Cali Kid Corals

Stocking Plan for 40BR Humble Reef

wpeterson

wpeterson

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Our new 40BR display/30gal sump is fully operational and just finished cycling last week. There's nothing but macroalgae and copepods living in the tank as of today, but we're starting to plan our fish stocking list and I'll probably buy our first coral this weekend. I'd love feedback and ideas from folks on fish for this tank. Full details in our build thread on R2R.

We had great luck providing pods for a pair of mandarins in our 90gal using an almost identical sump/refugium setup to the Precision Marine R30Pro I have setup on this tank - so I'm comfortable having a mandarin and another goby here (even though both eat pods).

My plan is to have a lot of small fish given the limited display size:

  • Rainford's Goby (currently in QT doing Tank Transfers)
  • Green Mandarin Goby
  • Pair of Clownfish
  • Pygmy Wrasse
  • Cardinal or Firefish or Dartfish
I had originally thought about getting a sixline wrasse, but my wife talked me out of it due to temperament and incompatibility with a mandarin. I think we'd rather have a mandarin.

Any other fish I should think about? Any concerns about overall bioload or stocking size?
 
I think the pygmy wrasse might be too much to have in terms of pod eaters - we'll probably stick to just the Rainard's Goby and a Mandarin.
 
The Rainiford is a very cool fish. But mine liked to pickup a mouth full of sand and swim to an area that is devoid of sand and sift it over that. It almost always is over 1 of your favorite corals sitting on the sand bed.


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Vhuang168 said:
The Rainiford is a very cool fish. But mine liked to pickup a mouth full of sand and swim to an area that is devoid of sand and sift it over that. It almost always is over 1 of your favorite corals sitting on the sand bed.


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What a nice fish. It was trying to feed the coral.
 
Flagg37 said:
What kind of clownfish are you going to do?
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I've owned some fancy designer clowns, but honestly the happiest/healthiest fish we've had were locally aquacultured, juvenile ocellaris. If there's a school of fish locally, I'll probably buy some from someone in the Boston club out here.
 
My favorites small ones are pretty basic options, but I really like my royal gramma, and I have an atlantic pygmy angel in "observation" that I like a lot as well. Both have lots of personality, and hopefully the angel will be a good reef citizen. I imagine they would both compete with the mandarin for 'pods though.

Looking forward to seeing pics of the Rainford's once it's in its new home!
 
Dartfish are nice and active, so a good pick there.
What sort of cardinal?
Firefish are just so timid...
wrasse + mandarin = hungry mandarin.

You might consider some type of Blenny for algae eating.
I had a sailfin for a while. Fun when it displays the fin.
 
Possibly consider the following:

Pink streaked wrasse - looks relatively similar to a sixline, but way more mellow
A centerpiece fish. Something with a bit more personality than what's currently on there. Clowns are beautiful fish, but they tend to stick to their host(s). The rainfords and mandarins are pretty cryptic and shy for the most part, doing their own thing. Possibly some sort of flasher or fairy wrasse, a pygmy angel (if you don't mind the lack of polyp extension during the day time), basslets (swalesi, candy, etc.), anthias (fatheads and borbonius comes to mind), or even something with a ton of personality (e.g. midas blenny, as long as your tank is covered).
 
Really depends on how much movement you want in the tank. Flashers n Fairy wrasse are planktonic so won't compete with the mandarins for pods (as much) but will be up and about the rockwork and open areas.

Basslets are fun, love my Gold Assessor esp when he swims upside down among the rockwork.

Dwarf Angels will add some grace to the tank, I have had extremely good luck with my dwarfs in regards to picking on corals. Currently have a Potter's in the 40b and a Pacific Dwarf in the Nuvo 16. Had a Coral Beauty before this. Other to pick from that are considered very reef safe are Genicanthus genus like Watanabes, Lyretails, Lamarcks.

Anthias are great in the open but can be finicky to get to eat prepared foods and often need numerous small feeding through the day initially. Fatheads and Barbbonius are great choices but are more shy and tend to stick close to rockwork.



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So the Rainford's Goby is out of QT and into the display, where he has promptly made a home in the back of the rockwork where I'll probably never see him again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We picked up two black ice clowns from a local breeder. They're chilling out in QT this week and I'm hoping to find a RBTA to introduce them to in the final stages of QT in the hope they might get to know eachother better toward hosting in a smaller QT environment.

I've got my eye out for a mandarin and a yellow assessor and some other new additions. Thanks for all the advice here.
 
The Rainford's goby has been coming out during feeding time now, though he seems happier hunting pods and sand sifting than eating frozen. I was lucky to finally capture a few pictures of him tonight:

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