What next? Help a reefer out!

[Whipples]

Hi fellow Reefers, I've spent the last 4-6 months working to keep a shoal of carberryi anthias, and slowly over time I end up in the same boat of QT, add, aggression, some die, and I am left usually with 1-2 at the end. My current hypothesis is anthias hierarchy, and while I do have some emerald crabs the fish usually hide in the same spot for several days, and do not look like they have crab-esque wounds. Either way, given I've lost quite a few to this I don't think I can take the idea of adding more anthias just to subject them to a similar fate...

With that said, I am hoping I can solicit some ideas from the greater reef community on what other fish options I may have and use that to focus on and try to stay positive despite the recent struggles. Current tank is a 100G 48x24x20 with my plan to eventually be SPS dominant and currently I have:

Yellow Tang
Tomini Tang
Copperband Butterfly
Two Ocellaris clowns
Royal Gramma
3 Carberryi anthias (for now :( )
Cleaner Shrimp
assorted snails and a few emeralds (plan is to slowly start evicting the crabs now that bubble algae is receding).

T;DR- what other fish do you think would compliment this current list? Thank you all in advance for your feedback :)

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

Some wrasses. Christmas, Melanarus or a Leopard.

 

[Whipples]

I've heard it is difficult to get a wrasse through QT, is that still the case?

 

[Maritimer]

They can be a challenge, as they're more sensitive to some medications than some other fish, and a bit more likely to see if they can make the jump from QT to DT ahead of schedule (which often leads to them ending up on the floor . . . ).

~Bruce

 

[eatbreakfast]

A group of scissortail or zebra dartfish will give you that social fish group.

 

[Whipples]

I'll take a look at the wrasses, already have some buttheads in the tank so I don't know if I want to tip the aggression scale. As for the dartfish, I thought they were territorial to their own kind?

 

[Maritimer]

You may be thinking of firefish. I've got five zebra dartfish in my tank, and they tend to hang together in a loose aggregation.

~Bruce

 

[eatbreakfast]

Firefish are intolerant of congenerics, dartfish are social.

 

[Whipples]

Thank you both for the clarification