Fish suggestions please for new tank

I would avoid the blue star. They ship badly, and most die during important or soon after arriving in people's tanks. One of my friends, who is experienced enough to know better, just ordered one about a month ago. As I expected, it melted down.

For the glass, astrea or turbo snails will do a great job.

I'm not sure about possible fish choices. The clowns and angel will certainly have personality. Many of the things I want to suggest get too big (butterflies) or will eat your inverts (dottybacks), or both. How about a royal gramma? Canary blenny?

Sounds like somone is excited

As far as clowns go, I would steer clear of any GSM (gold stripe maroons) as they can be very territorial, not to mention mean. Stick with true/fals perculas or some black perculas. Those are the best by far. If you want something to marvel at, get a pair of pink skunks and a pink/white sebae. Absolutely stunning.

I would not invest in a dragonette (mandarin) at this moment. Wait a month or so and make sure your pod population is elevated. Also, when you purchase one, see if it will eat prepared foods incase your pod population dies out.

You can do a tang, but just choose wisely. A yellow, powder, hippo or purple tang will all work. Feeding is the key. Feed them alot, they will grow fast. Feed them sparingly/moderately, they will grow slow.

A few other fish I would recommend would be some blennie. Scooter blennies at the bottom (red or brown, I love the red guys). They have alot of character and they burry themselves in the sand at nite time. Cool to watch.

You can do a tang, but just choose wisely. A yellow, powder, hippo or purple tang will all work. Feeding is the key. Feed them alot, they will grow fast. Feed them sparingly/moderately, they will grow slow.

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I guess I prefer the old fashioned approach of selecting appropriate livestock based on adult size.

according to the stuff i have on tang size.

yellow tang adult size = approx. 8 inches

powder blue tang adult size = approx. 21 inches

powder brown tange adult size = approx. 10 inches

hippo tang adult size = approx. 12 inches

purple tang adult size = approx 10 inches

from the adult size im not sure if these would work

mogurnda said:

I guess I prefer the old fashioned approach of selecting appropriate livestock based on adult size.

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If you did that, there wouldn't be fish tanks. You can't go by adult sizes. Fish in tanks rarely reach their adult size. Even if they get that close, it takes many years. MANY. I have never seen a full grown adult tang. Maybe a couple times, but their size was questionable.

Its about responsible reefkeeping. You can have a tang in any tank you want, I would not go below a 20L though. You just have to chose the appropriate size. A 1" tang in a 20 is not a problem.

I have had 2 1" tangs in a 30. I have had copperbands in a 30/28. I have had tangs in a 20. All were happy and healthy. Why do I not have them anymore? Power outtages = tank crash. Some of them were not healthy from the begining and I thought I could save them. I would advise against this.

Tangs are great. You just have to buy a healthy specimin.


CAT -

Slow your roll You need to take a look at some fish and decide what you want to have. Your tank can sustain a certain bio-load. When you exceede that threshhold, your tank becomes unstable. Unless you are willing to be diligent in water changes every week, testing and more testing, I would limit yourself to a certain amount of fish. 3-4 max. Inverts don't create much of a bioload, but you still want to limit them. I would not do any urchins at this point. Some of them eat corals and some of them grow pretty fast, knock things over and can become a menace.

Stars are fine. You need to be carefull about which ones you chose because they can be predatory and eat fish. Linkias (that blue starfish you wanted) are fine. However they can be tempermental and just "die" . They are not very hardy sometimes. Check out a Tile Star. They are cool looking and are hardy.

Oh, Angels = Coral eaters. So be carefull.

Just use caution in your decisions.

my blue tang has pretty much reached its adult size. its 11 inches long and i think in a 55 that would be cramped. not saying that it would reach that size in a 55, but if it didnt, that would mean it was being stunted, i dont believe that tank size stunts a fish, i think its the way you feed and the stress on the fish that stunts them. so in that case, i dont believe a stunted fish is being taken care of properly.