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Hello,

I am going to eventually set up a 110g saltwater fish only aquarium. I was wondering if you would suggest your favorite fish for me to help me with planning it out. I am looking for colorful, interesting, fun fish. So far I really like triggers, puffers, and lookdowns. Any information that you could provide as far as the differences (personality, size,color,hardiness) in types of these fish for example would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ingasar

I like the harlequin tuskfish a whole lot, and love most puffers and triggers also. The old clown trigger is hard to beat.

Lookdowns are technically schooling and are highly active; go to any public aquarium with a large enough tank and you'll see what it means to really maintain these types of fish properly. I'd avoid them in a tank as small as 110 gallons.

Looks like you're going Fish Only. With the 110 gallon you can have some good stuff going on. Triggers and puffers can be aggressive and may pick on other fish. You have to be rather careful when combining these with other fish, such as lionfish, a favorite of mine, which can be picked to death by a trigger. Perhaps a moray might be nice.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

What is it you like about a moray?

AFAIK Morays are generally peaceful and are also fascinating animals. They will not harm fish (other than those that they can consume), and some of them are actually quite attractive. With triggers and puffers swimming around, a moray would likely be the least aggressive of the bunch, but would still be a great animal that you might not normally keep in, say, a reef aquarium or an aquarium with smaller fishes. Depending on the species, many can be kept in aquariums of rather manageable size.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

How do Tangs fit with puffers, triggers and a moray? Also, would you suggest any smaller schooling fish to go with this mix to get the schooling entertainment?

Tangs would work out with some triggers and puffers. The tang would have to be large compared to the others. Also, the triggers couldn't be any of the more aggressive types.

Smaller schooling fish do not fit with the larger puffers and morays ever, though they could get along with some of the most peaceful triggers, and most tangs.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Does the Harlequin Tuskfish go ok with triggers, puffers and a moray? Any other recommendations?

The tuskfish wouldn't work with some of the more aggressive triggers. Otherwise it would be fine. If you do choose one of the less aggressive triggers, like the niger, blue chin, crosshatch etc....then you could get away with some of the larger more boisterous wrasses (the tuskfish in this goup, be careful mixing), or angels. Many groupers would do fine as well.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Is my 110g tank too small for the small clown trigger? This seems to be the most colorful and personable trigger? How about the picasso and niger together?

How would this work?

1 clown trigger (smaller)
1 porcupine puffer
1 moray eel
1 dogfaced puffer
1 niger trigger
1 harlequin tuskfish?

Any other suggestions?

I see a couple things wrong in your mix. Firstly, be advised that the clown trigger will eventually become the most aggressive fish in your tank, no matter how small you get him at. He will grow and become beligerent. They are a real beauty, but I have known too many people that have thought about their looks over their temperment, and end up with a 125 gal tank with just one clown trigger fish in it.

Nextly, you don't want two puffers. Puffers do not care for their own kind and this will eventually cause trouble as well. It is a rarety to have 2 puffers of any species that co-exist in the same tank together.

Another thing you should consider, is the bioload. If you get all the fish on your list, you will most likely be overstocked in the end. Those fish all reach large sizes of up to 12 inches or more, each. And catching a fish that is that big, to take back to the store later on, is an extreme challenge in a tank that large. It is much harder to do than a FW tank, trust me.

As for the puffer. Be advised that you will/should never plan on seeing him puffed up. And be happy in their appearance when they are not puffed up. As their puffing up thing is a defense mechenism and actually they can suffer damage and pain during this experience. They will however puff up about once a week, just to "practice". But this experience only lasts about 5-10 minutes or so. For as long as it takes them to unpuff themselves. Puffers are also very messy eaters, and leave much uneaten foods through out the tank. Thus, this is also an increase in the bioload if you don't have some kind of fish or other creature that will eat up the scraps. This is the main reason I don't like puffers in an aquarium smaller than 1,000 gals or so.

With the morays, be sure to research any you are looking at, before purchasing it. As they range in full grown sizes of about 18 inches, up to several feet in length. My best suggestion is the snowflake eel, as it remains on the smaller size, about 18 inches, and has only rarely ever been heard of eating other fishes. Its main food sources are crustacia and smaller creatures. They love raw shrimp for food. And they are very nicely colorful fish. Some of the larger ones, will in fact eventually attack and eat some of your other fish.

Personally, I go with the smaller to mid sized fish, as you can have more, and mostly the mid to less active ones, so you can see them more in a harmonious setting, than a highly active one. Such as the lionfish, a snoflake moray as previously mentioned, jawfish, gobies, some damsels, hawkfish, bannerfish with a tank your size, some butterfly fish, dwarf angels, most wrasses, anthias, and there are a lot more to choose from.

You must remember, that in a SW tank, your bioload is/must be less than a third of what would be in a FW tank. The larger fish will take an enourmous part of that, verses the smaller fish. More active fish will also have a great impact on the bioload, verse the more dosile or less active fish.

