Fish For a 55 gallon reef tank

[KMeyer]

Howdy all, I was hoping you guys could help pick out some more fish for my 55 gallon reef tank. I use the term reef loosely, as I only have one colony of green polyps, but hope to add to that soon. As of now I have a yellow belly damsel, a green mandarin goby, and a scooter blenny. What are some other fish I could add that have good coloring and personality. I am wanting to add a clownfish, but am waiting to get an anenome.

[jenglish]

mandarins typically eat only live copepods. To keep one in a 55 gallon you would need IMO a refugium to keep a good breeding population and have some pods in at least a month before adding a mandarin. Its not that you cannot keep a mandarin in a 55 but it is kind of dicey and requires finesse and may occasionally require supplemental feedings of mysis or gammarus shrimp. A scooter blenny will compete with the mandarin for food. Some mandarins can be trained to eat prepared food but most will not do it w/o training and some will not at all. You will need bright light and very good water for an anemone and you should wait at least 6 mos to a year for one. Clownfish will do just fine w/o one however

[crvz]

jenglish points out some good thoughts on those two fish, you're very likely going to notice them starve to death over the next couple months due to their dietary needs (which are challenging to provide in a small tank). I'd take rehoming them into consideration.

A clown should be fine, but keep in mind there's no guarantee it will host the anemone. Gobies and blennies make good additions in that size tank, consider one of those if you havent yet.

[henryreef]

I also have a 55 gallon reef. Here are the fish i keep: Tomini tang (colorful and active) , Royal Gramma (beautiful and has an intersting personality, Tomato clown (soon to be pair once i get a BTA) and a yellow tailed damsel. Here are some others i would suggest: Firefish, jawfish or a Hawkfish.

[skilletfan jtm]

could i get a yellow tang for my 55g tank
i no i am not ready but win i am ready can i get 1

[crvz]

Originally Posted by skilletfan jtm

could i get a yellow tang for my 55g tank
i no i am not ready but win i am ready can i get 1

it wouldnt be a popular decision, but ultimately it's your tank. Those fish can get rather large, so I would really consider other fish instead, or a bigger tank.

[skilletfan jtm]

can i do this get the fish keap in my tank then when it gets to big for my tank sell it or trade to some one with a deffirent or the same fish just smaller

[KMeyer]

Here is what I added to my tank, 2 ocellaris clownfish and 2 diamondback gobies. Everything is going well and all the fish are doing outstanding.

[wolfe4372]

Originally Posted by jenglish

mandarins typically eat only live copepods. To keep one in a 55 gallon you would need IMO a refugium to keep a good breeding population and have some pods in at least a month before adding a mandarin. Its not that you cannot keep a mandarin in a 55 but it is kind of dicey and requires finesse and may occasionally require supplemental feedings of mysis or gammarus shrimp. A scooter blenny will compete with the mandarin for food. Some mandarins can be trained to eat prepared food but most will not do it w/o training and some will not at all. You will need bright light and very good water for an anemone and you should wait at least 6 mos to a year for one. Clownfish will do just fine w/o one however

how ever i have seen an article of how a fellow worked with his tank and mandarin to be able to keep one in a 12 gallon. let me see if i can find it.



here it is

http://joshday.com/mandaringoby.htm

[crvz]

Originally Posted by skilletfan jtm

can i do this get the fish keap in my tank then when it gets to big for my tank sell it or trade to some one with a deffirent or the same fish just smaller

theoretically, yes, but if you're at all like my wife, she hates to see fish go.

[scoop]

You made a good choice on the clowns and gobies. Now you have 7 fish in the tank, which is plenty for a 55, so enjoy them! (and enjoy adding some corals as you progress)

[-Drew-]

Ive also got a 55g tank thats becoming a reef tank, if money provides, lol. I recently had a friend watch my powder brown tang, pink skunk clown, and flame angel due to my heavy schedule with college and work. Anyway his tank crashed and I lost my fish. So now I have a pretty motionless tank so to speak. Any suggestions on a few colorful fairly hardy fish that I could add?

