Adding fish to my tank.

[Snider82]

So, i only have 3 damsels left my my tank.   

Im thinking of adding:
-Blue Tang
-Wrasse - anything that eats annoing bugs/algy in the tank. (suggestions are welcome/helpfull)

i am not sure of what order to add these fish, anyone know?

[Hookup]

take 1 part tang and mix it with 3 parts wrasse... stir and serve on ice... Tangrasse... goes nice with a piece of lime.


no issues between those fish as a general rule... add away...The blues sometimes get bossy...but not that i've observed in my system, so if my one fish out of the millions out there is not bossy, none of them are!

[buzzard]

JMO but get rid of the damsils and add "real" fish.
In about 25 years of this S*%T i have found that 9x out of 10 "ONE" of those damsils are going to cause you greef.
A $2.00 damsil killing your $100.00 tang or whatever = damsil fish cakes.LOL
Like I sead, Just My Opinion.

[Snider82]

hum,  thats kinda offending.... my damsels are beautiful!  they have great personality. they ARE real fish.    they are not the route i want to go with my fish seletion, so i will eventualy be getting rid of them,  but that besides the point. 

thanks for the input Hookup!

[Hookup]

I love the red tail tamarin wrasse and it's quite a useful fellow also...  In the OMG category, i like the mystery wrasse but hate the price, and I do like the yellow coris wrasse and love the 4-line wrasse...   

One word would be to start with the wrasse whom which you want to have the most brilliant colors... that wrasse will setup "home" and when others are introduced he/she will dominate displaying full colors... of course, this is only a general rule... if you put in a 1/2" wrasse first followed by a mature 3" two months later, i promise the 3" will be the dominant...

Anyhow, there's a host of them and those are my favorite.  A pair of red-tail tamarin's and a pair of yellow-tail tamarin's are destined for my system... they just look soooooo amazing.

Red Tail Version


Yellow tail version


Yellow Coris Wrasse


Mystery Wrasse

[RoxyDog]

I'm personally not a fan of the mystery wrasse but I agree with the yellow "coris" wrasse.  I have one with a solorensis wrasse and radiant wrasse and all three are beautiful and play together nicely.    As for the order, you'll have to decide what you're getting first.  I put the smaller solorensis in after the larger radiant and the radiant only chased him for a day then all was well.  Had it been the other way around it *may* have turned out badly. 

[Snider82]

thanks!   i'v looked up the fish,  they are very beatifull and would be good for my tank.   I do read they are difficult to transport/acclimate.    i'v had bad luck with acclimating fish.  i put them in a small pail, and use air line hose to start a syphon from my tank.   i tye a knot in the hose so that it drips into the pail. i let this go for about 30-40min, then add the fish to the tank. 

im scared to add fish because i'v lost a clown... and just recently a small lamarck angel. (tho now that i read the lamarck wont work in my tank)

so now im back to research, and no more buying fish on a whim!

[Hookup]

I do not like your description of your method... without doing some salinity tests, and temp tests i can see how your method would be risky.

Here's my 3 step swirlies method.

1. Take bag, put it into tank - 20min to temp adjust

2. Take a kitchen knife, poke a 1/2 inch hole (slice) into both sides of the bag - 2 hours wait

3. Squeze bag slightly, see if the temp/salnity are balanced by looking for "swirlies" in the water (different temps and/or densities will mix with swirlies) If there are swirlies, wait for 30-60min and re-check... continue till no swirlies can be seen... add fish...


I have let fish sit for upwards of 4 hours before...  The last few fish I added, months ago, I actually used the refractometer to check the salinity of their water to give me an idea of how long it was going to take... as the salinity was quite far of 1.021 vs my 1.026 at the time, I knew that I had to really make smaller holes and let things sit for much longer than 2 hours...   

Try it next time, it's pretty easy... and since i've been doing it, i've not lost a fish due to acclimation.

[RoxyDog]

Here's mine, dunno if it's "right" or not: 5 minutes float in the water for temp. check salinity to make sure it's not crazy off, dump out enough water that I can replace that much again with my water.  Add about 1/4 cup of my water into the bag about every 5-10 mins for 30 mins or until the water in the bag has doubled.  I didn't have any problems acclimating my wrasses like that, or any other fish (I did do it a tad longer for my angels). 

[ciaus]

Do none of you use a quarantine tank?  From store to Display tank just sounds risky to me...I have gotten to the point now that I am not going to add any new livestock until I do have a quarantine tank in place...The critical mass ("money") invested in the tank now is large enough to be a financial pain should I lose some or all of the fish to a rouge LFS borne disease.

Just my two pence worth!

