290 Gallon Stocking Advise

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by dusty16

I love your tank Piscez. It looks great. I thought that the Majestic Angel wasnt reef safe though.

Here is what I know I want for sure.
I have 2 clowns and a foxface already
Blue Hippo
Yellow Tang
Purple Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Regal Angel
Flame Angel
Copperband butterfly
And now possibly a zebra moray eel.
Debated a naso tang for a while but they seem too big.

That takes care of the bigger fish more or less. Now I just need something smaller. Anthias seem like the best option. I wanted something cheap like damsels/chromis but Ive read that they just kill themselves off.

If you want something smaller you want to make sure it can stick up for itself. Starry blenny's are a fish with a lot of personality. Dartfish are pretty skittish.

My stocky anthias don't back down from my bigger fish unlike my lyretail's. Pictures don't due them justice for how colorful they are.

Chromis's are likely to kill each other off. There are some people that have been successful longer term but with multiple feedings/day. I've had my 5 for 10 months but that is not a success story yet.

Avoid damsels. They will be terrors.

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by dusty16

Is it ok to have different types of anthias? Like 3 of barletts and 3 lyretale?

The answer is: sometimes? Fish are like cats. Sometimes it works and you get a really mellow group, sometimes it doesn't because one dude wants to fight at the party. Hell, sometimes you mix the same species and that one dude kills off everyone else because he doesn't like their elbows. It's not common, but I've seen it enough times to say it's not a isolated. My advice, buy the more boisterous species (lyretail) after the Bartletts and try to get them smaller than said Bartletts.

[dusty16]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

The answer is: sometimes? Fish are like cats. Sometimes it works and you get a really mellow group, sometimes it doesn't because one dude wants to fight at the party. Hell, sometimes you mix the same species and that one dude kills off everyone else because he doesn't like their elbows. It's not common, but I've seen it enough times to say it's not a isolated. My advice, buy the more boisterous species (lyretail) after the Bartletts and try to get them smaller than said Bartletts.

lol. Never heard of fish being compared to cats. Interesting stuff. Thanks for the advice Albert. Any chance the fathead can be thrown into the mix?