I currently have a 55 gal tank with a clownfish and a blue damsel. I am looking for other ideas of fish. I would like very extraordinary and colorful fish. Possibly a cooler looking clown? Snowflake maybe? A possible tang? Puffer fish maybe? Any help or suggestions would be great.
55 gal stocking tips/help
- Thread starter Dunnman39
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A valentine puffer would do fine in a 55 gallon. Just watch out because they eat inverts.
Damsels can get very mean and territorial so you may have to get rid of him in the future
It can be kind of hard to add a clown to a tank that already has one in it because if they are the same gender they would fight.
Flame angels are very colorful and active. If you are planning on keeping a reef they can get a little nippy. You would also have to add it last because they can also be territorial.
Hope this helps
Damsels can get very mean and territorial so you may have to get rid of him in the future
It can be kind of hard to add a clown to a tank that already has one in it because if they are the same gender they would fight.
Flame angels are very colorful and active. If you are planning on keeping a reef they can get a little nippy. You would also have to add it last because they can also be territorial.
Hope this helps
That actually helps a lot. How about a tang?A valentine puffer would do fine in a 55 gallon. Just watch out because they eat inverts.
Damsels can get very mean and territorial so you may have to get rid of him in the future
It can be kind of hard to add a clown to a tank that already has one in it because if they are the same gender they would fight.
Flame angels are very colorful and active. If you are planning on keeping a reef they can get a little nippy. You would also have to add it last because they can also be territorial.
Hope this helps
Anthony Wood
Active Member
Before the tang police get involved. Honestly if you have enough filtration and regular maintenance schedule you could honestly get away with a yellow tang. If you do that it HAS to be the very last fish you add no exceptions. If you add one before any other fish and let it get established in the tank I can guarantee you won't be able to add any more fish because any fish added after the yellow tang the tang will most certainly kill it. Look at some wrasses that don't get excessively large. There is a large selection of them in a wide variety of colors. Also if you want a larger fish you'll have to limit yourself to just one but you could also get a foxface.
If it were me, I would get rid of the damsels because they are the limiting factor on fish selection as they will bully any shy fish to death. If you get rid of the damsels you open up your options to chromis. Also Anthius (a school would be very nice movement) which like wrasses come in a variety of colors, only downfall is that they run on the more expensive side.
If it were me, I would get rid of the damsels because they are the limiting factor on fish selection as they will bully any shy fish to death. If you get rid of the damsels you open up your options to chromis. Also Anthius (a school would be very nice movement) which like wrasses come in a variety of colors, only downfall is that they run on the more expensive side.
When you say "Also if you want a larger fish you'll have to limit yourself to just one but you could also get a foxface" do you mean thatythe only fish i can get is a large and no other fish or just one large fish and i can continue with my smaller fish.
Check out flasher wrasses.
If you have a percula or ocellaris and want to get another clown, you can get one that is noticeably smaller than your current clown and it will most likely be fine. If it's the same size or larger you will have most likely issues.
If you have a percula or ocellaris and want to get another clown, you can get one that is noticeably smaller than your current clown and it will most likely be fine. If it's the same size or larger you will have most likely issues.
Anthony Wood
Active Member
Sorry I didn't explain that well. You can have a variety of sizes, you don't have to limit yourself to one size for example all large or all small. What you would have to do is pay attention to whether or not the fish are very aggressive (majority of the times these will be predators) or semi-ggressive/peaceful. If you add fish in the correct order and a lot of times luck on your side you'll have no problems mixing semi-ggressive/peaceful but you can't mix predators into the mix with the previous group.
Back to fish sizes though, I got side tracked. What I should have said was limit yourself to 1 heavy waste producer, which most of the time are large fish (obviously with there being exceptions). A foxface was just the first fish that came off the top of my head because they are reef safe and personally like and have one. What I meant is only get 1 large waste producer, for example 1 foxface or 1 yellow tang not both. There are many more large fish out there you could get that I can't think of off the top of my head haha. I would stay away from large angels no matter how beautiful they are. They are mean, will eventually need a very large tank and in your size tank will most likely bully all the other fish and future fish to death. Also keep in mind if the fish is reef safe or not for the future if you ever decide to do a reef.
There are lots of gorgeous, multicolored, small as in a size that'll be suitable for your tank, and rare (if thats what you want, also carry a very large price tag) fish out there then just the obvious fish you see all over the place. Just to list a few are Anthius, Chromis, Wrasses (both reef safe and non reef safe) and pygmy angels. There are a many I haven't listed also. My suggestion is to get 1 large fish (account for its full mature size) and several smaller fish. I personally would do 1 large fish, 2-3 wrasses, a school of anthills or chromis, and a goby with some shrimp. Thats just me though hahaha
Back to fish sizes though, I got side tracked. What I should have said was limit yourself to 1 heavy waste producer, which most of the time are large fish (obviously with there being exceptions). A foxface was just the first fish that came off the top of my head because they are reef safe and personally like and have one. What I meant is only get 1 large waste producer, for example 1 foxface or 1 yellow tang not both. There are many more large fish out there you could get that I can't think of off the top of my head haha. I would stay away from large angels no matter how beautiful they are. They are mean, will eventually need a very large tank and in your size tank will most likely bully all the other fish and future fish to death. Also keep in mind if the fish is reef safe or not for the future if you ever decide to do a reef.
