Need opinion on fish selection.

[Viper3166]

Just setting up a 180gal reef tank, with so far 205lbs of LR and 120lbs LS. almost cycled, have a starting list on what fish i would like to house and need some input, some have different quantities they are just suggested if they are too many please let me know thanks guys you are always helpful here at 3reef.

1-Purple Tang - Zebrasoma xanthurus
1-3 yellow tang - Zebrasoma flavescens
2-Percula Clownfish - Picasso or Non
1-3 4 Stripe Damsel
1-Diamond Goby
1-3 Blue Tangs
1-Copperband Butterfly
Maybe an Angel Fish?

[lunatik_69]

Hey there, keep in mind, even though its a 180g thats alot of tangs. If you do introduce that many, you need to do it all at the same time and at night( with the lights off ). Everything else sounds fine except any angel fishes. Most if not all angels will and do nip at corals, so becareful. There are some exceptions but thats just luck. They dont come with a " reef safe " label. lol
Good luck and keep us posted and pics. Luna

[lunatik_69]

I almost forgot, a good rule of thumb for housing fish is 1 inch of fish per 5 gals of water. So in your case you can house 36 inch's of fish.

[Viper3166]

Thanks for the input, i would like to do the three blue hippo tangs for sure, so if i need to cut down on the others will do so lets say on the yellow tangs tho, they say don't get two you need to get 1 or 3+ i if get two yellow and one Purple do you think that can act as the rule or do you think the yellow tangs will just fight anyway? also i've been seeing that the purple tangs love to fight with fish of the same shape(yellow tang), but i've also read that if you have a larger tank your chances are better, does a 180g fall into that group??

[lunatik_69]

Its hard to tell, fish are like us, everyones different. The best thing that you can do is what I told you. At the same time and at night. 180 is a fairly big tank but you never know. Good luck, Luna

[omard]

How about a wrasse or two...every tank needs a sixline!

[reef_guru]

Compatibility

the chart should help

tangs eat algae, what are you going to feed all of them when your tanks pretty clean of algae?
yellow and purple tangs: minimum of 100 gallons per fish
blue tangs: minimum of 70 gallons per fish
purple tangs are aggressive
yellow tangs are semi aggressive
blue tangs are peaceful
caution should be used with butterflies and angels in a reef enviroment
these are the suggested comfortable living quarters for those fish.
but just like anything else in this hobby stranger things have happened

[omard]

Heed reef-guru's advice on butterflys and angels in reef environment.

Add juvenile fish to start with...fun to watch grow up and much less bio-load on new reef. Plus gives them time to get used to each other before becoming overly aggressive.

Is great fun to plan fish population. Best not to add too many of one kind.

Just about any kind of fish will get along in a large tank and when added young.

Don't overlook blennies (bi-color?) or gobies...neat fish with lots of personality...

Enjoy,

Scott

[Nemo 22]

Flame angel!!!!! and a sand shifting kind of goby.

[Jason McKenzie]

Most Tangs will fight another tang from the same species. So I would stick to 1 from
Zebrasoma
Paracanthurus
Acanthurus
Ctenochaetus
Naso