advice for fish list please

[lynxie]

is there a "rule of thumb" for how many fish one can keep in a reef system (like the " 1" of fish/gallon of water" for fresh)? i know there are always exceptions (fish that need less room, fish that need extra room etc), but is there any sort of guideline to know what is a good amount of fish vs overstocking/overcrowding?

we want our 90 gal tank to focus on the inverts (coral, anemoe, shrimp, hermits, maybe sponges, squirts... the things 'normal' ppl don't usually think of when they imagine a tank, lol), but we do want some fish for movement, colour, reef-health etc. hubby and i got a clown (he wanted 2 until he learned how males usually get bullied by the female, lol),and eventually want a coral beauty (or maybe a flame?), a mandarin (way down the road when the tank is established and i'm confident enough to try a finicky fish), and tang (not sure what spp yet - suggestions?)

we also like the look of chromis, gobies, blennies, scarlet hawkfish, royal gramma (or false gramma), firefish....


would any combo of these be ok (reef-safe, safe living together etc) in a 90gal mixed? how many would live comfortably in a 90? what order should they be added into the tank, and over what time-frame?

i've been reading like mad, but found that ppl here tend to have better advice (more current, less biased, more accurate) than many of the books i've read, lol, so this is my primary source of info atm

[chrisd]

you would have to be careful with the flame angel they can nip at corals. and remember that you can only have one angel in the tank or they will fight.
the other fish you need to worry about is the hawkfish if you plan to keep shrimp, snails, hermits, he will eat them.
try to get as much info as you can about the fish you want. check out this site alot of info. you want to add your fish from the least aggressive to the most.

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ory=4&x=5&y=14

[Mr.Peanut]

Its your tank and you really need to be happy with the fish you put in there.

Here is what I have in my 75....

a mated (not breeding) pair of fasle percula clowns that host a BTA
1 Yellow Tang
1 Royal Gramma
1 Diamond Watchman Goby
2 Cleaner shrimp and 2 peppermint shrimp
total of 5 fish.

I had to get rid of my first yellow tang due to aggression. One thing I noticed about the tank shortly after that was it needed more movement and color. The yellow tang is a very active colorful fish. I ended buying another.
I am giving some thought to adding a 6th but I am not 100% sold on the idea yet. If I do add a 6th it would probably be a bi-color blenny.