I would stay away from damsels and chromis… not a big fan. you will have your clowns eventually, but I wouldn’t do something like a yellow tang off the bat because they can get very aggressive and territorial. Let your tank continue to cycle, and you can always do something like 2-3 anthias… They are beautiful and they have eye popping colors. You can do a blenny or two pending on the types, you can do a tang or two, but eventually… You can also do some type of dwarf angel pending on the aggressive nature and what type of corals you would like to keep, but stop by the store and we can chat
As Jon and I have both said, and I WILL have that email to you tonight with those books, read a lot, and Don’t rush into anything, or go after a “great deal” or a “great sale” because they are almost always bad lol…
craig, a yellow tang is definitely on my list. i know everyone likely has one, but the some of the tangs and the clowns are what initially drew my interest towards saltwater (and they are beautiful).
jon, consider me “schooled.”
when i said that, i was thinking the classic blue or blue/yellow damsel. i had no clue the clown was in that family. this is why i love talking to people with experience and knowledge. i’ve found it is the easiest way for me to learn. my main concern is not personal injury (i may whine and say bad words, but i’m okay with some abuse), but more towards a fish or group of fish being a continuous source of stress for the rest of the residents of the tank.
jared, i think i may find myself up there with a water sample in tow either today or tomorrow. i need some bloodworms for the bumblebee gobies anyway <
[quote=“surfpunk, post:42, topic:3421”]
this is why i love talking to people with experience and knowledge. i’ve found it is the easiest way for me to learn.[/quote]
Luckily you have found some people with a decent amount of knowledge. Most of the people willing to chat on forums don’t have much experience or knowledge at all and are just repeating what they thought they heard in an LFS or another forum with out understanding it. I’d still recommend a good book to start with, there are a lot of different points to hit and once you’ve been in the hobby you often tend to skip over little things and focus on often way too much detail on things which hardly matter.
Here are a couple of good reads:
Delbek and Sprung - Reef Aquarium
Brightwell - Marine Chemistry
Sprung - Problem solvers guide to algae
Most magazines in my opinion either focus on very advanced topics or are the beginner stuff covered by some who is almost a beginner themselves. Can be fun and interesting to flip through something like “Coral”, but you’ll get more out of the books.
yes, there is much reading to be done before i can pretend to really know what i am doing :GEEK:
test results are in…
picked up some more macro algae for the fuge, some food, and…
Good news. bad news.
Bad news is the blenny didn’t make it.
day 2 I noticed him breathing really heavy. Checked the water and all was good. The next morning he was gone. Checked the water again. Still good. So, after a talk with a trusted source, decided upon stress as the culprit. The six line is still fine and very active to this day and from what I’ve gathered, the blenny is typically the heartier of the two fish.
Now the good news. Upon my return trip, I brought home a small hippo tang who is a happy little pig of a fish. Yesterday I returned to DPA and came home with two small anthias! Got a gift card and could not hold out:-)
pictures to follow
I wouldn’t really recommend Anthias to anyone that had recently lost a fish. They are not a bullet proof animal and it is often best to take some time off after losing a fish and evaluate what went wrong and how it can be prevented in the future. Some people consider it acceptable practice to continuously return to LFS and replace lost animals, many like myself do not. Patients and understanding is critical in this hobby.
Hope the ones you have do well. Look like beautiful animals.
Hey Steve, anthia’s look great, crazy color! saw them in dpa! how’s everthing doing! was curious about what you’ve been testing for, and with what, and rodi???. post up all your parameters when you get a chance. IMO learning how to accurately and consistently monitor levels, and adjusting them, seems to be one of the most important aspects of this hobby. Once i got comfortable with testing, and maintaining params, everything started growing and acting great, and the stress level of worrying about the tanks inhabitants just goes away… well, at least it’s less…lmao
