Looking for fish stocking ideas

pdt7361 · May 5, 2016

Hello everyone,
I am working on putting together a stock list for what I want to have in my new 90gal reef. I currently have a Biocube 29 with these in it:

Current fish:
2* Fancy ocellaris clowns (paired)
1* Tri-color wrasse
1* Diamond goby

Current inverts:
1* Cleaner shrimp
2* Porcelain crabs
2* Peppermint shrimp (I think one is actually a camel back and will be tossed into the new sump)
3* Serpent stars
Misc snails

For the new tank, I will be moving everyone over from the BC29 and then of course want to add some new fish to the mix. So far I think I want to add:

1* Yellow coris wrasse (definitely want this)
2-3* Pajama cardinals (maybe these)
1* Tang (I know 90g is pushing it for a lot of the tang species, but I have a lot of open swimming space and want to try with a small one....just don't know which one yet)

But after that, I am out of ideas. I would eventually like to get a dragonet if I can get a good pod population up, but I'm looking for ideas on some other reef safe fish that bring in a lot of color. The tank has a center overflow that will be topped with black acrylic and the tank is covered with a 1/4" clear mesh screen. Any ideas?

LBehr · May 5, 2016

Tang wise i think a yellow or a kole or a powder tang or another of that shape would be okay its the long ones like naso, blue hippo, and Achilles that require a real long tank.

LBehr · May 5, 2016

They can get spendy fast but there are some crazy cool colorful fairy wrasses. The Scott's wrasse is my favorite but radiant has a lot of bang for your buck for color.

eatbreakfast · May 6, 2016

Flasher and fairy wrasses would be great in that tank. Yellow, kole, or tomini would be your best bets for tangs. Other options could include a group of zebra or scissortail dartfish, purple tilefish, royal gramma, chalk bass, midad blenny, sunburst anthias, grammistes blenny, firefish, a group of randalls or dispar anthias.

pdt7361 · May 6, 2016

So with these suggestions and what I already have....would this be too heavily stocked? It's a standard 90 gal tank with 75lbs LR in the DT plus 20lb more in the fuge and a Reef Octopus Classic 150 skimmer.

What I currently have:
2* Fancy ocellaris clowns (paired)
1* Tri-color wrasse
1* Diamond goby

2* Cleaner shrimp
2* Porcelain crabs
2* Peppermint shrimp
3* Serpent stars

Would add these over the next couple of months:
1* Yellow coris wrasse
2* Pajama cardinals
1* Kole or yellow tang
1* Fairy wrasse
2* Purple tilefish
2* Sunburst anthias
1* Mandarin (after 6 months or so if pod population will support it)

Salty1962 · May 6, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
Flasher and fairy wrasses would be great in that tank. Yellow, kole, or tomini would be your best bets for tangs. Other options could include a group of zebra or scissortail dartfish, purple tilefish, royal gramma, chalk bass, midad blenny, sunburst anthias, grammistes blenny, firefish, a group of randalls or dispar anthias.

+1 on more wrasses and Tomini, or Flame, tangs stay relatively small. I believe most rate the tang minimum @70G. Mine gets along with my wrasses and Regal Angel in a 68G. JMO

eatbreakfast · May 6, 2016

pdt7361 said:
So with these suggestions and what I already have....would this be too heavily stocked? It's a standard 90 gal tank with 75lbs LR in the DT plus 20lb more in the fuge and a Reef Octopus Classic 150 skimmer.

What I currently have:
2* Fancy ocellaris clowns (paired)
1* Tri-color wrasse
1* Diamond goby

2* Cleaner shrimp
2* Porcelain crabs
2* Peppermint shrimp
3* Serpent stars

Would add these over the next couple of months:
1* Yellow coris wrasse
2* Pajama cardinals
1* Kole or yellow tang
1* Fairy wrasse
2* Purple tilefish
2* Sunburst anthias
1* Mandarin (after 6 months or so if pod population will support it)

They should be fine. Just add slowly and test frequently.

pdt7361 · Jul 4, 2016

Looking for some more ideas here. I ended up doing the following so far:

1* small tomini tang
1* small blue hippo (yes I know I'll have to trade him off eventually)
1* Leopard wrasse
1* Vermiculite wrasse
1* Yellow coris wrasse
2* Fancy ocellaris clowns
1* Diamond Goby

I think my filtration can still handle the bio-load of a couple more fish that stay smaller, but I can't decide on what to get. Looking for feedback on some colorful, peaceful, reef safe fish to add into my existing group.