Starting a saltwater 55 gallon tank. I want live rock and fish. What combinations of fish work best?

Question

I want to have a good community tank with non aggresive fish. I want to start with live rock and fish but eventually have coral. What are the best community fish that will go together and look nice in the tank?

Answer 1

liveaquaria is one of the best resources for researching fish IMO. I'd limit yourself to 11" of total adult length & I'd personally stay away from damsels which mostly are a pain but there are so many fish to choose from it's hard to say what would be a good mix.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1926

Not sure if you are new to SW but if you are I'd read the getting started post to get familiar with equipment needed and how to maintain a SW tank.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=76139

Answer 2

First of all what type of coral are you planning to have? Remember lighting will be your biggest issue here. For example, most anemone cannot be placed in the tank due to higher lighting requirements than coral. You will also have to decide what kind of fish. Community fish are fine, however some require different feeding requirements. You will have to decide what kind of coral.

I would avoid most Gobies at first they are great little reef safe fish, however some species may eat small ornamental crustaceans. Not aggressive in nature, they will consume algae, Amphipods and Copepods.

I know Zoe said Spotted Cardinal fish which is actually The Pajama Cardinalfish, sold in stores as Polka-dot Cardinalfish or Spotted Cardinalfish, depending on their size these guys are carnavores. Part of their diet is live fish. They are great reef safe fish but require plants and caves.

With live rock, I would recomend (this is an established tank only) Pacific blue tang, or a purple tang smaller Wrasse species work well in a reef system. Nonaggressive in nature, they do not bother other fish or consume corals. Watch the larger wrasse however they will destroy a reef tank.

Very few damsels will ever eat fish or inverts, but the aggressive behavior (particularly from the Dascyllus genus) such as the dalmation damsel of many species can cause constant stress to other fish, so they may not be a great choice.


Since there are thousands of choices for reef tanks and mates I suggest checking out the site below.
http://www.peteducation.com/category_summary.cfm?cat=1986

Answer 3

You can't go wrong with a pair of clown fish, i would suggest False or True Percs...since maroons can get a bit large and be aggressive. Clowns are the most human responsive of all fish and they are adorable. A Bi Color Blenny or a "lawnmower" or "algae" blenny are great fish that are almost never aggressive with fish outside their species. Cardinals are friendly fish that won't harm anything in the reef.

But the best thing you can do, is research. Never listen to what the people at the pet/fish store tell you. I can't even count how many times i have heard people say "the guy at the fish store said they would be fine but......"

http://www.liveaquaria.com is a pretty good site to browse all sorts of fish and corals. Then do some independent research about the species you like..and see if they will work together.

Answer 4

Make sure to avoid fishes that eat corals and anemones. Some types, all of them eat coral -- butterflyfish, for example, and also triggerfish.

Of course, a lot of the coral eating fish are not appropriate for 55 gallon marine, a small tank by marine standards.

If I were you, I would go the other way. Start with rock, let the microcrustacean colony get established. Let the sponges in the rock grow out a bit. Then, add corals attached to more rock.

Get all that up and stable, then add fish. If you add fish first, you will get less diversity out of your rock. Sponges and the like will get eaten as buds and never bloom.

Just a suggestion. You can do it however you like.

Answer 5

Algae eating blennies have cutest faces and they eat the algae off the glass leaving cute little mouth prints. Lawnmowers seem to have the best personalities,...making up for their looks. Add clowns if you like, my true perc is the sweetest fish I have ever owned but my false perc has landed on the floor while attempting to attack me. He's much meaner than the maroon clowns I had. I think he's the meanest fish i have ever had. Pink skunk clowns are cute too. Wait until your tank has been stable for at least 6 mos before adding an anemone, should you choose to.
You could go with flasher or fairy wrasses for beauty and personality, and add some pretty pipe fish. Both are super docile.
The wrasses swim in the open and encourage the other fish to come out, My bi-color blenny would school with my wrasses, which was a nice change from his normal flightiness. Pygmy angels like centropyge multicolor, or the flame angle are docile and pretty.
Shrimp gobies paired with a candy stripe shimp are small interesting and docile.
Inverts are great; sexy shrimp, peterson's shrimp, beautiful left-handed hermits of the calcinus sp, halloween hermits. starfish - linkia multifora are hearty, small and pretty and they move more than the fromia species, but you could add one of those too. .. blue tuxedo urchins.. yada yada yada...

Answer 6

Well there's definitely no shortage of diversity :)
Is this your first SW tank? I'll list a few good, colourful, reef-compatible fish.
How about a Spotted Cardinalfish or two to start?
Or a Bicolor Pseudochromis? It'll eat your ornamental shrimp, though.
Or a Yellowtail Damselfish? It won't eat your inverts and they're pretty impressive-looking.
Get one or two of those guys, then a few gobies?
Firefish Goby are always beautiful, just make sure you have a tight-fitting lid because they are jumpers.
Neon Blue Goby are gorgeous, too.
Or THE (in my opinion) goby, the Yellow Watchman Goby.

Anyway, those would be my choices if I were starting up a new 55 gallon SW tank. But, as I say, there's lots more out there. Browse your LFS as well as sites like aquabid.com and liveaquaria.com

Answer 7

Some possibilities: cardinalfish (PJ, orbiculate, Banggai), blue or green chromis damsels, canary blenny, longnose hawkfish (will eat very small shrimp; peppermints & cleaners are okay with them), orchid dottyback, and/or firefish. Clownfish of any kind will show some aggression (especially if they lay eggs in the tank), but the ocellaris and skunks are a little better with tankmates than some of the others.

See additional websites for fish profiles:
http://www.fishlore.com/
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/fish.html