 2 battery backups. Return pump is gonna be 1 vectra s2 with another s2 plumbed in line. I’m gonna run carbon off of that s2 return manifold, as well as the 32gallon + other tanks. I have an apex with a trident and 3 dos dosing pumps (bed 2 part, auto water changes, phytoplankton and no3po4x). I have 2 temperature probs and two 300 watt heater elements and one 200 watt I also have an apex par monitoring system. I got the atk v2 from Neptune systems for my ato. The ato reservoir will refill itself with some optical sensors and a solenoid connected to my rodi system. This same setup will also be on my auto water change reservoir for saltwater.
For lighting, I got a 48 in aquatic life hybrid with 2 ati true actinic and 2 blue plus. For the leds I got 2 EcoTech xr15 blues running coral lab ab+ Spectrum, spaced 15 in on center from the edge to give a little bit of a hot spot of par for my sps in the middle of the tanks. I also have one extra xr15 pro for the nem tank.
I’m gonna use kz products for coral aminos and trace elements. salt will be the b ionic sea water system.

I was planning on using ocean direct sand on top of Fiji mud for my refugium, but I’m undecided on if the mud is a good idea. What do y’all think? I’m gonna run chaetomorpha only most likely. I got some chaeto grow element fertilizer.

my goal is to be able to feed rather heavy meaty foods for the ribbon eels especially. I really put all my money into making the tank extra automated and safe. I want my fish and coral to be as happy as possible.

My sand will be Arag alive special grade abt 3 in deep (to cover the pvc in the sand for eels). My aquascape will be NSA style with reef saver shelf and normal reef saver with foundation pieces for the base all cemented and glued together.

for cycling the tank I’m gonna do a fish less one and use doctor Tim’s one and only, microbacter 7, algae barns turbo start, as well as a brand I picked up from a LFS. My thinking is the biodiversity of strains from the start the better.
All my fish will be quarantined before going in.

Do not get two melanarus. There are other Halichores wrasse you can get, but I lm pretty sure two melanarus will fight. I say this because I’m not confident with how they are sexed. Fairy wrasse, leopard wrasse, flasher wrasse, are very easy to sex, and are therefore easy to get several females and a single male. With 99% of wrasse, if you put two males of the same species (meaning two male flame wrasse, two male McCosker, two male melagaris, etc... they will fight. If you can get your hands on two melanarus you are sure are female, go for it. If not, don’t risk it IMO.
I like the idea with pipes, I know that it’s worked with other kinds of eel and predatory fish. I’m not sure how or if they need to be clean, so keep this in mind.
I unfortunately don’t feel comfortable giving any advice on refugium or Anthias, so hopefully someone else can give you advice.

 

[EvanDeVita]

Also keep in mind there are many wrasse out there that will pest populations down, but only the cleaner wrasse (and other cleaner fish) attack parasites that live on other fish.

 

[EvanDeVita]

I can’t have an afs due to the need for the lid to fit tightly for the eels. But I can see a possibility of dosing refrigerated foods throughout the day instead of the no3 po4x on one of my dos dosing pumps. Do you think that would help with those quick moving fish metabolisms like the fire fish, cleaner wrasse, anthias and chromis and Bengai? I’m also gonna do my best to keep the pod populations booming by dosing phyto and live algae barn pods, so I imagine that will help the mandarins get what they need?

If you have a 125 gallon, I would wait a while before adding any fish that smash pod populations (like mandarins or wrasse), so that the pod population can naturally form. If you do this the tank should become self sustaining. You could always add pods, but unless the tank is mostly self sufficient, you will need to add LOTS of pods. Do you understand what I just said, it’s hard to be clear in text sometime ?

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

If you have a 125 gallon, I would wait a while before adding any fish that smash pod populations (like mandarins or wrasse), so that the pod population can naturally form. If you do this the tank should become self sustaining. You could always add pods, but unless the tank is mostly self sufficient, you will need to add LOTS of pods. Do you understand what I just said, it’s hard to be clear in text sometime ?

Totally. I was planning on just maybe adding a melanurus wrasse at first but holding off on the other pod eaters till the tank has been up for like a year. From what I’ve read it seems like if you dose live phyto and put a lot of lives pods in the refugium every month or so, a rlly solid population should form.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

Do not get two melanarus. There are other Halichores wrasse you can get, but I lm pretty sure two melanarus will fight. I say this because I’m not confident with how they are sexed. Fairy wrasse, leopard wrasse, flasher wrasse, are very easy to sex, and are therefore easy to get several females and a single male. With 99% of wrasse, if you put two males of the same species (meaning two male flame wrasse, two male McCosker, two male melagaris, etc... they will fight. If you can get your hands on two melanarus you are sure are female, go for it. If not, don’t risk it IMO.
I like the idea with pipes, I know that it’s worked with other kinds of eel and predatory fish. I’m not sure how or if they need to be clean, so keep this in mind.
I unfortunately don’t feel comfortable giving any advice on refugium or Anthias, so hopefully someone else can give you advice.

