Stocking suggestions for 6000 gallon artificial reef..

[sniceley]

After fighting an outbreak of an unidentified pathogen that killed over 700 fish in 4 months we finally decided to nuke the system with bleach and start over. The system was treated with chloroquine phosphate 3 times, prazi 5 times, formalin 5 times, and fish were fed enrofloxacin soaked food for 2 weeks at two separate intervals. Disease process was healthy one day and then either dead the next or breathing heavily and dead on day 3. Fish were taken to a university aquatic animal health lab and fish specialist veterinarian and neither could figure it out. Another lesson for why quarantine is necessary and should not be taken lightly. The client brought in too large of an order for the space we had so we used the DT as a treatment tank and prophylactically treated with cp and prazi per Goemans. Whatever came in wasn't susceptible to either and there begins the story.

Anyways we are soon to begin the restocking of the system and was looking for ideas. I have my own but always interested in what others have. Client likes lots of little fish, so sorry no ideas involving sharks or to the big predators. Apparently when he first started the system an order came with 24 tiny golden trevally, needless to say it ended with them at 2ft long each being spearfished out of the tank once they learned what a hook meant.

Here is a pic for you to see what we are working with. It is in a endodontic surgeons office so if you need a root canal I know a guy.

[sniceley]

Sorry for the late post of pictures. Had to send them to my computer to resize them.

[tthouston]

Nice picture. Do you have more pictures? I like your artificial coral, look natural.

[Zoodiver]

Where is this located? If it's somewhere not too far, I'd be willing to help lend some extra eyes/experience.
I would suggest going with a locality and sticking with it as a theme (IE: Caribbean fish or Pacific fish etc...). It's far easier to mix fish that are occurring together naturally with larger systems like this.
I'd also suggest getting with a collector directly to stock it instead of dealing with importers/wholesalers/retailers.
The other thing I'd look into is a collector who can clean up the fish before they get to you if you can't quarantine them yourself. Then do prophylactic treatment as you slowing restock over the next several months.

[JoelA7]

Possibly too large and aggressive an eater but before I knew what I had I once kept a high fin snapper. Gorgeous FAST! Ate out of my fingers.

[j tavares]

where do you get your artificial coral from please?

[sniceley]

ATM built the tank and the coral inserts. The tank is 9 years old, coral insert was recolored about 2 years ago during a tank overhaul.

Filtration system was stripped out then as well and a new system was installed by Justin at Bermuda Aquatics. Filtration consists of a 10 ft tall 3 ft diameter self cleaning skimmer, 4 foot tall biopellet reactor, 500 gallon fluidized bed filter with K1 media, a dozen 7 inch filter socks and a diatomaceous earth filter which takes 8 lbs of powder per charge.

Lighting consists of 8 LED cannons to correct colors and four 500 watt plasma cannons. Plasmas are great but they grow algae like a beast. Mimic sunlight perfectly so we get some diatom growth on corals no matter what. Chloroquine prophylactic doses every few months wiped it out the first year and a half but then it seemed to become resistant. Last couple of doses, even high doses at 25 ppm didn't touch the stuff.

Zoodiver,

We are in East Lansing, MI. It looks like we are going to get a good sized order in directly from Sea and Reef of captive born and raised fish that have never shared water with wild caught specimens. We had great lick with this before, but when they were exposed to the diseased tank it took about 3 weeks then we started losing fish. Going with a mix of clowns, PJ cardinals, and dottybacks to give some movement while we slowly add others after quarantining them thoroughly.

Client is calling his connection in Hawaii, a collector he has used in the past to see if he can quarantine and treat a good sized group for us. Do you have any good collectors that you feel would be able to help us. If so pm me please.

I would like to stick with one locale but client likes so many fish from all three major systems that it would be hard to keep him happy. Had good luck with a lot of red sea stuff in the past but last order we got was loaded with vibrio and a lot of severely malnourished and weak fish which didn't make it through quarantine. Didn't help that they were lost in transport for 8 hours on the dock in Minnesota in winter.

Client loves clowns, damsels, and pacific tangs, but his favorite is a pair of French angels which he had for the first 6 years of the system until a chiller malfunction shot the tank above 95 degrees and pretty much killed everything except a few large desjardins miraculously.

I would like to see some big schools of fish in there but not sure what to use. The tangs tend to school with each other a lot, but they stay at the bottom and close to the insert. I was thinking of a big group of blue chromis, just need to find a good source. My main distributors are in California so they don't get a lot of the Caribbean stuff generally.

I personally would have lots of mid size predators if it was my tank. Groups of benthic sharks on the bottom mixed with eels, lions, snappers, small groupers, nicer triggers, angels, tangs, and wrasses. Lots of space on the bottom, with my background keeping and breeding freshwater rays it kills me some times not to have some cartilaginous fish in there.

