List of possible fish/Thielle Clownfish sighting

*Angelfish, Dwarf - Coral Beauty and/or Flameangel- One or the other, Flames are tougher to keep but beautiful
Tang - Yellow or Atlantic, and Blue Hippo Tang (I understand the tank requirements)In that small of a tank, 2 tangs would be a death warrant on the smaller/least aggressive one. buy the blue tang super small if you must do it and stack the rock so he has lots of swimming room
*Goby - Sleeper Gold Head or Diamond Watchman, and Orange Stripe Prawn w/Shrimp- as mentioned, get a pistol shrimp and shrimp goby for ensured success
*Clownfish - Paired w/ Anemone- why not just one? they still host and you get basically the same presentation but can add another fish elsewhere!
Wrasse - 6 Line- how about a Blue headed wrasse instead? just get a lid as they jump
*Damselfish - Yellowtail (3)- The yellowtail ones are very agressive- another option is blue/green chromies. Anthias need more room than a 55 (they are very free swimmers and can be on the finicky side)
Dragonets - Green Mandrin (may get one of these instead of Diamond Watchman or Sleeper Goby)Mandarins are cool but need to be in a tank older than 1 year.

overall it seems like to many fish for a 55 (I would think 5-7 fish tops especially with that blue tang in there). I would look at Royal gramma, Orchid dottyback, Banghai cardinals or a firefish as other cool options

 

I am basically in agreement with most of the responses so far. I am definitely against adding any of the larger tangs, even if you have every intention of giving it back to your LFS. Your son wants it as a pet, so how is it going to be easy to one day say, ok, time to give the pet away? Unless you plan to get a 180+, I just wouldn't do it.

Instead, take him to the LFS and find some fish that are sized appropriately. There are plenty of options; I think I listed a bunch already in your other thread.

 

In terms of aggressivenss, when I've kept yellow tailed damsels, I have not found them to be too bad. Now in a group, I don't know. In terms of a schooling fish that you don't need to worry about aggressivenss, then green/blue reef chromis are great. Dial back your load and you could probably add five but bigger fish will need to be kept to a minimum. I have 3 and they do school and stick together and they are very peaceful.

With the yellow tails, I'm not sure how they would shake out. It's always a weighing game in stocking a tank. What are "must haves" for you and then you have to plan the rest around that. There's no way to have everything you want because there will always be some sort of limitation created.

 

Yellow tails aren't going to group like chromis (Which just kill each other)

 

I am reconsidering them, I have heard they could be to aggressive.

Thanks for the info on the other clown fish being more aggressive, I have only read about Maroons being aggressive.

Thank you for all the information you have given me tom.n.day, I am adjusting accordingly.

Agreed Oldfishkeeper. I am dialing back and looking at bio-load and other considerations.

Are you saying chromis just kill each other, or damsels do?

 

I wanted to let you guys know that I am not intending on buying all these fish at once. This list is a work in progress and I plan on doing the stocking as funding allows me to and as my tank and setup is completed and matured.

 

I would much rather 3 anthias than chromis or damsels. + Six line wrasse suck so bad.

 

Don't Anthias get big though?

 

Can get like 3-4" or so after many many years. A quite fine size for a 55g IMO.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/minimum-tank-sizes-selection-animals-137158.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hob...general-rules-successful-aquarium-126326.html
Keep in mind overloading a tank is a sure fire way to fail IME.Especially for a novice.Juvenile sizes of inappropriate fish is not wise IMO.