Input please on fish timeline

[duffman8080]

Hello all,

Please tell me what you think about putting these fish together in a 55g tank with sump. I'd like to add them in this order, right now the tank is empty except cleanup crew and a couple of peppermints.

1. Purple firefish
2. Watchman Goby with pistol shrimp
3. Lawnmower blenny
4. Mandarin Goby
5. Blue Assessor
6. Percula Clown
7. Orchid Dottyback

I guess my questions are:

A. Are all these compatible with each other
B. Is this too many for my 55g ( will be adding corals as well)
C. Will there be competition with the mandarin for pods
D. Can I wait longer to add the mandarin even though it's less aggressive

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Got to get back to turkey smokin, thanks everyone

[jenglish]

hmmm...
I know my YWG gobbles mad pods so he may compete w/ the mandarin. I can't promise he will but in all likelihood it will. in general you add from least to most aggressive and right now the list looks good as far the order so far (as far as I can remember anyways). All those fish are pretty small so I don't believe that you are overstocking, but some of that depends on your filtration and wc schedule. I have no info or experience with the blue assesor so I can't say much on him. HTH and welcome to TRT

[scoop]

I think a 55 is too small for a mandarin goby. Also, for any mandarin you would want a tank that was established for at least a year to have good build up of pods. In a 55 w/ a lot of pods the mandarin would probably clear it out in a week, then it would slowly starve to death. In a new tank it would just starve, it may take 3 or 4 weeks, but the odds of survival would be extremely low.

[jenglish]

well, the 55 is definately on the minimum side of what would support a mandarin. Perhaps with no competition, a large fuge dedicated to pod production, and no other sand sifters competing w/ the pods it may be possible. Even at that its iffy unless he can be trained to eat other foods. Mandarins are definately a a high mortality fish. Even w/ a proper setup I hear they are easily disturbed by aquascaping changes or tank moves.