Advice on 90 Gallon Stocking List

[AMcLeod]

As with many reefers, one of the main draws into the hobby for me was seeing the Mandarin Dragonet, along with the aspect of maintaining a tiny ecosystem resembling a piece of reef.

I have never been a big fan of tanks that have just a few large fish and would prefer a tank with many smaller species and one or two larger "centerpiece" animals.
The problem i am running into is that i want to maintain a light bioload while running my system as naturally as possible. But with some of my favorite fish getting somewhat large and have heavy bioloads, if i were to stock them, my tank would contain just a few large fish in order to keep the bioload down and this is not what i want.

I have a 90g DT with a 19.5g sump containing a 12.3g fuge

Currently in my tank i have:

(1) Tiger Jawfish (Opistognathus lonchurus)
(2) Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)

I would like to add:

(1) Pacific Blue Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus)
(1) One Spot Foxface Rabbitfish (Siganus unimaculatus)
(1) Green Mandarin Dragonet (Synchiropus splendidus)
As well as some small fish (3" or smaller) to dart in and out of the rockwork and around the corals.
Theses obviously cannot be pod consumers as that position has been taken by the mandarin.
I have started to research Yellow Clown Gobies (Gobiodon okinawae) as well as TailSpot Blennies (Ecsenius stigmatura) as possible candidates, but would prefer a something that lives in a group or harem, similar to the fish in the Anthias Genus, only smaller/hardier.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My rock work is set up so that there is a lot of open water for swimming but also plenty of bolt holes and rockwork for grazing. I will post a picture as soon as i have them uploaded to my computer.

My tank is fairly young (~1 month) but cycled very quickly and to my surprise is proving to be quite stable for a young tank. My next step will be to start slowly adding some corals, so i wont be adding anymore fish for a while.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/criticism/etc

Thanks,
McLeod

[snorvich]

Well you need a tank that is about one year old or more for a mandarin. You can improve your odds if you have a refugium.

Your top two fish are a bit largish, if you really want a tank with small interesting inhabitants, you might reconsider those two. Nothing against them, but there are more interesting fish available. If you want a shoal (what you are calling schooling), look at various cardinal fish, perhaps five? A firefish or dartfish is interesting. Goby shrimp pairs are very interesting.

What corals, if any are you planning?

[AMcLeod]

Don’t worry, I have done a lot of research and I won’t be adding a dragonet for a long time. If I remember correctly you posted a picture of a pair of mandarins a while back. I don’t think I have ever seen any specimens with such bright orange coloration! What fish did you have stocked with your mandarins?

I’m planning on keeping stony corals, I really like the Montipora corals, both the encrusting and plating kind and I hope to add some Acros and a Birdsnest eventually as well as. I also plan on having a Torch Coral as I like the anemone look but don’t want to deal with an anemone.
I have never really liked any of the cardinal fish as they don’t seem very colorful to me. But I will have to do some more research on those. I do like the Banggai Cardinals, but I have read that they don’t do well in groups.

I have been thinking a lot about adding a goby/shrimp pair, but I heard they would steal my Jawfish's burrow.

What about removing either the Pacific Blue or Foxface from the list? Would I be able to have one of these fish and still have a fair amount of smaller fish to create a lot of movement?

Thanks for the quick reply!
McLeod

[Chibils]

Originally posted by AMcLeod
Don’t worry, I have done a lot of research and I won’t be adding a dragonet for a long time. If I remember correctly you posted a picture of a pair of mandarins a while back. I don’t think I have ever seen any specimens with such bright orange coloration! What fish did you have stocked with your mandarins?

I’m planning on keeping stony corals, I really like the Montipora corals, both the encrusting and plating kind and I hope to add some Acros and a Birdsnest eventually as well as. I also plan on having a Torch Coral as I like the anemone look but don’t want to deal with an anemone.
I have never really liked any of the cardinal fish as they don’t seem very colorful to me. But I will have to do some more research on those. I do like the Banggai Cardinals, but I have read that they don’t do well in groups.

I have been thinking a lot about adding a goby/shrimp pair, but I heard they would steal my Jawfish's burrow.

What about removing either the Pacific Blue or Foxface from the list? Would I be able to have one of these fish and still have a fair amount of smaller fish to create a lot of movement?

Thanks for the quick reply!
McLeod

Cardinals are not the most colorful fish of all time, but they do have some nice hues. Also, as they shoal, they have an iridescent glitter. Banggai (Kaudern's) cardinals do well in groups.

There is a possibility that your gobies would steal the hole, but if you get a pistol shrimp he will probably want to dig his own burrow. Just make sure the jawfish is established first. Trimma gobies aren't cheap (nor are they too expensive), but they live naturally in sps branches and would make a good addition in that aspect. Something about them that I find interesting is the way they can match perfectly against the flesh of their host corals.

[LobsterOfJustice]

If you want a group of smaller fish, definitely look at chromis or cardinals. You can get different kinds of chromis, not just the blue/green. As for the cardinals, I agree banggai do not do well in groups. There are interesting cardinals out there, you just might have to look. Apogon leptacanthus are relatively common, but there are also Apogon properuptus, Apogon aureus, and a number of other uncommon species.