Fish order recommendations

Jamie b · Sep 13, 2018

Hi

Currently have a 120g/420lt tank just finished cycling. I cycled with fish using the JBL Denitrol as recommended by LFS, Ammonia got to .2 on the jbl Marin kit after the first week then slowly dropped so would highly recommend it (if you’re really impatient or must keep fish straight away). After 6 weeks I currently have 2 clowns, royal gramma & cleaner shrimp all feeding well and swimming happily, I now want to add the following over time;

Copperbanded
Yellow tang
Regal tang
Emperor ang
Flame ang
Cleaner wrasse
Green chromis

All will be small/juvenile-ish, so with your expert knowledge and knowing how aggressive/territorial some of the above can be what order, if at all, would you introduce them to the tank?

Thanks in advance
J

Big G · Sep 13, 2018

Are you quarantining your incoming fish and treating them prophylactically for ich, velvet, flukes, worms?

Jamie b · Sep 13, 2018

I have a 20g tank set up ready to dose with Prazi and copper. Would you recommend a fresh dip as well?

Big G · Sep 13, 2018

Hi Jamie b

Welcome to R2R! So many kind and helpful people here. Welcome!
That being said, velvet and bacterial infections are running rampant in the industry these days. Highly, highly recommend you consider quarantining all of your incoming fish to prevent your main tank from getting wiped out. Here's my setup and method I use for all new fish. I also recommend QT'ing all incoming "wet" anything like corals, inverts (snails, shrimp), etc. with a different method for each type.
Hope this helps a bit.

Prophylactic Treatment: No observed symptoms of disease or injury to any new incoming fish:

20 gal QT cycled:
- HOB with both the foam pad & BioMax treated with Bio Spira/Dr Tims, and foam bubble filter with foam soaked in the same, or all of them soaked for at least 2 weeks in DT sump.
- heater, powerhead, Seachem Ammonia Alert Badge.
- Tank lights off. Ambient room lighting only.
- Feed fish with white/black worms, and or vitamin & fiber packed frozen food with Selcon/Zoecon for at least 3 days
- Freshwater dip to check for flukes. If no flukes treat first with copper.
- S-l-o-w-l-y (8-10 days) bring up copper to therapeutic levels for prophylactic treatment for 30 days: Tank lights off until therapeutic level is reached. Best to dose several times a day (AM, lunch, PM) rather than one large dose. Highly recommend use of Copper Power and a Hanna HL Copper Checker.
- Carbon & Cuprisorb to remove copper. Water changes. Observe.
- General Cure 2 doses 5-7 days apart. Turn up bubbler and turn on powerhead aimed at surface to increase O2. Like GC over Prazipro. GC has Metro + Praziquantel, so you are getting the Praziquantel which kills flukes and "some" internal parasites and Metro that kills all internal parasites/worms. And the dose of Praziquantel is lower but does the job and is easier on sensitive fish.
- Carbon & water changes.
- Observe 10-14 days.

Jamie b · Sep 15, 2018

Have decided to introduce an emperor and regal first as the copperbanded butterfly at the lfs was only eating when tanked on his own. Emperor and regal currently in QT eating and looking healthy fingers crossed. Thanks for the advise!