Stocking Plans: 40BR Humble Reef

[wpeterson]

Our new 40BR display/30gal sump is fully operational and just finished cycling last week. There's nothing but macroalgae and copepods living in the tank as of today, but we're starting to plan our fish stocking list and I'll probably buy our first coral this weekend. I'd love feedback and ideas from folks on fish for this tank. Full details in our build thread on R2R.

We had great luck providing pods for a pair of mandarins in our 90gal using an almost identical sump/refugium setup to the Precision Marine R30Pro I have setup on this tank - so I'm comfortable having a mandarin and another goby here (even though both eat pods).

My plan is to have a lot of small fish given the limited display size:

• Rainford's Goby (currently in QT doing Tank Transfers)
• Green Mandarin Goby
• Pair of Clownfish
• Pygmy Wrasse
• Cardinal or Firefish or Dartfish

I had originally thought about getting a sixline wrasse, but my wife talked me out of it due to temperament and incompatibility with a mandarin. I think we'd rather have a mandarin.

Any other fish I should think about? Any concerns about overall bioload or stocking size?

 

[Marshall O]

My main concern is that you have three pod consumers on the list. The Goby and Mandarin may only eat pods, while the Wrasse will accept prepared foods, but will still hunt all day. After having a Mandarin in my 125 for almost two years, it ended up dieing from my tank not having enough pods. I supplemented the tank several times with pods. I also tried feeding baby brine shrimp when I noticed it was not getting enough to eat. And this is with a 45 gallon refugium, but with three wrasses that hunted all day.

I really hate to say it, buy I would strongly reconsider the Mandarin. The rest of the list looks perfect. If this was a 75 gallon tank or larger, I would not question it. If you are dead set on getting one, I would be prepared to hatch and feed baby brine shrimp daily.

Good call on removing the Sixline. They can be very very aggressive little fish. I think the 5 or 6 fish you listed in a 40 is a good number. I would aim for this and see how the tank does.

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[wpeterson]

My main concern is that you have three pod consumers on the list. The Goby and Mandarin may only eat pods, while the Wrasse will accept prepared foods, but will still hunt all day. After having a Mandarin in my 125 for almost two years, it ended up dieing from my tank not having enough pods. I supplemented the tank several times with pods. I also tried feeding baby brine shrimp when I noticed it was not getting enough to eat. And this is with a 45 gallon refugium, but with three wrasses that hunted all day.

I really hate to say it, buy I would strongly reconsider the Mandarin. The rest of the list looks perfect. If this was a 75 gallon tank or larger, I would not question it. If you are dead set on getting one, I would be prepared to hatch and feed baby brine shrimp daily.

Thanks. I think discouraging folks from keeping mandarins is generally a good idea. We had two mandarins in our 90gal which we started on pods but trained to eat frozen. Those two mandarins paired off and spawned every month for almost the two years we had them in our tank. So I'm comfortable keeping mandarins, though it does involve a lot of work in terms of refugium, pod supplementation and feeding frozen food.

Good call on removing the Sixline. They can be very very aggressive little fish. I think the 5 or 6 fish you listed in a 40 is a good number. I would aim for this and see how the tank does.

Thanks for the advice here.

 

[Marshall O]

Out of curiosity, did you have any other competitors for pods in your 90? That's awesome you had a pair spawning!

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[wpeterson]

Out of curiosity, did you have any other competitors for pods in your 90? That's awesome you had a pair spawning!

We did: a Bengai Cardinal, a Tanaka's Wrasse, two clowns, and a flame angel were all pod eaters. We fed cyclopeeze and brine shrimp, which the mandarins ate both of. Not at first, but after a month with the other fish they ate frozen heartily. There were plenty of copepods and ampipods in the refugium, but I also supplemented more live pods every month or two and fed live phytoplankton once a week or so.

 

[Marshall O]

From my experience, the only pod consumer on the list would be the Flame Angel. They obviously spend all day grazing on microfauna and likely consume pods in the process. However none of the fish listed would hunt for pods like the Goby and Wrasse you are planning on getting. This being said, I think I would suggest not getting the Wrasse until at least a year after the Mandarin has been thriving.

I know you are one of the most meticulous hobbyists in the club and will do whatever is necessary to keep happy and healthy fish. I just would hate to see this go south...

