# Fish Help Needed (Sort Of)



## Dominipino (Jun 18, 2017)

Hello everyone, 

So here is my dillema...

I have been gone from reefing for a few years and am slowly getting back into it by buying things here and there. 

There were a lot of things that I didn't get to do in my old set up that I plan on getting done on this one. One which is a nice fish list...

By chance I found someone to get me one of the fish in the list. I am not sure I will get this chance again so heres the thing...

I don't have a tank set up right now so I was wondering if anyone in slightest of chances have room in their tanks or a permanent QT they have set up at hone that can look after a CANDY BASSLET. 

Obviously its not free and I would pay the "rent". I know its a bit weird and its a shot in the dark but I would try

Again thanks for reading and/or considering.


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## CoralConnoisseur (Mar 5, 2014)

That is a lot of trust you would be putting on another person's setup. It's a beautiful fish, and not normally cheap. Finding someone close to you would be good. Or if you have the means to "clone" someones tank into your own small setup.

We "cloned" my frag tank into a friend's nano a year or so ago and put coral in immediately, but not fish, no experience there.

Used 100% water from the frag tank, and liverock from my sump that went into the buckets of water so it never got dry. He started water changes the next day.

If your anywhere near Milton you could put the fish in my frag tank. It's 4'x2' so he has lots of room, and I can easily take the few rocks out to catch him at a later date. The tank and sump is over 100gallons, so I would call it stable. But no lid, so if he jumps, sorry. I don't have a generator, so if I lose power for an extended period of time, sorry. But I think those would be the same risks you take when handing the fish off to anyone.

My best advise would probably be for you to setup a small tank, just 10 or 20 gallons. Let it cycle, or if you don't have time, try to "clone" one. The bioload from that 1 small fish shouldn't require much for filtration. Probably just water changes.

Good Luck


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

I have a complete 30gallon tank and 25 gallon sump that have only live rock, some corals and sand in it with a lid. Would be happy to keep your fish for you until you are ready, no charge, but I am not in Toronto.
BUT,
can I suggest an alternate plan?
Candy basslets are one of my favourite fish and I hope to have one in the future. The fact that you have access to it now, before you have built your tank is unfortunate timing. If you are getting this fish for less than 600.00 then I can understand the desire to act now. However, if you are paying more than that, wait. Please don’t buy it now, get your tank set up and work with a store to get one in, when you are ready.
Use this desire to get a rare fish as an incentive to do everything you can to get your tank ready properly with no shortcuts.

It’s a lot of money for a single fish, and it will be a total waste if you rush your set up, think it’s all good and then drop the fish in only to have it die.
It’s stress on the fish, moving twice in a few months.
You need a good trusting relationship between you and the person babysitting as well, because so much can happen.
This fish is rare in the GTA because it’s expensive. No one wants a 600.00 fish dying in their store. It is available though, so not impossible to get.

When you get your tank ready, work with a store to come to an arrangement to get one and have it brought in for you. They are on fish lists occasionally and it will keep you responsible for the money you have put down for your fish.

I can feel for you! Been there, wanted to do the same thing. Resisted because at the end of the day, there are just too many things that are so hard to control and the risk of something going wrong is too great.

Would suck if the fish died in babysitting, who’s issue would it be? You would loose your money and wonder if you had been keeping it yourself would the same thing happen.

Just my thoughts, good luck with your decision.


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## Dominipino (Jun 18, 2017)

*Thank You!!!*

Hey Guys

Thanks for all the offer to help and thehonest advice!!

Crayon actually wrote what I was thinking the whole time. I guess the urge to get a dream fish was getting to me.

Bottom line is you guys are right and I should wait it out and have a proper set up before getting the fish.

I can't thank you guys enough for being honest and giving me real adivce!

Ill start a build thread and hopefully you guys can guide me there too especially on the cycling process. I have been out of the hobby for so long.

Kindest regards,

Harold


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Hey all good!
Sometimes it’s hard to resist. Glad to know there is another basslet fan out there!
Now check out:
Mowbrayi basslet
Gramma linki (trust me on this one, it may not look like much on google, but it’s a sweet fish!)
Just don’t plan on keeping any small shrimp in the tank, they will get eaten.


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## Dominipino (Jun 18, 2017)

Crayon said:


> Hey all good!
> Sometimes it's hard to resist. Glad to know there is another basslet fan out there!
> Now check out:
> Mowbrayi basslet
> ...


Wow thank gramma linki is beautiful! A trilineatum or a klayi would be sweet too!

I wanted to do small nano fish on this 60 cube that im setting up. I wanted small fish and maybe a multibar angel pair but I think the cube only has room for 1.

I picture that tank as something where you would really have to look to see what is in it, little fish darting in and out and cruising through the rockwork then have a few firefish as dither fish.

My old tank had a bad list as I had aflame wrasse harem, choati, muelleri butterfly and assessors plus a multibar. It wasa recipe for disaster asthey just weren't working well together.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Fish list for a 60:
Probably don’t want anything too fast, so no wrasse?
Really small fish won’t do well in a 60, so that rules out eviotas, trimmas, tiger gobies, and my all time fav tiny fish Bryaninops Natans (for fun, check this fish out and then start thinking of a nano tank). Skip grisingeri goby and probably white cap goby (although if you could get a mature one that is bigger, that might be good)
So how about:
banded cave goby (cryptic but does make an appearance) inexpensive and very hardy, plays nice with others
Randall’s goby with a pistol shrimp or some other sand sifting goby (Bella Goby from Japan would be awesome)
I hear word that there might be some Golden Anthias available, these are amazing dither fish, school and much hardier than purple queens or ventralis. Expensive. 
Would do a blue and yellow assessor still, they are laid back
I kept a collettes basslet as well as a swales in a 30 gallon so you can consider more lipropoma like the ones you mentioned.
Take a look at the Teralabrus. There is one available on Divers Den right now, but I’m in the same boat as you— not quite ready to add expensive fish cause we haven’t set up our final tank, so I’m going to wait on this, too. 

Check out Gramma Dejongii (am hoping this fish shows up now since Cuba is more accessible) cause the price tag out of Germany is nuts. If this fish became available, for a reasonable price, I would probably jump on it.

Anyway, hurry up and get your tank going! With the smaller fish, you want a mature tank with lots of copepods, just to help them transition over. I still pick up bottles of pods for my temporary tank, just to make sure the blue line pipe fish has enough to eat.

You could even think of this tank as a macro algae tank. That way there is lots of things for the pods to eat.
Check out Gulf Coast Eco Systems.
And KP Aquatics. They get the gramma linki and the mowbrayi basslets for much better prices than Divers Den.

Might skip the angels until you know what else is going in. Or add them last. I love the multibars so it’s hard to resist, and they are shy, so who knows.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Oh, if you can find captive bred Catalina gobies, they would be good, too! But they perch, they don’t swim.


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## Dominipino (Jun 18, 2017)

*Awesome*

Those are awesome suggestions!! Im gonna come up with a stocklist.

Im really anxious to set up this tank. I just don't want to rush it since the last time was a disaster plus I feel like a noob all over again. I need to figure out how to cycle this tank.

Im gonna start a build thread. Please offer advice there as well.


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