I'm new

This is my first post and still new to the hobby. I was wondering about adding a blue sea star and a fire shrimp this upcoming weekend and was wondering what peoples thougts were. Also wanted to add a serpent starfish. I have a few fish in my tank and everything is doing extremely well. these are the last inhabitants I wanted to add before getting a blue hippo tang and then in a few months start with some soft corals. Please any feedback is much appreciated

This is what's in the tank.

Sand drifting starfish
5 turbo snails
6 nassarius snails
2 blue leg hermits
3 red leg hermits
1 emerald crab
1 purple angel fish
2 wrasses
2 damsels
2 clowns

 

well everyone is going to tell you that there is no way you're keeping a P. hepatus (blue hippo) in a tank that size...

What type of wrasse do you have?

I say do what makes you happy as long as you are able to provide the fish with a healthy life.

 

I agree with this, and so will argue that an 80 gallon tank won't provide a P. hepatus a healthy life. 6' long tank is a minimum with them (or should be), with 8' being preferred. LA lists them as 180 gallon minimum: Saltwater Aquarium Fish for Marine Aquariums: Blue Tang

However, that does not mean you could not house it temporarily while it was juvenile. But I do not think it would be happy longterm

 

Sounds like you like the star fish. There are few Star fish that do well long term, the ones that do may not be reef safe. The Blue Linkia should really only go in well established (a couple years).

Serpent stars are much more resilient, they can get large though, and there are reports of larger specimens eating and catching sleeping fish.

The Sand sifting star is another that requires an established large sand bed for the best chance at long term success.

The Red Knub star and the Chocolate do well but are not reef safe.

I like these, they have done well for me in the past.

Red Sea Star

Unfortunately I agree, you need a larger tank for that type of tang realistically.

Welcome to 3reef.

 

no doubts there. I just know some people like to keep animals in smaller enviorments sometimes, than the type they naturally need. Tangs in 50 gallons, horses kept in back yards, huskies who live in apartments.

I love the 40g breeder and was planning on keeping my blue hippo in it as soon as the build is over, and I wont even tell you how big that fish was and what size tank it was in :-X.

but the tang police finally got to me and she is now living the dream life in my buddys LFS..

 

I'm glad to hear this. I have a good friend that owns a LFS and I have worked there off and on for the better part of 6 years now. I have seen several blue tangs that have come into the store, extremely deformed. Most of the deformed fish I have seen have come from 20 gallon - 55 gallon tanks. Now, people keep them long term there and they are pretty healthy otherwise but they just can't work their muscles and bodies the way they would be able to in a bigger tank. Just my .02.

 

and it is true, so its worth much more than that.

To the OP, forget tangs !! We would all be glad to show you some fish more suitable to your aquarium

 

Thanks for the welcome and many responses. Originally my thoughts (as I assume are from many other aquarists) was to house a very small juvenile blue tang for a few years and as he gets larger to move him to a new larger home. If this is going to prevent the longevity of its life than I will pass on the blue tang. I also really like the yellow tang but I assume this will be the same type of move here. The more and more I read about the blue sea star I think I will try to establish one in my tank after it has run for a year. So far it is doing extremely well. little bit of brown algae on the glass once in a while but the water params. Are stable. Please let me know of some other beauties I can add to the tank. To be honest. I don’t want to add to many fish to the tank as I really want to establish a nice reef system and 8-10 fish would be a max. Would definitely love to hear of some ideas. I’ll be starting with soft corals once I pass the 6 month mark so 3 more months to go. I figure this would be an ok time frame to try my hand at a soft coral etc. I will look to getting a serpent star over the weekend and I’ll keep an eye on him and try to hand feed him to keep him happy and full so he doesn’t eat my fish lol. an absolute must for my tank is a fire shrimp. Im not sure of a great time to get one and acclimate to my tank. Does anyone have some guidelines? The Fire shrimp is the first specimen that I saw when I first wanted to get into the hobby about4 years ago. right now I have a decent clean-up crew consisting of 5 turbo snails that are all very happy, 3 red leg hermits, 2 blue leg hermits, 1 emerald crab and 4 nassarius snails. I have had a sand drifting starfish which actually I acquired not intentionally but a friend of mine moved in a hurry and had to get rid of it so I brought him home and acclimated to my tank. So far he has been doing great. My sand bed is about 4.5 inches deep of all live aragonite sand. So my thoughts were to add a serpent star and later on the blue sea star but would really like to consider a fire shrimp in the near future. Please chime in guys and sorry for the long post lol

 

I have about 125lbs of live rock that runs up the entire wall and sides of my tall bowfront tank so I was hoping the fire shrimp would find a nice spot that he would tend to near the middle or top and not interfere with the rest of the CUC

 

I would add the fire shrimp (one of my favorites) in the near future. Add him with the lights out. As the clowns become more established they can something get a bit nasty with shrimp.

If possible get a pair. Fire shrimp can be somewhat secretive and hideout in caves initially, it's been my experience that they take a while to build up enough courage to spend a lot of time out and about.