Ok to add foxface?

Cerberusfish · Jul 16, 2020

In my 75 I've got 2 blue chronos, 2 clowns, a tomini tang, and 2 firefish gobies along with 3 cleaner shrimp, various hermits amd snails and soft/lps/spa corals. I recently lost my royal gramma, but have been considering getting something different to give me more experience with different fish since I'm only 9 months in with 1 reef tank. Within the next 2 years I'll be upgrading to a 180, so would it be ok to put him in the 75 with everybody else? The specific one in question looks about the size of my tang, and I've got a makeshift acclimation box to put him in for a bit to deal with aggression. I'm not worried about bio load and I feed plenty so he shouldn't eat my corals but it's still a risk right?

Zionas · Jul 16, 2020

I think you’d be fine. Generally they don’t nip at corals though there are occasional cases of Rabbitfish (not sure if they were any of the Foxface species) nipping corals.

As long as you upgrade you should be fine, like Tangs they’re moderate to slow growers.

Sorry about the loss of your Royal Gramma. What happened?

Cerberusfish · Jul 16, 2020

Alright now its between him, a blue tang, and a coral beauty. Eventually I want all 3 though. And not sure. I saw him breathing heavy laying on the bottom and not moving when touched, left and came back to try treating him but he was gone when I came back, later that night I saw him swimming around and he was avoiding the net and I couldn't catch him so I hoped got the best, then I haven't seen him since. It's been 5-6 days I think.

Zionas · Jul 16, 2020

I’d say add the Foxface first as it’s the easier fish, and maybe the Coral Beauty later, and save the Blue Tang for the tank upgrade.

Or maybe add both the Foxface and Coral Beauty together? Just make sure your tank has enough algae for the Coral Beauty to graze on as dwarf angels thrive in that kind of environment.

My suspicion about your Royal Gramma is aggression but then I have no idea.

Did he show any physical signs of disease?

Cerberusfish · Jul 16, 2020

Alright I think I might do that. I also want a mandarin, I had one for a day but had a severe kalkwasser overdose and several other issues happen literally minutes after adding him so he was kind of doomed to fail. Would giving plenty of seaweed be a good substitute for lots of algea? And i dont think it was aggression. He would definitely hold his own against other fish, and he seemed totally healthy until the day I saw him lying on the bottom.

Zionas · Jul 16, 2020

You mean like nori strips? I’m not sure how much they’d pollute the water, maybe feed a strip once every other day, but they’re definitely integral to the health of mega herbivores like Foxfaces and Tangs. So, go for nori strips. And then of course feedback your algae based foods like Hikari Mega Marine Algae, Spirulina Flakes, stuff like that.

I don’t know what happened to your Royal Gramma then, but maybe the kalkwasser overdose had something to do with it?

Cerberusfish · Jul 16, 2020

Well my tang normally ignores the nori. And doesn't eat a ton of algea. I started mixing in spirulina flakes with the regular food to combat this so if thats good then I'll just keep doing that. I can also get some other algea based foods if that will help. And the kalk overdose was over a month ago I think so it probably wasn't that.

Zionas · Jul 16, 2020

I’d say keep feeding what your fish likes but yeah try to supplement with some algae based foods maybe start with like a small sheet of nori? Not sure.

I have absolutely no idea what happened to your Royal Gramma so I’ll leave it to the experts.

Cerberusfish · Jul 16, 2020

Zionas said:
I’d say keep feeding what your fish likes but yeah try to supplement with some algae based foods maybe start with like a small sheet of nori? Not sure.

I have absolutely no idea what happened to your Royal Gramma so I’ll leave it to the experts.

He eats it sometimes, just not super regularly at all. Sometimes he digs in, other times he wont go near it. His favourite food is freeze dried brine shrimp lol.