What do you think of these fish for a new reef...

[Craiger]

My tank has been running for over a year, but during a vacation I lost everything (don't ask, too sad to discuss). Anyway, it has been 3 mos, and I'm ready to stock the reef tank again, and was thinking of the following to start:

pair of maroon clowns
squareback anthias (1 male, 2 female)
pair of hawaiin blue throat triggers

The only concern I have is my nitrates are at 10, but I think with another water change it will head towards 0. I know the clowns are hardy. What about the anthias and the triggers. I have a 165 gal tank.

Some others I was considering at a later date are:

clown fairy wrasse
purple tang or atlantic blue tang

Thanks!

Please feel free to suggest any others...

[Leilani57]

please view this thread on anthias, they have a terrible success rate and even though i have one in my tank that is thriving, she is an exception to the rule. Now that i know more about anthias -- in my opinion, they should not be pulled from the ocean:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=937181

if you do still decide to go the anthias route, make sure you have the LFS feed them in front of you, and only buy them if they eat.

[BangkokMatt]

Certain Anthias are easier to keep than others. . If you want anthias I recommend Lyretails, as they are the hardiest. Dispars shouldn't give you too much trouble either. They will require multiple feedings at first. Between 2 and 4 times a day.

[nava405]

seems ok to me, however, as long as the fish get used to the tank, the nitrate is not going to be the problem. I have seem ppl with 50+ppm nitrate and 2.6+ phos , and the fish still happy.

personally, my nitrate is around 5-15ppm, even my SPS still have good color and fishes are all healthy.


btw, purple tang would be easier to keep than atlantic blue IMO.