Also you should take note when stocking this tank, that your live rock (a must for a suitable SW fish only tank) will take app one third of the water volumn as well, thus your actual water volumn of that tank will/should be around 75-80 gals in the end.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I would also get rid of the clown trigger. As Acid said, they can be mighty nasty as adults. Something he didn't say was that two triggers can get along about as well as two puffers. I'd stick with the niger. They are much more peaceable. I think if you got rid of the clown trigger and one of the puffers, then your stocking list would be pretty nice.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thank you for all the replies.

How is this set up now?

110g

porcupine puffer
zebra moray eel
niger triggerfish
pinktail triggerfish
harlequin tusk
lawnmower blenny
purple tang
freckled hawkfish

Is this too much fish or can I fit more?

IMO, I still think you are overstocked when the fish get larger. The thing with SW is that if the cycle crashes, it will crash very fast. And you could eventually lose all your fish in a matter of a couple of days. Personally, if you want to go with the large fish you have listed there, I would cut them in half.

Also, the moray you are looking at, is a larger sized one, that will eat other fish if it gets very hungry. It is also unlikely that it will take prepared foods either. So you expense to feed it is going to increse as well. It will likely take about 15-20 large shrimp per week. Not to mention, that once the other large size fish get a taste for the shrimp (or whatever other non prepared foods you feed) they will most likely stop taking prepared foods as well. So your cost could end up being about $20+ a week. So be prepared for that as well.

IMO, the puffer, the moray, and the niger trigger would be good for that size of tank.

My suggestion is for the Harliquen Tusk as the largest fish, and some others his size or smaller.

Also, the angel you are looking at is a hard fish to keep. I would not attempt it till you are more experienced in SW.

Try this setup; A pair of clowns and an annenome. Harliquen Tuskfish, one or two snowflake morays, a hawkfish, one or two lawnmower blenny (for algae control), a Flame Angel, one or two jawfish (either yellow head or blue spotted jawfish), a small tang (purple or yellow and could have two), one psuedochromis, a small wrasse or pair if you can get them.

But anyway, you have a few months to decide. As it will be at least that long before you can have your tank fully stocked to the way you want it. You will also need a second tank setup for your quarantine tank. As many or all of the fish you are lookiing at, as well as my suggestions, come from the wild. So you want to quarantine them for about a month each to prevent any bad things from being introduced into your tank. Treating a SW tank is very expensive, not to mention the expense if you loose any of the fish already in there.

Remember the three rules to starting and keeping a SW tank; Patience, patience, and patience.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Thanks for your advice.

Our favorite fish so far is the porcupine puffer. So that we are building around it. Here is the order that we like the fish on my list. Maybe this could help in choosing.

1. Porcupine puffer
2. zebra moray eel
3. harlequin tusk
4. purple tang
5. hawaiian pinktail trigger
6. niger trigger
7. freckled hawkfish
8. lawnmower blenny

I do realize that I have a long time to think about this. That's a good thing. I'm certainly in no rush for fish but I enjoy doing my homework on them.

About quarantining:
Can the local small fishstore be the quarantine tank? Can I order the fish and keep them there for a month?

If we decide on an angelfish, it would probably be last.

I have read that dogfaced puffers do get along with other puffers. I have seen tanks with dogfaced and porcupines together. Is this something you would do? What if I eliminated a trigger and got a dogfaced puffer?

From my research it seems that the pinktail trigger is less aggressive than the niger trigger. Is that correct?

The freckled hawkfish interests me because of its behavior. I'm told this fish can hold its own in this tank setup.

Also, can I have any invertebrate at all with these fish?

Thank you

The hawkfish will be fine. As for inverts, they will not last long with that moray. Even a cleanup crew of hermies will probably disapear rather rapidly.

If you can get a holding tank at your lfs that does not add any other fish in it for a month, that would do fine for a quaranteen tank.

As for the puffers, you can try anything. Its just that I have heard horror stories about them together, and I never see them together in any of my lfs. But, I have heard of a few attempts that have succeeded, hense the "rarely" in my previous post above.

As for the pink tail, in my experience, they are less aggressive. However, with the list you are looking at, I don't think it would matter much one way or the other. But the Niger has the potential to reach sizes of about 18+ inches. Where as the pink tail will most likely stay under 12 inches. I have seen Nigers in the wild that were around 2 feet, including their tails.

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There is always a bigger fish...

IMO hawkfish do alot of sitting around, so be prepared for that, other than that i think your mix is fine, a friend of mine has a tank with a kinda similar mix. i would suggest a brown scopus tang. well taken care of they are beautiful entertaining fish

i like feesh

Is it true that the hawaiian pink tail triggers are more colorful than the Indian pinktails? Are there any other differences?

Also, would the blackbar triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus) be better suited for my aquarium set up instead of the niger? Is it true that this trigger is relatively harmless?

How about the bluechin triggerfish (xanthichthys auromarginatus)?

My favorite fish are tangs. I have three in my 125. Try to get different shapes and colors if you get more than one. A good combo in that size tank would be a purple and a yellow eyed Kole tang.

i love wrasse. espiecally the mexican rock wrasse, very active and fun to watch and when it swimms it is very gracful, very bright neat colors

i like feesh