Stocking fish

Hi I was wondering some opinions of what fish I should get for my 55 gal tank. I have 60lbs live rock and 1 Blue devil damsel so far? Any ideas...Thanks

 

ahhh.....take the damsel out first.

You can have a mandarin (your avatar!) after a year or more. I'd put 15 lbs more LR though.

Clowns are easy to have.

 

Thank you!  I love mandains! My favorite fish! Take the damsel out?  HMM  What should I do with him?  Can I keep him in a 10 gal?  I have a 10gal freshwater right now that im breaking down tomorrow..getting a 30gal fresh, My shark is outgrowing the 10gal.  I have about a million baby pods in the 55gal too.and i forgot to mention my two turbo snails.  Will they eat the pods?  (my snails?) [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

 

No worries about snails eating your pods... strictly algea and detritus feeders.

 

okay good...Is there anything I can do to keep my pods comming? I need lots cause I do plan to get a manderin soon..next couple months..after i get some more live rock..I would like to add 25lbs more. Anybody know anyone getting rid of 25lbs?

 

There are some places that sell pod kits...
Coralsandbar.com, and Indo-Pacific Sea Farms are two that I can think of. Also I have seen them on E-bay. For the record, I don't know of any person selling any live rock, but Foster and Smith has a good deal on Haitian L.R. Look on eTropicals.com. I would definately wait on the mandarin until your tank has aged a year or more as they will decimate a pod population pretty quickly.As I understand it, mandarins need those pods to thrive. also, if you are getting your mandarin locally, have the pet store try and feed it brine shrimp or mysis. Some people get lucky and can supliment w/ frozen, but most mandarins will not take to frozen food. I would recommend a refugium to try and give your pods a safe haven. Hope you find this helpful.

 

MsCoral 2004,

Damsels can be utra aggressive/territorial. They will generally harass all new fish additions.

Unless the Mandarin will take frozen mysis or similar meaty foods, I wouldn't get one as your 55 gallon will not be able to support the pod population necessary to keep it alive long-term. Brine shrimp are very low in nutritional value. Unfortunately Mandarins often starve to death in the home aquaria.

Welcome to 3reef and I hope that, the information, helps.

 

MC2004,

Could you be kind enough to add your tank set-up information to your signature.  This can be done by editing your profile.

How long have you had your tank?

 

MsCoral 2004
You could set up a refugium to help with your PODs. It would have to gravity feed back to the main tank as a pump would slice and dice the PODs. In this REF you could add a ton more rock and sand. So in a 55G you could have a 20-30G Ref and that would significantly increase the POD population.

J

 

Tip for mandarins ----

Partially bury some PVC pipes and some LR. Like creating underwater caves. These become pod haven. Also do not put pod eaters with mandarins. Example are six line wrasse, sea horses and pipefishes.

Also excessive flow on these tanks is not advisable. Slow, chaotic ones are desirable.