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Stocking ideas for a RSR 250?

IOnceWasLegend

IOnceWasLegend

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So after some consideration/redecoration ideas, we'll be upgrading to a Red Sea Reefer 250. I'm familiar with stocking options for sub-30 gallon tanks, as well as 4 foot+ tanks, but I'm now trying to research options that'd do well in a 36 x 21 x 20 footprint.

Anybody have any suggestions outside the usual goby/shrimp, firefish, clownfish, chromis recommendations? Looking for something potentially a bit more unusual, but keeping an open mind. :) Thanks!
 
I have a Red Sea Max 250 -- which is the older version but I believe similar-ish footprint size. Its about 17-18" deep due to the AIO structure. I've had the tank for 5 (?) ish years.

What I have right now:

- Flameback angel
- Yellow coris wrasse
- Ocellaris clown pair (2 fish)
- Tailspot blenny
- Neon goby pair (they hate eachother)
- Yasha Goby + pistol shrimp

So thats 8 relatively small fish, and I feel like that is the sweet spot for my tank's capacity to handle the bioload.

I'll also add this opinion. The tank is borderline too small for the angel. It 100% demonstrates some neurotic behavior where it does this figure 8 lap around the back of the tank at various points in the day. Every other fish is 100% fine -- but that was intentional. The Angel is the real active swimmer, followed by the wrasse. Nothing else is active. Everything is fairly peaceful, again, by design. Angels are active open water swimmers though -- the wrasse is active but its active via hunting the rocks, not trying to swim laps around a 36" long tank.

In the past I've had a blue star leopard wrasse, Pygmy hawkfish, Banggai cardinal, carpenter's wrasse, clown goby, yellow watchman goby, multiple fire fish..

My personal preference always leans heavily to lots of small fish vs few larger fish.

Also another opinion, which is not really a hot take, but people do put yellow tangs in these tanks -- based on my experience with the angel, its way too small.

===

Oh and grats! When i was getting ready to move this tank I was on the fence about upgrading to the Reefer series -- really clean tank.
 
I think @jhuynh said it best.

Screenshot_20210818-123628_Chrome.jpg
 
xCry0x said:
I have a Red Sea Max 250 -- which is the older version but I believe similar-ish footprint size. Its about 17-18" deep due to the AIO structure. I've had the tank for 5 (?) ish years.

What I have right now:

- Flameback angel
- Yellow coris wrasse
- Ocellaris clown pair (2 fish)
- Tailspot blenny
- Neon goby pair (they hate eachother)
- Yasha Goby + pistol shrimp

So thats 8 relatively small fish, and I feel like that is the sweet spot for my tank's capacity to handle the bioload.

I'll also add this opinion. The tank is borderline too small for the angel. It 100% demonstrates some neurotic behavior where it does this figure 8 lap around the back of the tank at various points in the day. Every other fish is 100% fine -- but that was intentional. The Angel is the real active swimmer, followed by the wrasse. Nothing else is active. Everything is fairly peaceful, again, by design. Angels are active open water swimmers though -- the wrasse is active but its active via hunting the rocks, not trying to swim laps around a 36" long tank.

In the past I've had a blue star leopard wrasse, Pygmy hawkfish, Banggai cardinal, carpenter's wrasse, clown goby, yellow watchman goby, multiple fire fish..

My personal preference always leans heavily to lots of small fish vs few larger fish.

Also another opinion, which is not really a hot take, but people do put yellow tangs in these tanks -- based on my experience with the angel, its way too small.

===

Oh and grats! When i was getting ready to move this tank I was on the fence about upgrading to the Reefer series -- really clean tank.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the comprehensive breakdown! I hadn't thought about a leopard wrasse, and that might be an interesting fish to keep, but this is a great starting point/fish philosophy for stocking a tank.

Regarding the tang: I really want to have an algae-grazing fish, but I'm planning on staying away from a tang. I didn't realize, though, that the tailspot blenny was an algae eater, so that's good to know!

