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Author Topic: Top Rated Fish  (Read 4728 times)

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Offline Learning_The_Hard_Way

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Top Rated Fish
« on: November 10, 2009, 22:04:23 »
If you were starting your tank over again what fish are the "Best Bang for your Buck" fish to select?  I want to learn what are the best "community" fish to get that are hardy, look good, dont hide too much, easy to take care of...so the kids can learn too. 

Offline cyberwollf

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2009, 22:06:41 »
Cant go wrong with Clowns and yellow tangs. They are the stereotypical SW fish and hardy, if thats the angle youre looking for.
75G Mixed Reef w/ 30G sump/refuge

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slandis3

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2009, 22:09:06 »
I think i t will depend on tank size. I love my vlamingi tang. He stays out and is very active but he needs a big tank.

Offline Learning_The_Hard_Way

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2009, 22:13:55 »
I have a 72G bowfront with live rock all the way across and up the back wall, with lots of nooks and crannies.  I would really like a reef tank but the kids want FISH! now! lol

slandis3

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2009, 22:15:38 »
You can get some really nice looking reef safe fish. Look at wrasses they are really nice and they stay small.

Offline HUNGER

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2009, 22:16:05 »
foxface are cool
SIZE DOES MATTER

Offline UDJustin

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2009, 22:16:14 »
Jawfish are very neat fish and very active, I imagine the kids would love them.
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Offline larrynews

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2009, 22:19:44 »
i would stay away from the larger fish they are always breaking my corals

Offline Learning_The_Hard_Way

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2009, 22:24:41 »
Here is what Im working with just got it all set up 2 weeks ago.

Offline HUNGER

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2009, 22:32:12 »
vary nice
SIZE DOES MATTER

Offline hamiltro

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2009, 23:02:02 »
looking good cant wait till you start to fill it
55 gal working on upgrading to 120 with a 55 Sump(unless I find a deal on a bigger tank)

Offline jungliztkruger

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2009, 23:02:53 »
maybe a handful of blue green chromis


Reefd Up

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2009, 23:06:37 »
A goby & pistol shrimp combo would be awesome...very entertaining for the kids (and educational!)

Offline Kenn

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #13 on: November 11, 2009, 01:45:30 »
maybe a handful of blue green chromis


I completely agree.

I just added a few myself and they have turned out to be a great addition. All of their activity has drawn out a few of the more non active fish so that I am seeing a lot more good activity in the tank
Currently doing a 75g build | http://ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=16275.0| tanks of the past : 26g Bowfront LPS and Fish| http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=4858.0 || 37g a little of everything | http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=7751.0

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."   < K >

Offline Kenn

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #14 on: November 11, 2009, 01:48:32 »
A goby & pistol shrimp combo would be awesome...very entertaining for the kids (and educational!)

Another great combo...Just remember to make sure your live rock is touching the bottom of the tank or the shrimp can cause an unwanted collapse .... unfortunately I have some personal experience with this  :laugh:
Currently doing a 75g build | http://ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=16275.0| tanks of the past : 26g Bowfront LPS and Fish| http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=4858.0 || 37g a little of everything | http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=7751.0

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."   < K >

Offline atreis

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #15 on: November 11, 2009, 06:17:51 »
Fish to avoid: damsels, puffers, anything that gets big (be careful - a lot of fish that look appealing in the pet stores get BIG)

Fun fish for kids: yellow tang, ocellaris clowns, blue green chromis, flame angel

All of these fish are pretty and tend to stay out in the open, which is key for kids.  They don't want to have to look at the tank for 15 minutes just to see a fish poke it's head out from behind the rock.

Angels will sometimes pick at corals, so also keep in mind what other animals you plan to put in there.

(That said, I really love my Kole Tang, but my kids are looking forward to me adding more visible fish.  :) )

Offline Joel

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #16 on: November 11, 2009, 07:00:18 »
Has the aquarium completely cycled? What type of filtration system do you have? This is pretty important information to know before offering advise about livestock.

These two factors play a roll in what fish you put in first. For example, a small tang may be a consideration but only after the tank has gone through the cycling (maturing) process and has a filtration system capable of maintaining constant good water quality.

If your new to the hobby, it may be a consideration to avoid some of the more demanding (harder to keep) fish until your a little more comfortable and familiar with how your tank works. (tangs again) Just about all tang are a little touchy, they contract parasites very easily, they are intolerant of water quality issues and do poorly when cramped in either a small tank or an overdecorated tank - they need room. No tangs stay small.

