Schooling fish

[jeffandlinda]

What would you say are the best schooling fish for a 125gal reef and how many. Also what is the most cleaner shrimp I can have safely.

I have
2 yellow tang
1 yellow eye tang
Flame hawk
Maridain goby
maroon clown pair
lawn mower
Flame angle
dwarf lion
copper banded
2 cleaner shrimp
3 damsels small which have to go

 

[DrHank]

I wouldn't recommend adding any more fish than you already have in a 125 gal. I agree with you on getting rid of the damsels.

 

[leebca]

Without knowing everything about your system, it appears that your overstocked now. Not much room for those fishes to grow.

Depending upon the cleaner shrimp species, many will get along with one another, so several of them in that sized aquarium would work, except for the fact there is a large amount of nitrogen waste being produced now with the current bio-load. Some may pair off and others set up a pecking order.

Is it a standard shaped 125? You mention the fish and call the tank a reef. What kinds of corals and inverts do you have that aren't listed?

 

[jeffandlinda]

Without knowing everything about your system, it appears that your overstocked now. Not much room for those fishes to grow.

Depending upon the cleaner shrimp species, many will get along with one another, so several of them in that sized aquarium would work, except for the fact there is a large amount of nitrogen waste being produced now with the current bio-load. Some may pair off and others set up a pecking order.

Is it a standard shaped 125? You mention the fish and call the tank a reef. What kinds of corals and inverts do you have that aren't listed?

My tank is 72" long with soon to be 100gal sump. Most of the corals I have are soft xenia zoos and a large sebae. Any ideas on how to get rid of Damsels. I am about ready to break out the harpoon. They are to smart for the traps....

 

[leebca]

I'm afraid Damsels are, in general, too wary for most 'easy' capture means. I feel for you. In the 70's I 'ran in a tank' with Damsels. That was the way we used to start off an aquarium. It was a 180 gallon and you can imagine when the tank was ready how I was stumped at getting them out. I just added a large Lionfish. I withheld food from the Damsels and then started to feed the ones the Lionfish couldn't catch, only near were the Lionfish was 'staked out.' The last Damsel was finally 'removed.'

But, I digress (as usual). You might want to go through this thread and see if you can find something in it that you can try: Catching Fish

I find that removing rock from about 1/3 of the aquarium, removing as much water as you can (storing it in a plastic container(s)) and trying to herd the fish into the rockless area, then cutting them off from the 2/3 of the aquarium by slipping in a divider, leaves them pretty much exposed for the 'picking.'

 

[Reefergeorge]

Here is a thread about the damsel problem.
I just put 3 chremis(not sure of spelling) in my main tank for some movement and they school.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25590