Need some help on fish

[harvey900]

I'm new to marine and would like some help.
I have a 48 inch tank and at the moment have got a few pieces of coral and 1 bi colour angel 2 percula clowns and 3 red starfish

my lfs has this great looking coppedband butterfly and he said that its ok with coral so i thought i'd do some looking around on the net about them.what i am confused about is some people say that they are ok with coral and some say they are not and i'm all confused.so if anyone has one or had one could you please tell me are they coral friendly or not.
i also a hippo tang there but i know that they get ich easily and am not sure about them as well so any help on them would be great.

what are nice good coral friendly fish around?
i am in australia and for some reason we don't have a huge range here or it's the wrong time of the year.


thanks for your help

harvey

[BrianD]

Hi Harvey

I don't know how they do in Australia, but copperbands imported to the United States are very delicate and, like all butterflys, require pristine water conditions.

How about some details on your tank? How long has it been set up, # of gallons, types of corals in the tank now, substrate, etc.

Brian

[harvey900]

hi there brian

its a 250 litre tank
20 kg live rock
10kg crushed coral on the bottom
2028 eihem canister filter
power head
protein skimmer
1 plate coral
2 flower coral
1 torch coral
i thought maybe 1 or 2 larger fish like the butterfly or the tang would be ok for the tank
the lfs told me that the butterfly would be ok as the waters they come from are not far from australia he even said he thought that they might even be in the great barrier reef

thanks

harvey

[BrianD]

Harvey, I believe the australian cbb is more hardy than other varieties of the copperband, but they are still a fairly delicate fish. They will usually fare ok in reef tanks, but they may nibble at lps.

Brian

[harvey900]

thanks for your help Brian

but dont laugh i'm only new to this but what does lps and sps mean ?


what other fish would you recomend to put into a reef tank ?
if it was you would you put a copperband into your reef tank ?


thanks for all your help Brian


Harvey

[BrianD]

No way would I laugh at you, Harvey. We get so used to using acronyms that we need to be reminded sometimes to tell people what they mean.

lps = large polyp stony coral
sps = small polyp stony coral

The lps are corals with generally "meaty" flesh (large polyps) like frogspawn, elegance, torch, hammer, plate corals, etc.

The sps are the acropora, etc.

You might do a web search of sps and lps, and you will get an idea.

I probably wouldn't buy a copperband for a reef, especially one you are just setting up. Personally, I favor smaller, more flashy specimens for the size tank you are talking about. The clowns and bicolor angel are great for color. You might also consider an orchid dottyback (p. fridmani) or a fairy wrasse (cirrhilabrus sp.). I would not be a big fan of a tang in that size tank, since they grow so large.

Brian