questions about six stripe soapfish

mstnquaw

Hello all, I'm really glad to have found this site. I am freaking out right now. My WONDERFUL husband was trying to surprise me by bringing in some new fish for my aquarium. It was a lovely idea only, I am very picky about my fish and always try to learn as much as possible about them BEFORE purchasing them. Well here in lies the problem, he brought home a six stripe soapfish. I started doing research right away and what I've found says that these secrete venomous toxins when stressed or annoyed that can kill my other fish. Well I have a large Yellow Tang that in very territorial to my other fish already and I am scared this is not going to end well. My question is how likely is it that this new fish could kill all or any of my other fish? I have a 55 gallon setup with a yallow tang , Porcupine Puffer, huma trigger, and a 4 striped damsel. any input would help, should I just take this fish back ASAP or is the risk minimum?

aunt kymmie

I have absolutely no experience in S/W but others here do. I just wanted to say hi and tell you how thoughtful I think your huband is! At least he tries, right??

That fish is beautiful but not sure I'd want to keep it based on what I just read about them....

mstnquaw

Hi Aunt Kymmie nice to meet you. And yes I thought it was very nice of him. I have been having a couple of bad days lately and he was just trying to make me smile. But I am scared I would just be devastated if my other fish was hurt. I've care VERY much for my fish. My aquarium is my baby.

aunt kymmie

There are some good reefers here and one is bound to jump on soon! I hope your bad days are behind you now.

Kellsindell

Welcome to the forum. With all agressive fish it should be taken with very much caution. The only issue i see here is if you don't feed it a meaty diet it may go after you damsel (assuming it is the smaller of the bunch).

You should be impressed that he didn't get any of the toxin into the tank in the first place, unless you acclimated the fish. If he did though he deserves a nice congrats for that. They normally secrete in the transfering bag.

Try not to stress the fish out and make sure it's fed. Other then that, it's a great find and i hope you have much success. I'll see if i can get anyone else on here with more exp with this fish.

Kellsindell

Oh, and they do get up to a foot in length. That's really big, but so will your other fish( aside from the damsel).

I would evaluate what your tanks capasity is. Think it over and if you can achieve all these things then keep is, if not then take it back. Eitherway, you can say you owned one.

I'm very pertective of my tank too. i told my wife not to impulse buy on any fish or corals or inverts cause we all know how that can play out... LIONFISH...

onefish2fish

welcome to the forum.

a few things here, if you werent aware the puffer itself is venomous. just dont eat it.
based on your stocking list im guessing this is a FOWLR (fish only with live rock)
not to try to stray off of the topic the Yellow Tang and trigger should really be housed in a larger system.

anyways what kind of filtration are you running? if you have a sump i would add on a reactor with carbon or if it is a canister, add carbon there.

mstnquaw

Thanks all for your input. And to answer some questions, Yes its a FOWLR. I have had it for about 6 years now. I started out with just a clown fish and some damsels, but when hurricane Katrina hit us we were without power for 17 days so I lost most everything. Then I too learned the lesson about impulse buying because I went out and bought myself the beautiful Lion Fish, and let me tell you I loved this fish like no other fish I've ever owned!! (Talk about personallity) He was more like a puppy than any fish I ever owned. But he stopped eating and I would have to literally make him eat by putting the food directly in his mouth and even then sometimes he wouldn't take it. Long story short I lost him after I had owned him for about 2.5 years. Then I bought then Tang. I've only had him for about a year or so but he is SO shy that you really cant enjoy him. So my husband gave me a gift certificate and I went and bought the puffer, trigger, and damsel (large 4 stripe damsel). Now my husband has brought home the 6 line soapfish and I would not have added any more right now. But I am in the process of upgrading my system to a 180 gallons tank. Right now they have room and by the time I finish setting the new tank up they will have plenty of room to grow. Anyway sorry for the long post but it's very nice to have someone to share my interest with. And thank you all so much for your input. I look forward to building my new system with all of you as my sounding board.

Wendy

Kellsindell

not a problem, and we're here to help. With your long exp. i'm sure you can give sound advise as well. When you do set up the new system, please post pics and let us know your progress.

After you do set up the tank, the fish would be more then happy, i would venture to say... just don't pet it

onefish2fish

this was never answered.