[docjones]

Ok I am doing my pre inventory of fish I want in my 55g tank. The tank is set up with 60 lbs of live sand and 110 lbs of live rock. A 20g ref/sump to hopefully breed cops. I plan to keep alot of soft coral as well as a fair amount of zoo's. So is the following fish ok, or to much?

2 clown fish (Ocellaris Clownfish)
2 tangs (yellow and a Pacific Blue or cheveron)
2 Redtail Tamarin Wrasse
1 Psychedelic Mandarinfish (after about a year and half of tank stability)

[pogodzib]

I'd only keep one tang max in a 55 gal tank. Many people would say not to keep any in a tank that size.

The redtail wrasse and mandarin all eat pods and there is a good chance the they would starve in a tank that size if there was only one, let alone three in there. I wouldn't put any of them into a 55 gal tank.

[docjones]

WOW way to rain on my parade pog! lol, ok so what if I just get a mandarin, is that possible (cant I use the ref for pod breeding)? and ok just one tang. HMM, I saw a video where wrasse eat all kinds of stuff and they where like tank cleaners, is this a differemt type of wrasse? Ill look for the video.

[swinginbeef]

My research tells me that pod production and the ability to maintain enough to feed a mandarin is more about how much live is in the tank rather than the tank volume. I'd think that 110# of liverock would easily sustain a mandarin as long as the fish doesn't go in until the tank is several months old and it pod population is high to begin with.

[docjones]

the mandarin would not go in for at least a year from the tank being fully cycled.

[pogodzib]

Sorry to rain on your parade. I think everyone wishes they could keep bigger or more fish than their tank can handle. That's about the only thing that I don't like about saltwater tanks compared to freshwater tanks. You can pack in the fish in freshwater tanks much easier without causing problems. Unfortunately, for many people with saltwater tanks, it doesn't sink in until a few fish either die. Thankfully, we have corals to care for as well as the fish. I have had a single mandarin nearly wipe out my 125 gal tank of pods once and I have over 300 Lbs of LR. Do I think that one can be kept with long term success in a 55 gal tank with a lot of LR - yes, but make sure that your fuge is packed with pods before you add it and don't add any other fish that eat pods.

[docjones]

Cool, thanks.

[e_baer]

i think the wrasse that you saw that was a tank cleaner, i think you are talking about a cleaner wrasse. they are known to only last a few weeks in a home aquarium at best. when i had mine, i must have been lucky, and had it for about 8 months and it was super healthy until it decided to go and jump out of the tank.

[gimmito]

I had a 55 gal with 20 gal sump/fuge, I had the
following:
2 ocellaris clowns
1 lawnmower blennie
1 six line wrasse
1 coral beauty
1 mandarin dragonet
2 pajama cardinalfish
Mind you these were all small fish !
I trained my dragonet to eat frozen brine/mysis shrimp