Fish Population Plan - Please Assist

[Ron1319]

My wife and I are putting together a wish list for our new 100 gallon TruVu aquarium. We have put together the following list of possibly compatible species from looking at compatibility charts and going to practically every aquarium shop in the greater Sacramento area:

1) Lionfish (couple possibilities)
2) Eel (Snowflake)
3) Puffer (couple possibilities - porcupine?)
4) Angler

Every shop here seems to have these innocent looking green boxfish, but everything we read says that they grow up to be 2' around and require 150 gallon tanks. They were going to be in spot #4.

We have a lot of lights but no corals yet. We just got one Bak Pak skimmer on Craigslist for $60 and can add a second if needed. We have a cannister filter (Magnum 350) underneath and an Emperor 400 filter. The cannister filter and Emperor 400 came with the aquarium and have been running since we set everything up last weekend.

The live rock and sand in the aquarium were wet in bins for about 12 hours between being disassembled from the guy we bought the setup from and being set back up in our living room.

Enough background -- we're trying to figure out with larger fish when the tank would become overpopulated and how to account whether we could get everything on our wishlist or if we would need to limit ourselves to a dwarf lionfish (for instance) to help make sure that a year from now everything didn't grow out of the aquarium. There's no reason we couldn't go to a larger tank at some point in the future, but it'd be nice if those things would fit in this set up.

Anything in the way of inches of fish per gallon seems to be vague and always with a "maybe" attached.

Advice?

Ron and Deanna

[chrischris]

i think youll be fine but youll need a place to put them when they grow big
lion fish 1' 6" max
eel 2'
puffer 1'
angler 5 or 6"
i think not sure on max sizes above

[dobejazz]

Welcome to TRT

Look into the Dwarf lion fish they max out about 6-7"

Some puffers stay smaller too

[Ron1319]

Well there-in lies the meat of the question, really. The min aquarium sizes from Marine Depot Live:

1) Lionfish - Antennata - 30 gallons, Volitan - 60 gallons (for 15" fish)
2) Snowflake Eel - 30 gallons
3) Porcupine Puffer - 80 gallons
4) Angler - 20 gallons

That would seem to indicate that even at maximum size the large fish would be fine in our 100 gallon tank. I'm assuming you don't need to add those numbers together. I'd hate to kill a fish because I trusted a number that is inaccurate or doesn't apply the way I think it does.

The other question - What do you do when fish compatibility charts disagree? Anglers are a "maybe" at this link:

http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/saltwa...ility_tool.php

(with everything else)

at this link:

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/mdl_compatibility.html

Everything is a yes but the eel and the angler.

at this link:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/c...lity_chart.cfm

Anglers and eels are a maybe, but I see the same chart on a different site and it says no instead like somebody copied it wrong.

The Angler is last on the list anyway, so we can continue to research that for (likely) months.

I was also hoping for advice on whether the order seems right. For the sake of bio-load we should let each one settle in and make sure the nitrogen cycle doesn't get shocked? From a territory standpoint there is advice out there to populate more than one at a time. I figure lion fish first, but I wonder if eel then puffer or puffer then eel might be better. The internet seems to often say 2 weeks between fish, but it doesn't seem necessary to rush that. If someone suggests that the aquarium should be able to handle it if carefully watched, I'd be down with adding the lionfish and the puffer (for instance) and then the eel later and the angler months after if someone said that would work best.

Thanks,
Ron

[tims]

Hi ron,
I thnk you have the probelm withthe charts becasue of the size of the new anglers. some are rather small to start off with, depending onthe size of the eel you cna run into problems.
just make sure you have nice caves for the eel and some open spots for the others to feed. ( that should be fun doing).
the snowflake is a rather ......"let me see what i can get in to" eel..you may end up with some type of covering for the tank...
i look forward to seeing your system

the two filters that came with it , are not going to handle the Poop load of everyone once they are all in the tank..

thoughts on the eel. a while back , i saw a vid, onan blue eel a member had in his tank. he made several PVC tunnels for the eel. that worked out great..

[Loverotties]

I love the Lion Fish!

[aquasalt]

In your first post you stated that you have no coral as of yet. Keep in mind that some fish, in particular the porcupine puffer, are not good candidates for reef aquariums! They will nip 'em...

I would add the Lionfish first as suggested. I have heard that they are very hardy fish, so it's a good one to start off with. The Dwarf lions are terrific and should (in my opinion) not be regarded as a compromise. As far as the bioload is concerned...add one fish per month or so (as long as your water parameters are in check).

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by aquasalt

The Dwarf lions are terrific and should (in my opinion) not be regarded as a compromise.).

I agree...while maybe not as pretty, way more personality. volitans are kind of boring besides being crazy looking. dwarfs are curious and personable IME

[snook_em]

Originally Posted by aquasalt

As far as the bioload is concerned...add one fish per month or so (as long as your water parameters are in check).

I've heard conflicting opinions on this. I've heard 2 fish every 2 weeks would be o.k. Personally I've been adding 2 at a time and not seen any problems. I also only have 4 fish right now. Does the size of your tank, or the type of fish you add play a part in how frequently you add fish?