evolved's 120g reef tank, wrasse dominated!

Well, I've said I need some pics of my tank inhabitants, so here you go. This is my first saltwater venture, and the tank is a little over 3 months old now.

Stock list includes:

Fish/inverts:
2 black/white ocellaris
3 barlett anthias
McCoskers wrasse
Filamented wrasse
Lubbocks wrasse
Multicolored velvet wrasse
Flame wrasse pair (added 5/9, see page 2 for pics)
Banded coral shrimp
5 Turbo snails
4 Astrea snails
~35 blue leg hermits


Corals:
Duncan
Frogspawn
Green tongue
3 rics, various morphs
St Thomas mushroom
2 Acans
14 different zoanthid morphs (9 from coral morphologic, including a Miami vice and a blue angel)

All pics (and more) can be found on my photobucket: Saltwater Tank pictures by evolvedx - Photobucket (the Laboute's wrasse is no longer, he was only in the tank 1 day before he jumped THROUGH my eggcrate Corrective action has been taken for the future)








































[STRIKE]Opinions as to the "fullness" of the stock list?[/STRIKE] (Stock list now complete)

 

Nice looking fish and corals. I love wrasses too, glad to see a bunch of them out there. I see you learned the hard way about that too, hopefully you have something at least in the 1/4" range or smaller or a full canopy with NO uncovered outlets, I just lost a wrasse in QT that went through 3/8" mesh.

On stocking level, I think you're at a good level right now to me, personally. I do like lower level stocking though, especially with those anthias in there which can be tricky to keep well fed. My theory is stock lower and feed more (but not too much!). I hate to see these high metabolism fish not able to eat well enough because there's too many of them and people getting worried about nutrient issues because they have too many fish that need too much food so they cut back to only feeding a couple times a week.

If you get maybe 4-6 months further down the line and aren't running into nutrient issues etc then I would possibly consider another smaller fish or two, but I would wait and make that determination after letting things settle in for a bit more. Your tank is still very very young and has a long road ahead of it, take it slow. Good luck.

 

Thanks, and that's pretty much where my head is at right now too. I'm feeding 3 times a day for the anthias, and everyone else gets food at least two of those times. Phosphates are holding at 0.3ppm, but I've got a phosphate reactor to set up tomorrow to combat that issue. Besides that, all my parameters are in a normal range.

I took my eggcrate and wove fishing line diagonally through all the squares. Took probably 3 hours to do the whole top, but it's a fix for now. I'll probably get some 1/4" clear screen and build a new top down the road. I'm still mad I lost that fish. I watched him all day long the day he was there, and seemed like he was going to be a fun addition. The velvet has taken his place though, for the most part.

If I wait to add another fish, I do worry about trying to add another wrasse as the Filamented didn't take so kindly to the Lubbock's for the first few days. Nothing too serious, but it definitely wasn't a warm welcome. You can see that things have calmed down a lot since then. Actually, the anthias have helped in that regard, as the only mild aggression in the tank now is between them and the wrasses. I'm just really tempted to add another wrasse, but I think I'll be able to refrain.

 

Is it that bad?

 

Great fish! I love wrasses and anthias - both are so beautiful, active and fun to watch. Thanks for the pictures!!

 

Not enough people like wrasses maybe.

 

Well, temptation's got a hold on me. Which two to add?

Mated pair of flame wrasses: $250

or

Laboute's Wrasse: $100
Clown Head Wrasse: $50

 

Laboute's or labouti (idk how to spell it) but i love that wrasse

 

I've seen it three different ways: Laboute's Labouti Labout

They're all the same thing.

 

Cool tank. Wheres the FTS?