planning my stocking list

[i_am_mclovin]

I know there are a lot of threads about these, but I'm the type who likes to make sure I've planned out my stock list. The worst fish purchase is the impulse buy, and I want to make sure I create a list and a schedule and stick to it. My tank is 5' long and around 120 gallons in the DT (plus a 35g sump). To note my experience, I've been in the hobby for about 16 years, and have had quite a few successful tanks and at one point a coral business. This tank will be a heavy SPS tank.

The list below is by "grouping". I did a lot of research to try and ensure the fish are all compatible, but trying to figure out what I can safely group together in the same QT tank for 6 weeks is the harder part. So know that each group will be kept together in QT potentially. I might buy a 2nd QT tank setup at some point. Additionally, I have traditionally liked a heavier bioload as it seems to do very well with the SPS corals, but if I need to cut my numbers down, please tell me your thoughts.

Group 1 - 2x Ocellaris clowns, 1x Royal Gramma, 1x Firefish
Group 2 - 1x Christmas Wrasse, 1x One Spot Foxface
Group 3 - 1x Longnose Hawkfish, 1x Coral Beauty
Group 4 - 1x Exquisite Fairy Wrasse, 1x Lineatus Fairy Wrasse
Group 5 - 1x Purple Tang (or Powder Brown Tang)

 

[i cant think]

Group 1 - 2x Ocellaris clowns, 1x Royal Gramma, 1x Firefish
Group 2 - 1x Christmas Wrasse, 1x One Spot Foxface
Group 3 - 1x Longnose Hawkfish, 1x Coral Beauty
Group 4 - 1x Exquisite Fairy Wrasse, 1x Lineatus Fairy Wrasse
Group 5 - 1x Purple Tang (or Powder Brown Tang)

Let me reorder that quickly:
Group 1 - 1x Royal Gramma, 1x Firefish, 1x One Spot Foxface
group 2 - 1x CB, 1x Longnose hawk, 1x Exquisite Fairy, 1x Lineatus Fairy
Group 3 - 1x Christmas wrasse, 1x Purple/Powder Brown Tang.
That to me is a good stock however, a 5’ tank IMHO won’t be a good long term solution for a Purple Tang or either of the PBTs but it could be for a Goldrim since I find those guys don’t swim as much as the other two. I watch the fish in my LFS for Atleast 30 minutes (Usually an hour or two) and I have noticed that the Powder tangs are the most active with most Zebrasoma tangs being second however I find that the least active tangs are Achilles, Goldrims and Ctenochaetus tangs.

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Let me reorder that quickly:
Group 1 - 1x Royal Gramma, 1x Firefish, 1x One Spot Foxface
group 2 - 1x CB, 1x Longnose hawk, 1x Exquisite Fairy, 1x Lineatus Fairy
Group 3 - 1x Christmas wrasse, 1x Purple/Powder Brown Tang.
That to me is a good stock however, a 5’ tank IMHO won’t be a good long term solution for a Purple Tang or either of the PBTs but it could be for a Goldrim since I find those guys don’t swim as much as the other two. I watch the fish in my LFS for Atleast 30 minutes (Usually an hour or two) and I have noticed that the Powder tangs are the most active with most Zebrasoma tangs being second however I find that the least active tangs are Achilles, Goldrims and Ctenochaetus tangs.

Hey thanks for the suggestion! The goldrim looks very nice too, and I think is still a nice color compliment with the others so I'd be ok using that one instead.

 

[i cant think]

Hey thanks for the suggestion! The goldrim looks very nice too, and I think is still a nice color compliment with the others so I'd be ok using that one instead.

It’s alright! I find that goldrims are the forgotten gems in the acanthurus genus, Achilles are beautiful but the goldrims tend to be forgotten about unfortunately. I think you could get away with a Ctenochaetus tang too but it would be risky.

 

[i_am_mclovin]

It’s alright! I find that goldrims are the forgotten gems in the acanthurus genus, Achilles are beautiful but the goldrims tend to be forgotten about unfortunately. I think you could get away with a Ctenochaetus tang too but it would be risky.

Yea I'd only do one tang. I've had cteno's before and they were always great, but for this particular tank I'd really like the acanthurus.