Thanks of the input and keep it coming.

[anbosu]

I would get some groups of anthias in there.

[sniceley]

I would agree, anthias would be great. As a maintenance account though there is always the issue of will this fish feed easily and does it need to be fed multiple times per day or need special food or attention. This tank is in a dentist office so it doesn't usually get fed on the weekends, once a day at most if it does at all. I could use an autofeeder with pellets, but getting anthias to eat pellets consistently hasn't been something I have had a lot of success with. I know some do, and maybe we will try them again in the future. Had the best luck with lyretail groups, but the feeding issue always seems to affect their long term success.

[nuxx]

Wow have any pictures?

I'd say:
- Groups or pairs of interesting Tangs. Not a big fan of large groups of drab tangs you see in some of the bigger tanks. Maybe a pair of large Achilles. Pair of Achilles Hybrids. Small groups of Yellow and Purple Tangs. Pair of Sohals.

- Tons of different groups of Anthias. Try to just get a variation of colors.

- Group of Lookdowns.

- Few Moorish Idols.

- Huge groups of paired fairy wrasses. Get 3 females of the more interesting species. Lineatus, Goldens, Scotts, Labouti, etc...

- Interesting Angels. Pairs of Yellow Belly Regals, Pair of Bandits, etc...

Sorry I could go on and on... stocking ideas are endless on that size tank. Fun enough thinking about our "little" tank :)

[Dmorty217]

If you want sharks it will complicate the Stocklist even if you provide adequate moonlighting at night to try and prevent predation

[alprazo]

Pork fish, grunts and goatfish would make nice filler fish

[Scubaken]

Sorry, but this would be full of angels if it were mine.

Wow what a beautiful tank opportunity, I can't wait to see it filled with fish

[anbosu]

I wouldn't get the lookdowns if you are going to have any smaller fish.

[nuxx]

I wouldn't get the lookdowns if you are going to have any smaller fish.

Good point :thumbsup:

[sniceley]

Porkfish and grunts both have predation issues as they grow. Soldier fish fill the same niche generally with less of a predation issue. Have had lots of different soldiers with good results. And with time they stop hiding so much and become much less nocturnal.

I would like lots of angels too. Harems of centropyge as well as pairs of adult pomacanthids. Issue with big angels I have found is adding enough at a time to disperse aggression from already settled in tankmates while not stressing them while in quarantine. Current quarantine system consists of a 200 gallon and an 8 tank 200 gallon system. We are having a cube system built, but that will take some time.

[clekchau]

I would like lots of angels too. Harems of centropyge as well as pairs of adult pomacanthids. Issue with big angels I have found is adding enough at a time to disperse aggression from already settled in tankmates while not stressing them while in quarantine. Current quarantine system consists of a 200 gallon and an 8 tank 200 gallon system. We are having a cube system built, but that will take some time.


Not sure I understand your statement, I quarantined and added 9 large Angels (3-5") into a much smaller tank with no issues at all.

[sniceley]

So in the past when we added large angels we typically added full adults which are much more pugnacious than the juveniles or subadults even. Generally our orders were from collectors or importers overseas and anyone who has bought fish from overseas understands that sizes are relative and widely interpreted. We had multiple koran, emperor, regal, and maculosus, as well as singles of chrysurus, annularis, passer, majestic, and asfur. Most of these came in at the 8 inch mark or bigger, some like the emperors, koran and maculosus well over 10 inches. Six maculosus in a 200 gallon quarantine together didn't work out so well. The divided system wasn't operational yet and so when everyone finally made it to the display there were some tattered fins and missing scales. They all healed up nicely and seemed fine for months but then we lost one every few weeks until there was only one left. They would be fine, no chasing or obvious issues with aggression then one morning we would find it floating half dead and beat to hell. Similar issues with koran beating up emperors and majestic. All good for a long time then beating the other fish ruthlessly for no apparent reason.

The issue is it is also very hard to get fish out of the tank once an issue occurs. There are big access points but also lots of hiding places inaccessible to nets. Getting in works some, but a lot of tunnels means they can cruise to the other side of the tank. I have used anesthetic (quinaldine sulfate) when taking a lot of fish out but prefer to limit the use of it if at all possible.

My plan this time is to start with smaller fish (3-5") like you stated so we can have better luck long term. Everyone can set the hierarchy early and get used to each other before they have the strength to do real damage to each other. Easier to acclimate and quarantine smaller fish too, and get them feeding on prepared foods.

[clekchau]

Yes that's what I did , 9 large Angels 3-5" , there is no fighting at all , emperator and queen might be a problem when they mature but we'll see

Good luck !