Ciaus

[sutt]

When acclimating fish to your aquarium you need to place the bag in the water for temperature reasons. After 15 minutes you should add about a half cup of water from your tank to the bag. You should repeat this three times. Also pending on the fish and size of the bag is how much water you should add. After you complete these steps you can release your fish in your aquarium. Do Not mix the water from you the bag with aquarium water, it may cause a problem. Such as if they used copper in there system it would kill inverts, corals and some fish without scales. It also can cause parasites.

On the fish question, the reason that wrasses change dominant roles, is because they can change sexuality at any time. meaning if you buy two green bird wrasses, one will change to a brown bird wrasse.

[Snider82]

wish i had the space for one.  i don't even have room  to store one to take out when needed.   When we get a bigger house I will be watching adds for a QT tank, i just cant have one right now. im kinda holding back on what i put in my tank (price wize) untill we go move... but its too hard to pass up.

Thanks for the acc tips..  i was just using the method someone told me to use.   maby ill use Hookup's method,  then try sutt's/roxyDog's.  and i think I'm going to test the store water as well, just to see how well they keep their tanks.     now to find someone that will order me the fish i want.   Wish Ottawa wasn't a 2 hour trip,  i hate driving that long with fish on board. d

[FocusFin]

i'v had bad luck with acclimating fish.  i put them in a small pail, and use air line hose to start a syphon from my tank.   i tye a knot in the hose so that it drips into the pail. i let this go for about 30-40min, then add the fish to the tank. 

I use a similar method - whether directly in tank or quarantine - by running an airline hose directly to the bag on a slow drip for 1.5 to 2 hrs. Basically I set it up with a timer and walk away.

When the water level in the bag has tripled/quadrupled I empty most of it out and float the bag just to be sure the temps match then strain bag water through a net to a bucket and in he goes.

I'm not crazy about water from the bag getting into my tank, probably not a big deal but I rather nothing but the fish go in.

[Severum]

I use the drip method as well and the fish go into a quarantine tank. Then drip acclimate from QT to main tank.

[Hookup]

There is no "one right way" of doing things here... there are many... the wrong way is to open-bag, dump fish... hehe...

I'm always looking for methods that require zero effort on my part... which is why the poke-holes and forget it method is my preference...  I also resolve my self that my tank is for smart-strong fish... no QT so get tough or die... you chose to jump out and i'm not around to save your bacon, grow some lungs... that's just me... but I just cannot panic everytime some stupid fish does something dumb and QT'ing is not for me.

on a thread-jacking side note, there have been an abundance (ok, several) new people posting in SW threads lately as one-hit-wonders... anyone else notice this?

[Snider82]

I guess many people do it different way,  tho it is nice to see the different methods,   i like hookup's "zero effort", since I've been having problems tho,  ill have to put in more effort into it.   reading all this I'm going to try something different.
I will do the drip method into the bag.   but this time i will float the bag in the sump,  run the air hose from the DT to the bag.. this way temp will even out.   i will also have the drip slower then I've been doing... and let it go for 2hours.    now to find someone that sells the fish i want! 

and as for the "one-hit wonders"  never noticed until you posted this

Back to original subject....  i think i want a pair of red-tail tamarin's  and a yellow coris.  + blue tang.   thats it!  then lots of coral!

[Fishhead89]

I've been told to NEVER add anyone else's water to your tank, especially fish store water. Many of the systems running in fish stores are being treated
with copper - which will do bad things to your corals... so when floating fish, float them in the bag for temperature (20 minutes)... then
scoop some water out, ad some of yours.. repeat until it's all your water. Just floated a powder blue tang for two hours on this method - getting the salintiy to to scratch - it was way off. I've read 30 minutes for each .01 that salinity is off.

[HOB]

I've been told to NEVER add anyone else's water to your tank, especially fish store water.

Yeh, I would never ever ever add anyone else's water to my tank. 
Other methods may require "zero effort" but comes at "higher risk".  Many ways to do it but the wrong way would be to open bag and dump fish AND water in......
Drip method is good and letting bag float and replace its water with your water a cup at a time over a period of time and then scoop the fish out should be the bare minimal - as long as the water in the bag is kept separated from your aquarium's water.

I also resolve my self that my tank is for smart-strong fish...

Where does one buy smart fish - do you get them from a school? (sorry, couldn't resist).

[Hookup]

Where does one buy smart fish - do you get them from a school? (sorry, couldn't resist).

I pee'd a little when I read that... good one! 

[cn]

Yeh, I would never ever ever add anyone else's water to my tank. 

I strongly agree with the statement above, never add fish store water to your tank as it probably has copper and it will cause issue with inverts and corals. Drip method and floating bag to match up temperature is the best way to acclimate new fish. I recommend quaranteen all new fish in a separate tank. It will save lot of grieve later on.