another quick question from a happy beginner lol

[mboswell1982]

ok, if any of you read my first post in the new hobbyists section, me and my gf are planning on setting up a 75-80 gallon aquarium, preferably a FOWLR tank, thanks to the people here for that lil acronym lol, and am curious as to getting some opinions on what kinda fish we should look into getting, cause we want a community tank with schooling fish, hopefully, and also get an idea on just how many fish we can look into accomodating in a tank of that size. any and all help and input would be greatly appreciated

 

[-tara33-]

for schooling fish it would have to be some chromis, 3 maby and maby a pair of clowns and ive always liked purple firefish and then some kind of goby and that would probably do it. good luck with the new tank

 

[calaxa]

Good beginner schooling fish are blue-green chromis. They are from the damsel family so they are hardy but are not really aggressive/territorial. They are also very cheap, on the order of $3/ea at most LFS for a 1-2" specimen. You can go a little more expensive and get blue chromis. They cost roughly $5-$10/ea. but not found at LFS as often.
Anthias also school but will probably get too big. Some of them are not very easy to take care of. I forget which ones are to be avoided.
Depending on your setup, the basic rules of thumb is 1" of fish per 5 gallons. That would be 15" of fish. If you average about 3" per fish, that gives you roughly 5 fish. This can vary depending on amount of LR/LS, whether or not your have a sump/fuge, filtration you are running, etc. A 75G will preclude you from getting any full size angels and probably all tangs (yellow tang might be doable).
Your stocking plan should go from peaceful to aggressives last.

 

[mboswell1982]

me an my girl really dont want any agressives at all, we want to try keep it all nice and peaceful and harmonious, her words, not mine lol, so its gonna be a big communal tank, basically

 

[forsfed50]

I've been told 2 gal per inch of fish. If yo u go this way
use their adult size not their present size.

 

[prime311]

Don't use the gallon measure, especially in saltwater.
CHromis are a good choice for a schooler. The you have a lot of options for other community type fish. A couple of clowns, the friendlier wrasse like Christmas Wrasse, Sixlines, Fairy Wrasse, etc.., Hawkfish, Blenny's, Gobys, just tons of options. I'd suggest going to some fish stores and looking around to see what kind of fish you like and then come here to get more info on them.

 

[ilovemytank]

+1 on the inch per gallon rule. The amount of fish you can stock depends on the power of your filteration and what types of fish ( for ex. messy eaters, fish that eat fish) and feeding habits. I have what I beleave to be a perfect community of fish taking coloration, swimming levels, personalities and fish that compliment others. I stock a total of 25 fish in a 125 gallon but have extremely powerfull filteration. Consider the equipment and what you plan to feed in your stock list. Good Luck !!!!