High Tide Aquatics

Advice, 180.5 stock list

gmdcdvm

gmdcdvm

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Hello Everyone,
I am looking forward to my family's 180.5 build. My son and wife are excited about the potential for which fish would do well in this tank. I have a list of potential candidates for this tank and wanted to get some advice. Granted, not all of these fish will make the final cut since there will not be room for so many. I am not concerned about fish that may eat snails or crabs. I plan on adding several types of snail, no hermit crabs for now. Let me know any thoughts you might have. I already bummed out my wife when I told her a porcupine trigger would still not be a good idea. I am looking for a mix of colors and maybe something that might shoal or school (not chromis).

EDIT: I am looking for fish that are relatively easy (pellets, frozen foods, etc). Don't want to deal with picky eaters, too specific of a diet, or live food eaters that would need to be trained onto frozen food.

Current fish: one spot fox face, bicolor blenny, swallowtail angel, and possum wrasse.

Potential candidates:
Watanabe angelfish
Additional swallowtail angelfish
Lineatus wrasses
Rosy scale wrasse
Humu humu trigger?
Royal Gramma
Purple Tang
Blue Tang
Gem tang
Long nose hawk
Some sort of bottom sand dwellers (goby of some sort): I would appreciate advice in this category. The tank is 5ft long and 2ft wide so I think there is plenty of bottom space from some sand dwellers.
Midas blenny or canary blenny
Firefish
Swiss guard basselette
Blue assessor (no experience, how aggressive are these guys?)
Any advice on additional fish

Gerry
 
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Long nose hawks can be territorial. I had one in a 500g tank I serviced, and that dude held down quite a large area.

Blue Assessors are docile, the Grama probably will be a a-hole to it.

Firefish are short lived, even on the reef. I'd forgo that one.
 
First:
Keep less fish longer
And
I hate new fish...they tend to die first!

The different families of tangs will fill different niches
Pickers, scrapers

Please feed your fish copious amounts of a wide variety of foods
 
BAYMAC said:
Long nose hawks can be territorial. I had one in a 500g tank I serviced, and that dude held down quite a large area.

Blue Assessors are docile, the Grama probably will be a a-hole to it.

Firefish are short lived, even on the reef. I'd forgo that one.
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I’ve never had long term success and stopped trying long ago.
I feel slightly less bad now maybe
How long would you say they might live?
 
phc567 said:
Swallow tails either get along or fight to the death.
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Yeah, get a proven pair if you're going to get two.
Coral reefer said:
I’ve never had long term success and stopped trying long ago.
I feel slightly less bad now maybe
How long would you say they might live?
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I've been told on the reef, year or two. Most books will say 3 years, but man, I dunno about that.

Firefish aren't handled all that great either, they don't like the CoC (chain of custody) travel.
 
BAYMAC said:
Long nose hawks can be territorial. I had one in a 500g tank I serviced, and that dude held down quite a large area.

Blue Assessors are docile, the Grama probably will be a a-hole to it.

Firefish are short lived, even on the reef. I'd forgo that one.
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Ya got a lifespan on that hawk?
I’ve had the pleasure of a flame hawk for over 10 years (it’s no longer alive,unfortunately)
 
Gooby the purple fire fish Goby was my first fish getting back into the hobby. The one I bought had flukes, but he was strong and made it through all the freshwater dips I gave it plus a hyposalinity treatment.

He occasionally disappears for days, and he's very rarely seen free swimming in my tank now, but he's a cool fish.
 
Picked up a purple firefish when I first set up my tank. Kept it for a few months by itself before one morning just showed up dead. Ate everything (Frozen + Live Brine, Baby brine, white worms, rods food) I might have just brought home a bad specimen with flukes but then again I purchased from 6th avenue..

I'm sure there are others with much success but for me, no luck
 
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Hella_Salty650 said:
Picked up a purple firefish when I first set up my tank. Kept it for a few months by itself before one morning just showed up dead. Ate everything (Frozen + Live Brine, Baby brine, white worms, rods food) I might have just brought home a bad specimen with flukes but then again I purchased from 6th avenue..

I'm sure there are others with much success but for me, no luck
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6th Avenue livestock...your first mistake
Highly discouraged
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Ya got a lifespan on that hawk?
I’ve had the pleasure of a flame hawk for over 10 years (it’s no longer alive,unfortunately)
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No, but I had one in a tank I cared for that was in captivity for just as long, 10-1/2 years. He was big when we got him as well, had to be, it was a huge tank with a massive surge tank above.
 
My advice is to get all your fish from Kenny @under_water_ninja at High Tide Aquatics in Oakland. I have had huge success with his pre-quarantied fish, and very inconsistent survival rates with stuff from AC or online (though I love AC in general).

You've probably heard this already but add the tangs last, and add them together if you plan to have more than one. I have done this with mine (PBT, yellow tang, BT) and they are getting along great so far.

Also HIGHLY recommend reading up on wrasses here if you plan to keep wrasses: https://www.thewrasseguy.com/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses
 
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SepToob said:
May advice is to get all your fish from Kenny @under_water_ninja at High Tide Aquatics in Oakland. I have had huge success with his pre-quarantied fish, and very inconsistent survival rates with stuff from AC or online (though I love AC in general).

You've probably heard this already but add the tangs last, and add them together if you plan to have more than one. I have done this with mine (PBT, yellow tang, BT) and they are getting along great so far.

Also HIGHLY recommend reading up on wrasses here if you plan to keep wrasses: https://www.thewrasseguy.com/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses
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Thank you for the advice.
 
SepToob said:
May advice is to get all your fish from Kenny @under_water_ninja at High Tide Aquatics in Oakland. I have had huge success with his pre-quarantied fish, and very inconsistent survival rates with stuff from AC or online (though I love AC in general).

You've probably heard this already but add the tangs last, and add them together if you plan to have more than one. I have done this with mine (PBT, yellow tang, BT) and they are getting along great so far.

Also HIGHLY recommend reading up on wrasses here if you plan to keep wrasses: https://www.thewrasseguy.com/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses
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This is an awesome resource. I'll have to bookmark it!
 
gmdcdvm said:
No. They classify tanks based on total water volume including the sump. It is a little over 21in tall.
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Maybe I am reading that wrong. I've sold thousands of aquaria, glass and acrylic. The only one where they include sump volume in the tank "size" is an AIO - all in one. Otherwise the volume of the tank is what they call the tank, no sump volume included. 180g tank hold 180gs. 180g tank with a 30g sump is still a 180g tank. The system volume is 210g.
 
Ah ok. I wouldn't do the purple and the gem tang. I'd do one or the other. You could do a bristletooth (tomini/kole) instead of the one you don't choose. Less likely to fight and better algae coverage.

With the swallowtail angel, and if you want to add 2 more genicanthus plus a trigger/foxface/3 tangs its quite a lot of big fish. I'd try to pare this down to 5-6 since your display is really more like 135g. It's the space not the bioload that'll get ya.
 
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