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[CAPSLOCK]

Have you considered an assessor basslet?

 

[wpeterson]

An assessor or a royal gramma might be a nice addition to the tank. I think I would put them at the end of the stocking list to ensure the smaller and more docile fish get settled. It looks like there's a comatibility warning between Basslets and Mandarins, though?

We released our Rainford's Goby into the display today after a long TTM in QT. I'm thinking of picking up two clowns this weekend to see if we can pair them off.

 

[Marshall O]

Assessors would not have any problems with any fish IME. I don't think a Royal Gramma would either. They are territorial, but have more bark than bite.

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[wpeterson]

So the Rainford's Goby is out of QT and into the display, where he has promptly made a home in the back of the rockwork where I'll probably never see him again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We picked up two black ice clowns from the big harem of juveniles gsrx750 has bred. They're chilling out in QT this week and I'm hoping to find a RBTA to introduce them to in the final stages of QT in the hope they might get to know eachother better toward hosting in a smaller QT environment.

I've got my eye out for a mandarin and a yellow assessor and some other new additions. Thanks for all the advice here.

 

[Marshall O]

Glad to hear! Hopefully once you get some more fish in the tank the Goby will be out in the open more.

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[FishHead]

• Rainford's Goby (currently in QT doing Tank Transfers)
• Green Mandarin Goby
• Pair of Clownfish
• Pygmy Wrasse
• Cardinal or Firefish or Dartfish

Any other fish I should think about? Any concerns about overall bioload or stocking size?

I have a Tanaka pygmy, great little fish although in my 110 i hardly see it and mainly only when blue lights come on.

i just added a pair of chalk bass.. pretty nice.

 

[wpeterson]

We QTed the new RBTA and the clowns together, so they were already hosted by the anemone when we added them to the display the other night:

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Nice trio there.

 

[wpeterson]

The Rainford's goby has been coming out during feeding time now, though he seems happier hunting pods and sand sifting than eating frozen. I was lucky to finally capture a few pictures of him tonight:

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Good photo of him. He's a cute little fish.

 

[Steviereefs]

Wow that rainsford goby is awesome

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[wpeterson]

Update on our stocking list, we're almost at capacity for this tank with our likely last fish in QT finishing up a full tank transfer regimen.

* ORA Yellow Assessor - super shy, but a cool and interesting fish
* Pair of ORA Green Mandarins - didn't think they sold these, but apparently gave a pair to Love the Reef directly
* Juvenile Yellow Tang (in QT)

Thankfully, our refugium is chalk-full of chaetomorpha and live copepods (via Algae Barn) which are reproducing enough to cover the display with live phytoplankton feeding triggering pod blooms from the refugium. I was nervous about taking on a pair of mandarins, but wasn't willing to break up the pair and they were aquacultured and already eating frozen food from ORA. They've got a large population of pods growing from the refugium and being supplemented with more live pod additions every 2-3 weeks. I've also been feeding the LRS fish eggs, which should be good nutrition for the mandarins and other picky eaters. Kind of a pain to prepare, but the nutritional benefits seem worth it. I won't consider this job done until the Mandarins are spawning, like our last tank.

I'm currently focusing on feeding our fish and getting them acclimated to the new system over nutrient export right now. This has led to some macro-algae growth in our display, mostly caulerpa from the refugium rock our Maxima clam is attached to. My hope is that the extra algae in the display will be a starter buffet for the Tang, though I plan to supplement with Nori sheets (Tang has been eating both dried nori and macro-algae from the display in QT).

 

[Marshall O]

It seems you are prepared to meet the needs of the Mandarins, so kudos to you! I've had a Yellow Assessor (ORA as well) for 3 years now. They are wonderful little fish, albeit shy like you have noticed.

I do have to ask about the Tang though. Are you planning on keeping it as a fully grown adult?

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[wpeterson]

It seems you are prepared to meet the needs of the Mandarins, so kudos to you! I've had a Yellow Assessor (ORA as well) for 3 years now. They are wonderful little fish, albeit shy like you have noticed.

I do have to ask about the Tang though. Are you planning on keeping it as a fully grown adult?

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You're right to ask and I would equally call the Tang police in your stead.

It's a 1.5" juvenile yellow tang and I anticipate having a larger tank in 1-2 years by the time it's grown larger.