215 stocking question...sigh...I can already hear it

[redhdmedic]

Aloha all! Much to my happiness and joy, instead of moving up from the 75g to a 120g, we dove deep and lucked ourselves into a heck of a deal and found a fabulous custom Oceanic AGA 215 that was the deal of the century...pass it up...no way...so while it took us an hour to drive to the shop to look for a 120g, it took us 3 hours to drive back with the 215 in my car and the stand strapped to the roof...you can't understand how much I love my car...it's just up there with how much I love my Jeep...a bit under the love for my child...moving on...so after much planning and devising and "we could do this" and "we could that" we had a plan of action, we got her set up running, just under 300lbs of LR, a 2" live sand bed, one fabulous fuge w/ mangrove garden...and she's been running for months...so time to add the fish...most of them had been living in either our 75 or our 56 reef, but needed to move, so here is who moved in:

6" Porcupine Puffer (5 years)
5" Foxface (1 year)
3" Leopard Wrasse (8 months)
3" Powder Brown Tang (9 months)
2" Red Sea Sailfin Tang (7 months)
3" juv. Emporer Angel (7 months)
3" Bi-Color Angel (7 years)
2" Racoon Butterfly (1 week)

As you can see, the butterfly is the newest addition. Not that you can really tell anything after a week, but he eats frozen and flake, is fat/healthy appearing and swimming joyfully with the tangs and angels. All aiptasia has blissfuly begun to disappear as well - megabenny! I have given serious consideration to the thought that this should be the end stock. But I am being seriously harrassed by the other half. Now I use the "if you can't research it/you can't have it" argument all the time, only problem is, as he is 14 years older than me, he has worked longer than I have, so as you and I all know, sometimes he or she with the bigger checking account wins. My concern is that he will "willy-nilly" go out and purchase the fish of his choosing, and I will not have that...so I am imploring you to please help me here. Now, that man is a flippin tang nut, as can be told from the 2 we currently have in the 215 (the powder brown "magically" appeared one day while I was at work, some people get rabbits...you can put those in the yard) as well the 2" scopas in my reef. I was able to trade away my large yellow as she was a vicious bugger...just plain nasty. SO I hear you saying "but what do you need us for?" Well, here it is. I would like you opinion on this, knowing the stoking of the 215, and what we know about tangs, I would like your opinions about either moving my scopas into the 215 or adding a 5" purple tang into the 215. I know several people who have kept yellows and purples together, but no other combinations. I'm already hearing the negativity, so I'm really only looking for constructive replies please. The current plan is for my Scopas to move into my 75g, and we are actually scoping out another large tank, but the next large set up wouldn't be fish ready for at least 1 year the way I like to run them. Thanks so much in advance for your time and help! oh, by the way, the dimensions of the 215 are 84x24x28. Thanks again!

[RayAllen]

Great find I have a 210g 84x24x24. In my tank so far I have

6" Blue Hippo tang
6" Foxface
6" Christmas Wrasse
4" GSM clown
2" Picasso Trigger

Have you thought about adding a Blue Hippo to the mix; they are great hardy/beautiful tangs with lots of personality. Clown tangs are a little fiesty but are a amazing fish to look at. Purple are great to but seem to be more on the aggressive side, but in a tank that size with plenty of LR you shouldnt have any problems.

[redhdmedic]

thanks so very much for your input...the purple tang has been on his "must have, honey I gotta have, baby you don't understand I really have to have it" list for quite some time. I know we'll have options for later down the road...I also know that when he says, "yeah, I can wait another year", that means when I leave for my next 24 hour shift, when I come home the next day there will "magically" be a purple tang in our 215...sigh...I tell you, sometimes it's like I have 2 -9 year olds...of course then when I want to go 4-wheeling...tee-hee...

[thor32766]

purples are sweet fish good luck with the tank

[redhdmedic]

thanks so much!

[Charlie's Angel]

I have a purple in my 375 mixed reef with a blonde naso, convict and kole. He occasionally shows some mild aggression to the convict and that is only if he is under fed. I plan on adding 2 - 3 more tangs to the tank. I find that if you keep them well fed, they do much better. Also, when I add a tang, I use the mirror trick.

[redhdmedic]

thanks so much for all your help...I personally am the angel ddict in the house, and I have my baby...my son is the puffer nut, and he has his puffer, I have to say, for a 9 year-old (I bought the fish when he was 4 at his begging request, go ahead, cast your stones now) but he's taken care of him for the last 2 years and helps with water changes and feeding as well as cleaning (there's gotta be a boy scout badge for this)...but the tangs have never been my cup of tea...one of my more reputable lfs has had a purple there for several months that I"ve been watching fo him, and they price they have on it is $25, it is a 5"ish purple and I just can't get over the price...everywhere else they are going for well over $150! I think I'm gonna go ahead and make the man happy...of course this means we'll have to start building up another large tank so next year I can have a major multi-angel tank...teehee...or perhaps I can just start searching for that second jeep I need...tee-hee...

[redhdmedic]

ok...went out and made the plunge...I was a bit generous on the size, it's more of a 3.5-4" purple, but still, it was $25...like I said, I have been watching this fish at this lfs for some time, it apparently was left there after one of their customers moved (they also do tank maint.) instead of having to be ordered in, explaing the extreme price difference from other lfs. It's healthy appearing, apart from some milt LLE, which I believe with proper nutrition and some selcon will clear right up, that certainly worked with my scopas. After acclimating and a FW bath, I added the purple to our 215...I'm still so nervous...and the purple and sailfin hit it off as buddies (seriously?!?!) but the PBT wasn't having it...they are still occasionally duking it out as to who is "tang king" down there, but nothing serious...oddly enough, it's my bi-color angel causing the biggest fuss...little wench is acting like a surgeon herself and tailslapping and what-not...nutcase...but seriously nobody is really giving any serious cause for alarm...I'm really quite pleased! Thanks again everyone for your support on this!

[reefer334]

Congrats ,purple tangs are awesome fish and what a bargain and I thought mine was for 50 bucks.I am sure he will go through a little hazing period by the other fish but soon he will be boss,seems to be there MO just like my Sohal tang and Emperror angel.Good luck and happy fish watching!!!!!

[Charlie's Angel]

Congrats...I love purple tangs...mine is the boss for sure. I just purchased a pair of watanabe angels. Will be getting them next Wednesday. Chocolate tang will be a week later.

[redhdmedic]

Thanks again all for your support...wow, what a great morning everyone is getting along well...that goofy bi-color is still occasionally acting a fool, but everyone is pretty much happy as can be in there! What makes me even happier is everyone is eating like pigs! I'll try to get some pics over the next couple days, but while the fish have been behaving well, the dogs have eaten my download cable! Good thing we spend all this money on chew toys and bones!

[redhdmedic]

well...so far so good...though I gotta say, this purple must (so far) be the shiest dang purple tang out there...of course it was being kept at a lfs in a 20-long...so it may be trying to remember how to swim for crying out loud! still eating like a pig though, and I just noticed how fat the rest of my fish are...whew!