I really appreciate It. I haven’t kept many wrasses in my time reefing, so I really needed to hear that. Seems like a good idea would be to get a couple sexed fairy wrasses with one male n a couple females. And then just get one melanurus. I love the melanurus color patterns, but I wanna do my best to make the tank low aggression. Thanks again for all the great advice!

 

[Zionas]

I would not do 3 Zebrasoma in a 125, it’s too risky. Generally it’s better to have 1 Tang of each genus, though people have successfully mixed Zebrasoma Tangs in smaller tanks. I’d ask for advice on how to achieve this if that’s what you want to do.

Going by your list:

-Clownfish pair: Great

-Fire Fish: Just too timid for most tanks. The Purple, Helfrichi varieties can be pretty, but one of the fish that are TOO peaceful for most tanks.

-File Fish: Orange Spotted Filefish are very hard to keep. Other species I’m not so sure about, but heard they can be coral eaters.

-Six Line Wrasse: Do you intend to keep other wrasses? If so, I’d caution against this one.

-Orange Back Fairy Wrasse: Great, beautiful fish.

-Ribbon Eels: Very hard to keep alive, if you’re set on an Eel, consider a Snowflake, Zebra Moray etc.

-Cleaner Wrasse pair: Wild caught Cleaner Wrasses are often hard to keep alive, your best bet is to get ORA Captive Bred ones but not sure how they do in pairs.

-Melanurus Wrasse: Great fish.

-School of Chromis: people have mixed results keeping them in groups. Some say 6+ leads to more success, others have had theirs whittle down to 1-2 regardless of starting numbers. IMO Chrysiptera damsels are prettier, smaller, and you can keep a variety of them.

-School of Bangaii Cardinals: Not sure how this works but my understanding is they pair off and kill the odd ones out.

-Starry Blenny: Great.

-Shrimp and Goby Pair: Great.

-Royal Gramma: Great.

-Blue Mandarin Pair: Not sure how pairing works, but best bet is to get ORA or other Captive Bred ones. Either way best to make sure your tank has a thriving pod population, give it some time.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I would not do 3 Zebrasoma in a 125, it’s too risky. Generally it’s better to have 1 Tang of each genus, though people have successfully mixed Zebrasoma Tangs in smaller tanks. I’d ask for advice on how to achieve this if that’s what you want to do.

Going by your list:

-Clownfish pair: Great

-Fire Fish: Just too timid for most tanks. The Purple, Helfrichi varieties can be pretty, but one of the fish that are TOO peaceful for most tanks.

-File Fish: Orange Spotted Filefish are very hard to keep. Other species I’m not so sure about, but heard they can be coral eaters.

-Six Line Wrasse: Do you intend to keep other wrasses? If so, I’d caution against this one.

-Orange Back Fairy Wrasse: Great, beautiful fish.

-Ribbon Eels: Very hard to keep alive, if you’re set on an Eel, consider a Snowflake, Zebra Moray etc.

-Cleaner Wrasse pair: Wild caught Cleaner Wrasses are often hard to keep alive, your best bet is to get ORA Captive Bred ones but not sure how they do in pairs.

-Melanurus Wrasse: Great fish.

-School of Chromis: people have mixed results keeping them in groups. Some say 6+ leads to more success, others have had theirs whittle down to 1-2 regardless of starting numbers. IMO Chrysiptera damsels are prettier, smaller, and you can keep a variety of them.

-School of Bangaii Cardinals: Not sure how this works but my understanding is they pair off and kill the odd ones out.

-Starry Blenny: Great.

-Shrimp and Goby Pair: Great.

-Royal Gramma: Great.

-Blue Mandarin Pair: Not sure how pairing works, but best bet is to get ORA or other Captive Bred ones. Either way best to make sure your tank has a thriving pod population, give it some time.

Yeah I’m gonna ditch the six line, the fire fish, and the file fish (I was gonna get them to control aptasia). Mandarins will be added later from yall advice. Bengai will just be 2 in the end. I’m gonna go with a bigger school of chromis and feed throughout the day a couple times to keep their fast little metabolisms going. I’m set on the ribbon eels, but I’ve done all the research possible to figure out how to care for them and where to get them from. The entire tank is built around keeping the ribbon eels happy and eating. And with the tangs, what would you do for a 120 to limit aggression and take care of algae?
I’m not set on the kind of tang, or the number. Suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

 

[EvanDeVita]

I really appreciate It. I haven’t kept many wrasses in my time reefing, so I really needed to hear that. Seems like a good idea would be to get a couple sexed fairy wrasses with one male n a couple females. And then just get one melanurus. I love the melanurus color patterns, but I wanna do my best to make the tank low aggression. Thanks again for all the great advice!

Not to slam you with choices but you can have multiple male fairy wrasses, as long as they don’t look alike.... and you’re very welcome!

 

[Zionas]

Good luck with the Ribbon Eels! I think for a 120 a Zebrasoma, a Bristletooth Tang, and a smaller Acanthurus Tang like a Lavender would probably be the best combo I can think of.

Or maybe you could do 2 Tangs and a Foxface?