Stocking best practice

[Katnwater]

When hiking, best practice is to plan your hike - hike your plan. When stocking your tank what is best practice? Do you plan each fish/ coral when planning your tank or does the plan change as the tank matures? How common is the "ohhhh pretty!!!!" I am really struggling with a stocking plan. I keep changing my mind on which fish I want. How did your tank evolve?

 

[Here we go again..]

For me I knew i wanted corals with only a couple of fish, and i wanted specific corals......well long story short.......WOW thats a pretty piece, and would look great in my tank!!! But still only two fish in there!!

 

[Here we go again..]

Oh, and welcome by the way!!!!

 

[ichthyogeek]

A little bit of A, a little bit of B. I'm all geared up with a stocking plan for when I move for a first job, but that's...on the wayside for now because pandemic. When I was less mature, it was definitely a lot of "ohhhh pretty!!! I want! It's cheap! Why not?!".

Granted, a side effect of all of this has been me gaining some serious knowledge about a lot of the more common saltwater species so I can evaluate if it's a yay or nay to the current livestock in the tank. So if you're waffling back and forth, I'd recommend just buying one of the books on saltwater that have detailed species guides in them.