Clown fish are very popular fish, especially with the kids but most are very aggressive. A pair of ocillaris (false percula) clown fish are a great choice to start with. They are not as aggressive as most other species are and are easy to pair up (they don't fight with each other as badly as some are know for) These are the so called "Nemo" fish (I'm so sick of that -  :D)  Buy captive bred clowns if possible.

Some Damsel would be a great choice. Again, most are very aggressive but there are some that stay small, are beautiful and are not overly aggressive. I really like the Talboti (talbots) damsel and the Alleni damsel. Neither get huge and neither are mean fish and both are hardy and are great candidates for newly set up aquariums.

Take your time, don't make any hasty decisions and be very selective who you buy you live stock from. Ask a lot of questions before buying, don't necessarily rely on the kid at the local chain pet store for accurate advise. These people are mostly inexperienced and sales driven. Quarantining your fish would be best but if your unable to do so, make sure who you buy your fish from have done so or at least have have done some type of preventive to ensure the fish is clean.( no parasites or disease - is eating) Make the person your buying the fish from feed it so you can witness that it is eating.

Most the people here at Ohio Reef will be able to help you with advise and share their experiences with you and help prevent the pit falls we've all made in this hobby.

Welcome, look forward to hearing about your progress and helping along the way.

Joel

Offline Learning_The_Hard_Way

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #17 on: November 11, 2009, 21:30:20 »
Thanks for all the ideas and exsperiences.  I wish I would have known about the live rock on the bottom, as im sure I have some not all the way down. 

The tank was set up and ran for about 1 year and the guy just could not handle the time nor financial side of the up keep and wanted to get out.  I had always wanted to learn SW so I dove in...no pun intended. 

The filtration is a wet dry filter sump with a skimmer in the sump.  After 2 weeks of running on my own I took a water sample to the LSP and it tested no nitrates and PH 8.3 so he said it looked perfect.  I did have alot of algae show up right away but I needed to move a few rocks for looks and scrubed them in some SW outside tank and got a cleaner crew 40 peice and it seems to be alot better now.  Im currently working on getting coraline going.  I have a full covered rock that came with the tank and im using some purple up to help and running the blue lights around the clock. 

The lights are a year old 2 white and 2 atnic blue (I have been told they will need to be resplaced) if I want to grow soft corals ect in the future.  any sugestions? T5?

Thanks for the warm welcome to a newbie its really nice to find a place that welcomes new people into the hobby.  Keep the suggestions coming on anything in a sponge learning now.

Offline Joel

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #18 on: November 12, 2009, 06:21:24 »
Have the following re tested;
PH               (should be 8.2-ish sounds like yours is good)
Ammonia       (Must be 0 Parts per million "ppm")
NitrItes         (Must be 0 PPM)
NitrAtes        (0 to no more than 10 PPM - lower is better - I shoot for 0-5)
Phosphates    (0 ppm is desirable)
Salinity         ( AKA Specific gravity - should be 1.023 - 1.025 - ish)

I know you just had it tested but you need to know more than ph & nitrates. I suggest you buy a good quality test kit of your own too, Red Sea, Instant Ocean and Salifert all make decent test kits that are affordable. If your water parameters are similar to the above suggested values, it would be safe to add a couple starter fish, like clown fish for example.

The tank may or may not need to be re cycled. Cycling in a nut shell is the maturing process where the aquarium grows the needed bacteria and micro organisms that help maintain the water quality. Depending on how this tank was moved and what was (or was not) done to preserve the living bacteria in your wet dry filter and the micro fauna on your rock and substrate you may (and again may not) need to go through the cycling process. It is good to test your water before you add anything but this test does not determine if your tank is cycled and stable. With little producing waste, the aquarium is not needing to process anything - when you add fish, you may see some temporary water quality issues while the micro fauna reproduces and matures to handle the waste the new fish are making. Because of this, only buy a couple small hardy fish (like clowns) and test the tank regularly to keep tabs on what the new fish do to the water. If after a couple weeks all is well water quality wise, it is safe to add a little more and again let the tank mature to handle the additional wast load and test regularly. It's somewhat of a balancing act, If you have "X" amount of waste being produced by your tank inhabitants, you need "X" amount of bacteria & micro fauna to process the waste. So don't add a bunch of waste producers (fish -etc.) all at once, add a little, let the bacteria reproduce to handle it and balance out,  and then add a little more waste producers and replete the proses.  Take your time.

