Fish for a high flow tank

[Workaholic]

So after having lost a few fish unfortunatly I've come to the conclusion that I may have just too much flow for some fish to deal with. I have roughly 3800gph give or take running through my 58g. Currently I have a pair of green chomis (the only ones of several that seem to hang with the current) and a six line wrasse. Unfortunately my corals love the flow and are doing great in the current dept. I would have thought that something like a small brown scopas tang would do well with this flow but alas I was mistaken. Anyone have any ideas?

Tom

 

[krisfal]

Hmmm, I would have thought the tang would do good. My tangs will hang out in front of the closed loop and surf the jet stream, lol. I wonder if the one you got just wasn't strong enough, did you QT and fatten it up before introducing to the DT?

With a six line it will be hard to introduce other wrasses which probably would like the flow.

I know in Hawaii when we were fighting the surf while diving with the mantas I had a school of squirrel fish hanging out with me. They did run into me a few times when the surf got real strong but were able to maintain their position rather well (a lot better than I could and I had wedged myself into the rocks)

 

[ac7av]

That seems odd about the scopas. I would have thought any tangs would love the flow but it could be the size of the tank for the tang was just stressing it. Each of my power heads are around 3500gph and the tangs will often sit in front of them, especially the vlamingi. Don’t discount the damsel fish. Some of them are very colorful and there not all cheep. Some of the more exotic ones like Garibaldi and the yellow canary can run $50 to $100 a pop, they have lots of personality and definitely would be fine in the high flow tank.

 

[Workaholic]

See I thought that same thing about the scopas. I actually had it for several weeks (picked it up at the last barrier sale) it was doing great and I felt liked the current and was getting nice and fat (which I was concerned about with it being at barrier for such a short time) I wish I could have QT'd it but alas I only have my one system. Then for some reason found it dead one morning on one of the drains for the CL. I even had a big female mandarin in the tank for what had to been over a month (I have a rather large fuge for my tank) It was always crusing the back side of the tank staying nice and fat. (I kept a close eye on it to make sure it wasn't starving and it was staying well fed) only to find it dead one morning with the fins shreaded laying in my alveopora. The chromis my guess is they were just too small, being the $.99 special size they just got picked off one by one, by the CL drains. The 6-line seems to be the only thing with the exception of the 2 roughly 1.25" chromis that seem to really do well in the tank, yet my corals are doing great (short of color on a few but thats a lighting issue i'm working on). I have though about doing some flasher wrasse but with the 6-line in there it did concern me a bit about them fighting.

All though it has never shown ANY signs of aggression I've got a feeling the 6-line had something to do with the death of the mandarin due to the shreaded fins and its lack of location anywhere near the CL.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[moovinfast]

I have 3600gph running through my 72 gallon tank not including the return pump. Ive had no problems with clowns, chromies, blennies/gobies, and a coral beauty. And the clowns were babies when I added them.

 

[leebca]

The Tang may have had other issues, but I doubt it was current. Most marine fishes can and do handle current quite well. The strength of a pounding surf or tidal flows are all manageable by most marine fishes.

 

[Myteemouse]

yep +1 on Lee's comment.
My fish find low flow spots to chill in when they are not surfing the flow.
My yellow tang will face the K-4 and pick algae off the front while it is on.. funny to watch..

 

[ac7av]

Does your CL have a cover over it with a large enough strainer so that the fish can’t get stuck on it? I did have that happen once with a power head where a yellow tang got stuck on the intake and actually sucked its eyes out the one side of its head. Not all the way out but its left eye was where its right eye was supposed to be. Amazingly I was able to physically, with my fingers push it eyes back in place with a pop and after a couple of days it was like nothing ever happened to the fish. It was just amazing.

 

[Workaholic]

Does your CL have a cover over it with a large enough strainer so that the fish can’t get stuck on it? I did have that happen once with a power head where a yellow tang got stuck on the intake and actually sucked its eyes out the one side of its head. Not all the way out but its left eye was where its right eye was supposed to be. Amazingly I was able to physically, with my fingers push it eyes back in place with a pop and after a couple of days it was like nothing ever happened to the fish. It was just amazing.

well all 3 of the drains have 1"dia.x2.5" long "beehive" strainers on them if thats what you are talking about.

Tom