stocking opinions

[jonbond]

im starting my first saltwater tank, a 55 gallon fowlr and was looking for some advice on good beginner fish that are easy to keep and hardy.

i was looking at liveaquaria.com in the beginners section and some of the fish i liked were six line wrasse, long nose hawkfish,cauderns cardinal, coral beauty angel fish, and the ocellerus clown fish.which of these fish would be able to go together? and how many more fish could i add? and what other fish would you suggest if i got some of these fish?

i was also wondering about some good inverts t ouse as a cleaning crew and how many of those i would need.

it's a 55 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump, and will have about 90 or 100 pounds of live rock, i don't intend to go reef in the future so odn't have ot worry about anything concerning that.

any opinions would be appreciated

thanks, Jon

 

[cthegame]

Hi and welcome.

Although they put the Coral Beauty as a beginner fish, from personal experience, they are not as hardy as people think. I would not put a Coral beauty as your first fish. You can get the CB later on when the tank has established a bit more...Just my 2Cents on CBs.

Other than that, the clown fish are great and i have 3 cardinals that have never caused any problems and they are the hardiest fish i have ever seen. More so than damsels IMHO.

 

[yote]

Let you tank cycle before you add any fish at all.
I'd start with a couple of clowns.Then maybe the coral beauty after the clowns have been there for a month or so.
A good rule of thumb is 1" of adult sized fish per 5 gallon of water.
As for a cleaning crew.Throchus snails,a couple of queen conchs,a turbo snail or 2.

 

[Doc]

judge your maximum fish load to be about 12 inches of total size. The more mature your tank, the more fish you can keep by a couple of inches. Marine fish just need so much more room to swim than freshwater do.

I like to plan tanks before stocking them, that way, you won't change your mind and end up getting rid of fish you bought early in the hobby. If you are shooting for a reef tank in the future, then keep fish that are 100% reef safe, which means avoiding angels, triggers, puffers, etc. Tangs are out of a 55 gallon tank, but look to firefish, gobies, clowns, blennies, and flasher wrasses are great additions as are anthias. Look through a few good books as to what is possible, Marine Fishes from Pocket Expert is a great book that will point out who gets along with who. Your tank is on the smaller size and so some of the fish will get territorial fast, so avoid getting two fish who need a lot of real estate to be happy, like a six-line wrasse. Good luck.

-Doc

 

[Damseluver]

You don't need live rock for a fish only tank nor do you need LR to cycle a tank. You could see a substantial saving by using base rock for the most part and putting in a few pieces of LR to seed the tank mainly for coraline growth.

Six months to a year from now you will be hard pressed to point out which few rocks were LR from the beginning and which were base.

As for fish I cant say that I recommend them. IMO you money would be better spent on a good t5 light fixture and then stock the tank with corals and a few inexpensive small fish.

Fish loses in this hobby are staggering. Sixty percent plus prior to there arrival at the retailer and then around 30 percent once in the hobbyist tank. In the long run its cheaper to put the tanks emphasis on corals and inverts despite the extra setup cost.

 

[Piggy]

liveaquaria is a good place to start. Also if you order from them their fish are great. All the ones I've gotten have survived. Do lots of research to decide which fish you want. Introduce the peaceful ones first then the more aggressive ones. Know all about the fish your going to buy. This way you know the fish's behavior. Take it slow.
Here's a few suggestions. Firefish, one of my favorites. I have two. Clowns there are many types. Gobies are cool. Loves to dig in the sand. Royal Gramma. The one I have is very out going. Six line wrasse are cool. I have one of them. Other Wrasse would be good also. There are so many fish to choose from. Choose the ones that you really want.

 

[cthegame]

You don't need live rock for a fish only tank nor do you need LR to cycle a tank. You could see a substantial saving by using base rock for the most part and putting in a few pieces of LR to seed the tank mainly for coraline growth.

Six months to a year from now you will be hard pressed to point out which few rocks were LR from the beginning and which were base.

As for fish I cant say that I recommend them. IMO you money would be better spent on a good t5 light fixture and then stock the tank with corals and a few inexpensive small fish.

Fish loses in this hobby are staggering. Sixty percent plus prior to there arrival at the retailer and then around 30 percent once in the hobbyist tank. In the long run its cheaper to put the tanks emphasis on corals and inverts despite the extra setup cost.

I kind of disagree. Fish loses are no more than coral loses IMO. Corals need more mature tanks and will easily die in a new tank.

I also disagree about the base rock vs. Live rock. Live rock is a filtrations and it is recommended to start out with as much LR as possible (1-2lbs per gallon). If you choose to go base rock instead of LR, you will need to compensate for the filtration that LR will provide by doing more frequent water changes, more frequent filter media changes, etc. I highly recommend using live rock instead of base rock. Its more worth the money IMO.

 

[Bifferwine]

I also disagree with Damseluver about the fish loss. I can say that I have spent wayyyyyy more money on and lost wayyyyyy more corals than fish in my tank! I have only ever had a few fish die, but corals... Let's not even go there!

Since you are not planning on a reef, you have so many more options for fish than someone who wants corals down the road. Of the fish you mentioned, really only the clowns are super territorial, and all of them would be good choices for fish.

However, since you are talking about getting a cleaner crew, not all of those fish will get along with your cleaner crew. For example, snails, crabs and shrimp will be toast in a tank with a hawkfish. And it's really hard to keep a tank without a cleaner crew. You will have to research any individual fish you want, because even though you want a FOWLR tank, you still may have to have some inverts to keep the tank clean.

 

[reeffreak]

Hello and welcome Jonbond.

All the fish you mention are compatible with the exception of the hawkfish.In most cases they are safe around other fish but there is a chance that smaller fish can become a meal-i.e clownfish.I can't recommend specific fishes(that would be too much typing) but many dartfish,pseudochromis,blennies,gobies,clownfish and wrasses that would do well in your tank.

When the time comes for a clean-up make sure you don't buy a fish that feeds on them.Also let the type and severity of the algae determine on what you get.This is what I would do if needed.

20 Astreas/Trochus snails-film algae
1-2 Mexican Turbo snails-hair algae
6 large Tongan Nassarius or 25 small nassarius or a combo of both-scavenger,sand stirrer
2 Queen conch or Fighting conch-scavenger/algae.
5 cerith-algae/sand stirrer.

No hermits,cucumbers,sea stars.I don't really like any of them.Don't forget there will be copepods,brittle sea star,worms etc that will come with the live rock.They will help in cleaning up algae and detritus.

 

[Damseluver]

Live rock is a option but definitely not necessary for fish only tanks. Believe it or not there was a time when no one had live rock in there tanks it just was not available. Despite this we did persist in keeping saltwater tanks and produced some spectacular displays and still makes up a high percentage 0f c0mercial displays.

Here is an interesting vid concerning the history of LR for those who have not seen it yet.

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock

The first pieces of LR that started going into tanks would make most modern hobbyist shudder. We simply waded out into the bay and picked up a rock. Viola; live rock.

Starting out with mostly base rock will keep cost down until you decide exactly what direction you want to go in the hobby and trust me your mind will change about what interest you most more than a few times before you arrive at your final destination.

As for fish the industry is definitely headed in the wrong direction. Mortality is up and finding healthy specimens is quite a chore when compared to even just a few years ago.

Corals on the other hand are becoming predominetly aquaculture and if established at the retail level should have no problems if placed in suitable tanks when they get to the hobbyist level.