Another very lengthy subject is your wet dry itself. These are decent filters for fish only systems but if it is your intention to do a coral system, the wet dry is not a good choice and will limit what you will be able to keep (coral wise) and will require much more maintenance (mostly water changes) to keep parameters right.

Don't run your actinic lights  (the blue lights)  24 / 7. THis is playing a roll in the algae growth. Since the tank is technically newer (biologically speaking) keeping the amount of time per day the lights are on to a minimum is advisable. Probably somewhere in the area of 6 - 8 hours per day is fine. As the tank matures and you get photosynthetic organisims growing in your tank, the photo period (hours per day the lights are on) will increase. If your light bulbs are a year old, they are over due for replacement. Old light bulbs encourage undesirable algae growth, this also may be contributing to the algae you have had. Depending on what type of lighting system you currently have, you may only need new bulbs. (what kind & wattage do you have?)

Be careful using purple up or any other similar supplement. Testing your alkalinity and calcium values are the only way to know that the amount being added to the tank is correct. The volume of water your aquarium holds is not what determines how much you need to be adding (although it probably says that on the instructions). Compare this to fish food, how many gallons of water you have has nothing to do with how much fish food needs added to your tank - how many fish you have and how quickly they consume the food is what determines how much food you add. It is the same for supplements, right now you may not have much using up the buffers and carbonites your adding so it possible may be overdosed. As the tank matures and you get more and more organisims using up the supplement, you will accordingly need to be adding more - make sense? A good rule with this type of this type of thing is to test the results of what your doing.

Wow that's a lot....don't let it overwhelm you. It gets really easy after you've done it a while....Hope this helps and please ask away with any questions...Joel

Offline Kenn

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #19 on: November 12, 2009, 12:05:26 »
Nice post Joel :)
Currently doing a 75g build | http://ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=16275.0| tanks of the past : 26g Bowfront LPS and Fish| http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=4858.0 || 37g a little of everything | http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=7751.0

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."   < K >

Offline todd141

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #20 on: November 12, 2009, 20:24:45 »
Just commenting on the fish suggestions....

I have to agree with the chromis and clown suggestions.

My Yellow Tang - had him for a year - hides whenever I come into the room.  It's weird and I think I'm getting a complex about it.....

I have a brown-barred goby that sifts sand and is always out in the open.  He's really neat, and my 7 year old daughter loves him - her favorite fish although not really that colorful.

The chromis are probably my favorite fish - always, always out zipping around in the flow.

Offline Learning_The_Hard_Way

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #21 on: November 12, 2009, 20:49:26 »
I think my next fish will be the Blue Spotted Jawfish, I think the kids will like it too.  I plan to build the underground tubing for its hideout.  Has anyone seen one at any shops? where? or where would you recomend getting one? These guys are pricy$$

Offline todd141

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #22 on: November 12, 2009, 21:02:28 »
I saw a Jawfish at Jack's on Wilmington Pike a few months ago - wasn't a Blue Spotted I know, is there a white jawfish?    Anyway, he acted the same way and a LOT cheaper.  He was going nuts moving sand around.  Incredible, great fish.  Wish I had one.

Reefd Up

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #23 on: November 12, 2009, 21:22:55 »
I think my next fish will be the Blue Spotted Jawfish, I think the kids will like it too.  I plan to build the underground tubing for its hideout.  Has anyone seen one at any shops? where? or where would you recomend getting one? These guys are pricy$$

I usually see a few up at Coral Ranch...and I think Aquatic Specialists has advertised them on here as well.  They're no where near the cost they were about a year though...thank goodness.

There's also a "pearly" jawfish, a "dusky" jawfish (not so nice), and several others.  The usual pearly jawfish is very pretty and very inexpensive. 

Offline Reefinmike

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Re: Top Rated Fish
« Reply #24 on: November 16, 2009, 17:47:03 »
Jawfish are very neat fish and very active, I imagine the kids would love them.

jawfish are cool if you get one that stays in front. Sometimes, they will just setup camp back in the rocks. I had a dusky jawfish, he was a awesome fish, just very ugly.

 

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