[nikkipigtails]

Remember when stocking at saltwater aquarium, the general rule is 1" of adult fish per 5 gallons of water. That means that, using this rule, you can only have 11" of fish. When you add a new fish to your tank, even if the current size is 1", if its adult size is 5", you should take the 5" away from the 11" leaving you with 6" of fish room. I say this because I want to urge you to be a responsible aquarist and not be enticed by all the beautiful fish you see and may want to put in your aquarium. You want to put fish in your tank that will not just survive, but will thrive.

Someone already mentioned the challenges with keeping a green mandarin and a red scooter blenny. So I'll give you some information about the yellow tang. The tang species swims approx 25 miles a day in the wild because they graze on algae and seaweed. When you put a tang, of any size, in a home aquarium, the tank should have plenty of lateral swimming room. That being said, even with a yellow tang, I recommend no less than 6' of lateral swimming room. That doesn't mean that you have to have a 180 gallon aquarium. Some 100 gallon aquariums are shallow, but provide the appropriate lateral swimming room the tang would need. The tang species is also notorious for getting HLLE (head and lateral line erosion). Studies have shown that HLLE is a direct result of captivity, like when you go to Sea World and see the dorsal fins of killer whales bent over. I work at a LFS and have seen more tangs than I care to mention that are brought in, barely alive, because the owner was not a responsible aquarist and put a tang in a tank that was not large enough.

Now, back to the stocking rule. That's just a general guideline. You should allow extra space ("inches") for fish that swim a lot and can take away space ("inches") for fish that don't. For example, a six line wrasse is one of my favorite fish for the home aquarium. Not only will it add a lot of color to your tank, but it's also a very busy fish and swims a lot. It also eats some pests that you might find in your tank. Since the six line swims a lot, I would add a couple of inches to its adult size if you chose to add it to your tank because of its level of activity. A firefish, on the other hand, reaches to 3-4" long, but isn't very active - it's a fish that mostly hovers. You could take away a couple of inches from that fish's adult size since it's not a very active fish. Since you already have a damsel in your tank, be aware that damsels are agressive and territorial. Since the manderin and the scooter blenny stay to the sand and rock work, if you add another free-swimming fish to your tank, you may have some problems with the damsel. When stocking the tank, you always want to start with the least agressive fish and work your way up to the most agressive fish. That way, the more docile fish have the opportunity to establish their own territory without being bullied by the more agressive fish.

So, fish that I would recommend for a 55 gallon:
six line wrasse
clownfish
firefish
pygmy angles (if you keep soft corals, you may have an issue with these)
sleeper gobies (diamond goby, goldenhead, dragon)
green chromis (even a small school as long as it's an odd number)
damsels (personally, I like damsels, I think they're spunky, but I've found that you have to keep equally agressive fish with them. Clownfish are a member of the damsel family so keep that in mind.)

That's just a short list off the top of my head. There are a ton of other fish, but I'm tired and can't think of a lot more right now.

[nikkipigtails]

Ok, so I'm trying to get my post count up.

So, sorry for writing a book. There's certainly more to stocking a well-balanced home aquarium then what I just mentioned.

Looking back on your original post, I do have a few more things to add.

Clowns do not need an anemone to survive and an anemone does not need clowns to survive. Anemones host a photosynthetic organism called zoanthelle. If the anemone (zoanthelle) is not provided with the appropriate amount of light, the anemone will expell the zoanthelle and the anemone will die. That doesn't mean that you have to have MH to keep an anemone...it all depends on the PAR value of the lights you have. I wouldn't keep an anemone under any light that an SPS would not thrive under.

There's a Nova Extreme light fixture that would be perfect for your tank if you're serious about wanting to keep an anemone. It's a 4x54 watt 10,000k daylight, 4x54watt actenic light. I would replace one or two of the actenic lights with more daylights since that's the light spectrum that the anemone would need the most. You can even play with the bulb combination (10,000k, 14,000k or 20,000k) to see what you like the most. Remember that the lower the kelvin temperature of the bulb, the closer to the kelvin temperature of sunlight you'll be and you'll get much more growth, but the light will look more yellow which isn't very pleasing to the eye. 14,000k is supposed to be a good, white light, but it depends on the manufacturer how blue or white it appears. I'm a fan of the Geissman powerchrome and actenic+ combination bulbs.

[nikkipigtails]

Sorry, I have another suggestion.

Just remember that when you add a fish to your tank, you should also add the appropriate CUC. That way you won't have as many issues with the increased bioload .. ie: algae