So far I've also seen that it looks like smaller anthias may be a possibility (like the sunburst anthias), so we may get one or two larger fish with multiple smaller fish. We just want to plan something that'll span the entirety of the water column, too. Thank you!
 
Of course - hope it is helpful!

Honestly, calling the blenny an algae eater in the same spectrum as a tang is a massive massive stretch. My purely anecdotal experience is that the blenny spends 90% of its day sitting in a hole in my rock work.

It is in no way shape or form a tang -- which is a very active fish that spends it's day pecking at rocks. The wrasse is most like that in that it is constantly swimming and pecking at rocks -- except its eating pods not algae =)

I'd call the coris wrasse my psuedo yellow tang. It is yellow. Is active like a tang. But doesn't get as big, doesn't eat algae, and doesn't look like a tang haha.

Of course, your experience may vary. I'm sure part of it is because there is an active dwarf angel, large female clown, and the wrasse. So those 3 fish being active may drive the blenny to hide more -- I've never seen any fish go after the blenny though.
 
That's fair; and I'll have to keep looking for an algae-eating fish then. :)

I've been tempted/given thought to a baby kole or tomini tang, given they're the (relatively) small tank-friendly species, but I'm having a hard time justifying those given how quick my kole tang has grown and how much it makes use of the full length of my 4' frag tank. I recognize there's the possibility it would be okay-ish in a 3' tank (particularly with higher flow and more open rockwork to give it maximum swimming room), but even that's a long shot and would be highly dependent on the individual fish in question.

Which just proves to me that I need to somehow selectively breed tiny tangs that can live in smaller tanks.
 
So after giving this some more thought, my wife and I have come up with a shortlist.

We're definitely getting a six line for pest control, an algae blenny for algae control, and a mandarin because we've really wanted one. We also have a firefish and watchman goby we're bringing over from our soon-to-be-decommissioned 10g.

We also really want a single lyretail anthias and a Valenti puffer. Others up for consideration are:

Blue streak cleaner wrasse

Midas blenny

Orchid dottyback

Pearly jawfish

My total system water volume will be about 80g. Would stocking all those be too much bioload, and/or anything I should be careful about (minus the dottyback being a jerk).
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
So after giving this some more thought, my wife and I have come up with a shortlist.

We're definitely getting a six line for pest control, an algae blenny for algae control, and a mandarin because we've really wanted one. We also have a firefish and watchman goby we're bringing over from our soon-to-be-decommissioned 10g.

We also really want a single lyretail anthias and a Valenti puffer. Others up for consideration are:

Blue streak cleaner wrasse

Midas blenny

Orchid dottyback

Pearly jawfish

My total system water volume will be about 80g. Would stocking all those be too much bioload, and/or anything I should be careful about (minus the dottyback being a jerk).
Click to expand...
Maybe consider a royal gramma instead of dottyback? Love my gramma, not aggressive at all
 
I'd caution against the puffer. I had one and they're very curious - they'll take at least one bite out of ANYTHING you add to the tank. If you're lucky, that's the only bite. Mine had to be rehomed to a FOWLR.
 
Had serious issues with my neon dottyback being a jerk to anything that was added to the tank after he was. Acclimation box had to used for everything added and even that was sketchy.
 
If aggression is a concern and you're looking for purple hues of fish, maybe consider a Purple fire fish or a Helfrichi Fire fish. I have a Helfrichi in my reefer 250, I love the color pop that it adds.
 
Make sure you have a top... wrasses and firefish love the carpet

Personally, i love pairs of bristletail filefish but single is fine too... :) males have fuzz on the tail, females don't btw.

A clutch of clowns

Hawkfish

Purple or yellow tang stay small enough for the tank (or migrate them to you larger setup later... ;) )

Chalk basslets are underrated but a great choice as are similar types like dottybacks
 
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