How long to wait before ordering fish?

[pledosophy]

I have a 165g. I have gone through the cycle, added phyto daily for 2 weeks while I went through the diatoms. I added two cultures of pods and have continued dosing phyto. It's been about 8 weeks now. I added 1/4 of the clean up crew last week and am now in the hair algae phase.

I am looking to order a few of the Biota yellow tangs and a mated pair of manderins next, as well as another 75 or so members of the clean up crew.

The pods seem established... Is there any other reason to wait before adding the tangs/manderins?

 

[czoolander]

Go slow and monitor your nitrates and phosphates as the bio load increases in the tank. But yeah i see no reason not to start adding fish right now

I am sure you have a stocking list and will add your peaceful fish first and aggressive fish last? but i am sure you have that all mapped out?

 

[Dburr1014]

Tangs should be added last.
Mandarins need a constant suppy of pods in a well established system.
IMO, your tank is new. Wait a year+ for the mandarin. Tang, well, is your choice.

 

[EugeneVan]

If you are planning to QT your fish which I highly recommend for any tang. Tang are ick magnet and I think everyone agree with this statement. It take 45+ days to do a proper QT a fish. So my answer is order them now and start running your QT tank.

 

[czoolander]

If you are planning to QT your fish which I highly recommend for any tang. Tang are ick magnet and I think everyone agree with this statement. It take 45+ days to do a proper QT a fish. So my answer is order them now and start running your QT tank.

If its first fish in the tank you dont really need to QT can plop and drop

But yeah anything after your first fish you can QT for sure most def recommened

 

[pledosophy]

Tangs should be added last.
Mandarins need a constant supply of pods in a well established system.

Have you had this experience with captive bred fish? The Biota manderins eat prepared food. That is all they know. The tangs come in very small. It is why I wanted to start there. The tangs come in under 2"

 

[pledosophy]

If you are planning to QT your fish which I highly recommend for any tang. Tang are ick magnet and I think everyone agree with this statement. It take 45+ days to do a proper QT a fish. So my answer is order them now and start running your QT tank.

I will do a short QT, but there is no fear of ich with captive bred fish.