Keeping Non Traditional Fish in the Reef

kingfisherfleshy · Jan 13, 2011

Hey guys, I have about 4 years max left where I am living, so I have decided to do a little experiment.

I am getting rid of my 75g mixed reef, and transfering most of my corals over to a 6' long pred tank.

It will be stocked with two tangs, a blue hippo, and either a purple or a powder blue.

It will have two triggers (yes, I have done this before) a niger, and the smallest fish in the tank, a 1" undulated.

It will have 1 angelfish, pomacanthus navarcus.

It will have 3 wrasses...harlequin, mystery, and cleaner? Either that or a Lunare.

It will have 3-5x blood fire shrimp, as the coral banded that is in there with two triggers now has been asked by both of them for cleanings...I dont think he knows how to clean, so my fish are getting some blood reds. (Yes, I know I am asking for it, but thats why this is an experiment.)

Frags are cheap, and I am willing to replace somethings.

I feed heavily, so hopefully that should keep them at bay.

I am running a 55g sump, with an oversized ASM skimmer, and an odyssea skimmer.

It has a large area for macros, and I am planning on running a phosban 550 reactor with bio-pellets for more h2o quality control. There will be purigen filtration in the system as well.

Top of the tank will be SPS, working down to low light SPS...and I dont expect any problems there...but the bottom of the tank is fairly dim, but perfect for LPS.

Just wondering what experience people have had with any of these fish and LPS or SPS corals.

FishLipz · Jan 13, 2011

Good luck. Im interested to see what comes out of this. I think many of us have tried one of these " questionable" combos at one time or another but not all at once.

revhtree · Jan 13, 2011

What about your triggers snaking on your shrimp? :)

Sea MunnKey · Jan 13, 2011

This is what I wanna keep in a separate tank ... Blue Devil fish ... they're really cool and can grow really big too!

Paul

kingfisherfleshy · Jan 14, 2011

Interesting Rev...

I currently have a niger (basically reef safe is my status on them now) and a rectangulus in the tank.

There is also a rectangulus.

I have never seen either of them take a run at the coral banded shrimp, and the niger insists that the thing should clean him.

So I am removing the rectangulus, and the coral banded, and going to try a small colony of bloods. They are $15 each here right now, so I cant say no. If it doest work out, losing $45 will come in second place to feeling bad for the shrimp.

I think it might work.

kingfisherfleshy · Jan 14, 2011

FishLipz said:
Good luck. Im interested to see what comes out of this. I think many of us have tried one of these " questionable" combos at one time or another but not all at once.

Yea, agreed. This is my last tank before a move...and the only thing I am worried about are the LPS. I think I can pull this off.

Angel is the most worrying, I am hoping I can keep him fat enough on macros, sponges, newlife, and whatever else goes in the tank that he will leave them alone.

Im also hoping that I can upgrade my h2o changes and use the skimming and the phosphate reactor to keep h2o quality good enough to keep up coloration on some of the SPS I will be growing near the top.

I heard today that some people have bleached out corals when they first add their bio-pellet reactors...similar experiences anyone? Advice on avoiding that? Especially with me planning on using the huge one...I currently am planning to run that for a full month before adding any corals, then drip acclimating corals when I do add them.

Let me know what you guys think on the matter, and if I should start a separate post for that.

Lowsingle · Jan 14, 2011

I can't wait to see a pic of this tank if you pull it off........

Darren

KLR · Jan 14, 2011

Interesting..cant wait to see how this goes

Ive always been told, the reef safe triggers dont snack on shrimp and small fish if they are not hungry.....so feeding alot should prevent your shrimp disappearing

JGoslee · Jan 14, 2011

I've kept pinktail, huma huma, and blue throat triggers in my reef over the years. Non of them ever bothered my fish or corals but they loved eating any crabs or shrimp that were in the tank. The pinktail did like to carry frags around in his mouth. That got annoying but he never tried to eat them.
I've had a lunare wrasse for the last 5 years. I moved him to his own FO tank last year because he got to big but he spent the first 4 years in my reef and never caused any problems. I also had a young blueface angel in my reef for about 6 months until I lost him to an unknown illness. He was pretty good. I never caught him eating any corals.

kingfisherfleshy · Jan 14, 2011

JGoslee said:
I've kept pinktail, huma huma, and blue throat triggers in my reef over the years. Non of them ever bothered my fish or corals but they loved eating any crabs or shrimp that were in the tank. The pinktail did like to carry frags around in his mouth. That got annoying but he never tried to eat them.
I've had a lunare wrasse for the last 5 years. I moved him to his own FO tank last year because he got to big but he spent the first 4 years in my reef and never caused any problems. I also had a young blueface angel in my reef for about 6 months until I lost him to an unknown illness. He was pretty good. I never caught him eating any corals.

This is great news. I was most worried about the angel.

The triggers I will just try to keep well fed, the undulated deffinitely has a reputation.

About a half of the hardware that I want to run this tank is in place, it is currently up and running, but there is some other stuff I want to add before stocking any corals.

Thanks for the interest guys....any other experience with these fish with inverts or corals?

kingfisherfleshy · Jan 20, 2011

Hey guys, I decided not to bring in the undulated.

Funny, I still shipped him back from LA with me.

He is in a different tank.

The angel and the purple tang are looking good, now I just need to redo my rock, get some of the gross soft corals out, get my upgraded filtration running, and we will start stocking this thing with corals!

blaten · Jan 20, 2011

Good luck! I had a niger trigger in my reef years ago and it left all of my shrimp alone.

JGoslee · Jan 20, 2011

Sounds like the tank is coming together. I'm actually looking to add another pinktail to my reef.

kingfisherfleshy · Jan 21, 2011

blaten said:
Good luck! I had a niger trigger in my reef years ago and it left all of my shrimp alone.

I think this has to do with mouth shape...the triggers with upturned mouth are more plankton feeders I believe. The ones with the chompers are for macro inverts.

Either way, the undulated did not make it into the tank. Current stocking level is good, I may or may not add a bluethroat since my buddy is holding the undulated and has fallen in love with its mean antics.