There are lots of gorgeous, multicolored, small as in a size that'll be suitable for your tank, and rare (if thats what you want, also carry a very large price tag) fish out there then just the obvious fish you see all over the place. Just to list a few are Anthius, Chromis, Wrasses (both reef safe and non reef safe) and pygmy angels. There are a many I haven't listed also. My suggestion is to get 1 large fish (account for its full mature size) and several smaller fish. I personally would do 1 large fish, 2-3 wrasses, a school of anthills or chromis, and a goby with some shrimp. Thats just me though hahaha
Anthony Wood
Active Member
Go to bluezooaquatics.com to at least look over some fish and get a very good idea of what is out there, fish wise. They have close to if not every fish on the market you can buy up on their site. If its not right on the tab link I can almost guarantee if you put it in the search bar on their site it'll come up. Not going to advertise that you should buy from them as much as I would like to after my experience with them today as this isn't the place to do so, but again will say its a great place to at least look due to the fact they have every fish under the sun haha
thegunslinger
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My wife and I have a 55, and one of our favorite fish in it is a royal gramma. Very colorful, doesn't get too big, and easy to get along with tankmates. We have a yellowtail damsel as well, and he gets along with the other fish. You could also look into cardinals, I think that bangais are very striking.
Anthony Wood
Active Member
I like liveaquaria also. I didn't mean to say to go off any sites size chart if thats how I came off haha I meant bluezooaquatics as far as I know is the best site having the most comprehensive complete list of fish on the market that a person can buy. So its a great place to "window shop"
He beat me to it. Not only do seahorse need highly specialized care, a species only tank they require to basically have a constant food supply being fed every single day multiple times a day. With their digestive system if you don't feed them everyday just about all day they will die, point blank.
thegunslinger
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I haven't been doing this very long (done freshwater for several years, only about a year in saltwater), so take the recommendation of a fellow noob: start off with the easy stuff. There are a ton of easy to care for fish that are beautiful and interesting to watch. Go to the marine fish section on liveaquaria.com and look at fish for beginners. There are a lot of good recommendations on there. Skip past the clowns and damsels (for the reasons noted above), skip the snowflake and triggers too, and you've got a wide range of options.
Would this stock work or no?
Current stock:
Clownfish
Damsel...looking to relocate him so he won't be here
New/Wanted Stock:
Blue Stripe Neon Goby
Longnose Hawkfish
Blue Spot Jawfish
Blue Tang
Twelve Line Wrasse
Clown
Now I haven't looked up compatibly yet so don't shoot me just yet...
Current stock:
Clownfish
Damsel...looking to relocate him so he won't be here
New/Wanted Stock:
Blue Stripe Neon Goby
Longnose Hawkfish
Blue Spot Jawfish
Blue Tang
Twelve Line Wrasse
Clown
Now I haven't looked up compatibly yet so don't shoot me just yet...
thegunslinger
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Blue tang is a bit much in a lot of people's opinion for a 55, don't know about the jawfish, everything else should be fine.
My .02: I would say hold off on moving the damsel. I know that I'm in the minority, but I'm not the only one that has a damsel that isn't a jerk. If he keeps beating up on new fish after more than a week, then maybe moving him is back on the table.
My .02: I would say hold off on moving the damsel. I know that I'm in the minority, but I'm not the only one that has a damsel that isn't a jerk. If he keeps beating up on new fish after more than a week, then maybe moving him is back on the table.
Anthony Wood
Active Member
Goby and jawfish aren't compatible they are both sand dwellers and will fight until one dies. Blue Hippo Tang? is that what you mean haha If so get him small and you'll have him until the point he will eventually outgrow the tank and you'll have to eventually re-home him or he dies from stress being in a tank to small (small as in length not water volume). Not going to say not to get one just know what your getting yourself into. You'll be perfectly fine if you get him the size of a nickel, thats how I got mine and you'll have about a year before he needs to be re-homed. Be aware blue hippo tangs are notorious for ich magnets and constantly get lateral line erosion when they get bigger in aquariums. Just go to the nearest store with a 3"+ blue hippo tang 9 times out of 10 its not gonna look very healthy and its spikes that line his back will be exposed. Its from either being in too small of a tank or being vitamin deprived. Although Selcon soaking their food at least once a week solves this problem.
Blue Stripe Neon goby - short lived is about all I know of them
Longnose Hawkish - think they eat shrimps, crabs
Blue Spot Jawfish - needs adequate substrate so research this and it require a different substrate than the wrasse you listed
Blue Tang - needs 180g+ tank
Twelve Line Wrasse can be a more aggressive wrasse if I recall. Check out this link for great wrasse info http://www.3reef.com/threads/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses.122261/#ath
Clown - ok if much smaller
Longnose Hawkish - think they eat shrimps, crabs
Blue Spot Jawfish - needs adequate substrate so research this and it require a different substrate than the wrasse you listed
Blue Tang - needs 180g+ tank
Twelve Line Wrasse can be a more aggressive wrasse if I recall. Check out this link for great wrasse info http://www.3reef.com/threads/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses.122261/#ath
Clown - ok if much smaller
thegunslinger
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Dunnman, if you want to PM so that I can share some of my recently acquired knowledge and some of the problems I ran into when I was just starting off, feel free to PM me.
