how's this for a stock selection?

hey guys, i was just wondering what you thought about this selection in a 55-gallon with about 70 lbs of LR...

2 Clowns, true percula or ocellaris
5 reef chromis (i understand there's blue ones AND green ones, 2 diff species or something)
1 snowflake eel
1 bicolor or lawnmower blenny

that seems rather understocked for such a big aquarium, but since this is my first attempt at a SW aquarium, i want all of my fish to be somewhat peaceful towards each other... i'd like some "big fish" (which is sort of why i chose the snowflake eel), but the only fish i'd consider to be big get too big for my tank... it just seems like my selection is all too small... i guess reasonably, i'm looking for something around 8 inches... i thought about a dwarf lion, but it goes back to being peaceful... i don't want to lose all my other fish because its lunchtime... and then i thought about getting a small blue tang or something, and when it gets to a pretty hefty size, donate it to the LFS... i took my GF to the LFS yesterday, and she decided she wants a blue tang, a seahorse, and a cowfish... so if i can get these small, and then either donate them to the LFS or setup an adoption plan (free to a good home or whatever) would there be any problems? if i'm not mistaken, i know a seahorse would need its own personal tank, something about food... and i know a cowfish (as with any puffer) will release toxins that can wipe out an aquarium of killed or injured... but what do you guys think?

 

Depending on the size of the fish, you may only have the eel left. Also they are said to be escape artists so you'll need a tight fitting cover for the tank which is definitely not good for gas exchange. Seahorses need a calm tank & do have special food requirements.

 

that's what i was afraid of.. and i had forgotten about the eel escaping.. i guess because like i've said, any time i've seen a moray eel, it was hiding out under the LR... but they're nocturnal, right? so pretty much anything they do would be at night... so what WOULD you recommend? what about a single, yellow tang? also, exactly how big do ocellaris or percula clowns get? the ones at the LFS aren't any bigger than the middle section of my pinky finger...possibly even smaller! i've seen them bigger, but only 2 inches total length or so...the other clowns get bigger, don't they? like the gold stripe or bluestripe (my 2 fav's, other than the "classics") but they're also harder to care for... ie. my marine depot catalog says "maroon clown, gold stripe (max growth size is 6.7 inches by the way)... they can be agressive towards timid fish so care should be taken in selecting its tank mates"... so i was wrong.. they're easy to care for, but aggressive...hmm... this calls for more studying... but i still figure it would be too aggressive for the reef chromis (how could you subdue the aggressiveness?)

 

I've never seen a clown larger than 3"

And any clown will be about the same care-wise...just some (maroon) are much more agressive. They are all damsels, (clowns and chromis) and are all agressive IMO...(I HATE THEM!) The damsels should all be fine together. The only problem would be with fish like the royal gramma (which would probably still be fine). They shouldnt harass the blenny, but gobies are a different story in most cases (just throwing it out there).

If you get a tang, keep in mind that it "shouldnt" be its permanent home. They need bigger tanks to thrive and fully grow in

 

One of my buddies just lost his 5"+ female clown during a move. "shakes" was 10 years old though.

 

As far as chromis go, the green chromis are also called blue/green cause under blueish lighting, they look blue, and under more natural daylight lighting, they look green. So if you have mixed lighting they will change colors as they swim in your tank.

 

A VERY LARGE tank. My buddy had his pair of gold stripes in a 125g, 72"s long. They took over about a 1/3 of the tank, nothing else came on that side, lol. The female was 5"+ and the male was about 4".

on a side note, he also had a 13" engineer goby, also parished during the move.

 

13" engineer!....I wish my Randall's would get that big eventually

And the clown size was me personally...not saying they cant...they usually dont do they ?

 

They dont typically in captivity, but they do in the wild. So if kept in a large enough tank, and fed properly they can get much bigger. He also had a pair of skunks the female was 4"+ and the male was 3"+, but they were housed in a 120g tall. All of his fish parished during the move. Got the uhaul loaded up, and then it wouldnt start. The fish were in a cargo van, but the tanks were in the uhaul. So the delay or some other mysterious thing cause the deaths of several very nice fish, and not to mention several super nice corals as well. Everything was kept in seperate tubs too. The water never got below 74 degrees, and was in transit including uhaul delays for like 8 or hours.

 

whoa whoa whoa, whoa whoa, whoa... whoa....... this is NOT my spiderman cup that i asked for! (family guy, ya just gotta love peter!)

ok back on subject, clowns are considered damsels??????? i knew chromis were (another side note, question really; is chromis singular or plural? and what's the singular/plural of it?)

and i just read on liveaquaria, that a maroon clown should be the only one in a tank (they don't do well as pair as all, i'm assuming a "friends with benefits" in the wild, only for procreation)