Stocking Help

[Zach W]

To start I have an 7 month old IM Fusion 20. My filtration is comprised of roughly 14lbs of liverock, fliterfloss, reefglass protein skimmer, and I have carbon running passively (have GFO too but currently not running any). I also have a fuge light but am not running it now either. 

 

The only fish I have in the tank now are 2 clowns, I am wondering if I would be ok adding a royal gramma or if that is pushing it? 

 

Here are some pictures of my tank for reference:

Top down right after feeding (11/7/2018)

 

Front (10/15/2018)

[Clown79]

Beautiful tank.

 

The gramma isn't a large fish. You should be ok.

 

 

[Zach W]

15 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Beautiful tank.

 

The gramma isn't a large fish. You should be ok.

 

 

Thank you, I appreciate that! From a care standpoint, can I feed the royal gramma on the same frequency as my clowns? I try to feed my clowns a small amount every day but sometimes I am gone on the weekends so they go two days without eating. I just want to make sure that would be ok before doing anything 

[dcknipe]

I would get something with more personality. 

 

You could add 2 more fish. 

 

I'd lean towards a goby and a blenny.

Tailspot blennies are among the funnest to watch. 

Gobies: yellow watchman and clown gobies are cool. 

 

My flametail blenny and green clown goby crack me up every day

 

The clowns would leave them alone. If you add a royal gramma I'd put money on your clowns beating the crap out of it. Clowns are very territorial. They should always be added last not first. 

[Zach W]

15 minutes ago, dcknipe said:

I would get something with more personality. 

 

You could add 2 more fish. 

 

I'd lean towards a goby and a blenny.

Tailspot blennies are among the funnest to watch. 

Gobies: yellow watchman and clown gobies are cool. 

 

My flametail blenny and green clown goby crack me up every day

 

The clowns would leave them alone. If you add a royal gramma I'd put money on your clowns beating the crap out of it. Clowns are very territorial. They should always be added last not first. 

I had a yellow watchman and it ended up in my overflow constantly and it eventually it lead to its demise. There is a pistol shrimp living under the left rock structure that I got with the goby. I would like to avoid something that wants to get into my overflow. I spent hours trying to get it out of the return chamber on multiple occasions! haha  

[dcknipe]

29 minutes ago, Zach W said:

I had a yellow watchman and it ended up in my overflow constantly and it eventually it lead to its demise. There is a pistol shrimp living under the left rock structure that I got with the goby. I would like to avoid something that wants to get into my overflow. I spent hours trying to get it out of the return chamber on multiple occasions! haha  

Probably just got a weirdo fish lol. For real though if you get a fish that swims in the middle of the water column and you can 2 clowns be prepared for your tank to turn into the thunder dome. I tried 5 different fish before I ended up rehoming my clowns

[Clown79]

7 hours ago, dcknipe said:

Probably just got a weirdo fish lol. For real though if you get a fish that swims in the middle of the water column and you can 2 clowns be prepared for your tank to turn into the thunder dome. I tried 5 different fish before I ended up rehoming my clowns

That's not necessarily true. Each clown is different.

 

My clown in my 10g became instant friends with the tsb I just added a mnth ago. They swim together, eat together. If anything the tsb goes after the clown if it goes near the tsb's home.

 

My pair of clowns have not harmed a single fish that have been added with them and my female has been in this system for 3.5yr..she isn't exactly what I would call an overly friendly clown. 

 

My other female clown was such a terror that her own mate and my shrimp were in constant hiding...she was traded in. 

 

Every fish personality is different. I had a killer pink streak wrasse and those are known to be peaceful. 

[dcknipe]

36 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

That's not necessarily true. Each clown is different.

 

My clown in my 10g became instant friends with the tsb I just added a mnth ago. They swim together, eat together. If anything the tsb goes after the clown if it goes near the tsb's home.

 

My pair of clowns have not harmed a single fish that have been added with them and my female has been in this system for 3.5yr..she isn't exactly what I would call an overly friendly clown. 

 

My other female clown was such a terror that her own mate and my shrimp were in constant hiding...she was traded in. 

 

Every fish personality is different. I had a killer pink streak wrasse and those are known to be peaceful. 

Clowns tip more towards the aggressive side in smaller tanks if they are among the first inhabitants..more so vs fish that swim in the same area of the water column. 

 

I've never had a clown show aggression towards the more bottom dwelling fish or perching fish. Hence why I suggested a blenny or a goby. 

[Tamberav]

A Gramma would likely be fine with clowns..they are not total push overs.