hows this "fish wish" list sound?

[wrx777]

OK, so i am getting ready to start stocking fish, little by little of course, but my ? is, how does this list sound? I have a 55 gallon tank with a cpr bak pak skimmer, ehiem canister filter and maxi jet 1200 powerhead(more to come).
already have:
- a "lovely" yellow tailed damsel(will go bye-bye if he picks on others)
-feather duster
like to get:
- pair of ocellaris clowns
- royal gramma
-Flame Angel
-tang(either yellow tang or blue(regal) tang) i'm just concerned about not having a big enough tank to keep the tang? any comments?
-cleaner shrimp
I have about 20 lbs of Live rock right now(will get more soon) and my LFS told me to make sure my live rock has been in for quite a while and to get more whenever possible, before getting any tangs since they are grazers...
right now it's only going to be a FOWLR, but I eventually want to get a few soft corals, probably just some xenia and other softies i have heard are realitively easy to keep when it comes to going reef. does this sound like it will be overstocked?
oh yes, and i have 2 96w Current SunPaq Retrofit...so 192w total of lighting.
any help or suggestions would be appreciated, and also if you have any recommendations for other fish that would mesh well with the ones I want, or at least with the clowns... thanks everyone!

 

[cowfishrule]

:nope: on the tang idea
if you are planning to eventually go to corals, just skip the fowlr idea, spend the $$ on lighting (mh) and a good skimmer.
if you measure 2x, cut once, it's easier and cheaper in the long run. trust me...

 

[pontius]

no tang.
and you can almost bank on the fact that the damsel is going to assault the new fish. I had a yellowtail damsel first, then got some clowns and bangaiis, and he harrassed them bad. do yourself a favor and get rid of him.
with the damsel and tang off the list, you could add a 6 line wrasse, a couple bangaiis or other cardinals, a few chromis, etc etc.
all the other fish on the list sound good.

 

[speedfreak]

Get rid of the damsel. We did almost the same setup on our first tank and the damsel harrased our clown fish. Looks like you may need a couple of more powerheads to keep the circulation going.
Once we had our tank up and running we had 2 clowns, 1 sailfin sturgeon(sp?), 1 Koran BLue Angel, 1 phsyco Mandarin, 1 scooter blenny, 1 royal gramma, 1 French Angel and a wrasse (can't remember which one). Of course a couple of those fish did not come along for 6-8 months or a year after we started. But all in all I thought we had a colorful tank.
At one point we did have a couple of sea urchans but I have vowed to my wife not to do those again.
As far as my equipment went, undergravel filtration, we had 4 powerheads, 1 magnum 250 canister, 1 emperior 400, 2 heaters, very expensive lights at the time (1998) and this was all on a 55 gal tank. Which I did 10% water changes every week.

 

[ophiura]

It is not surprising that many of those fish did not survive, I am afraid. Really not a good stock list. Very unsuitable fish for that size tank, IMO.
wrx777 - Kudos to you for the research and very reasonable stock list. It sounds good. You are pushing it with the tang, IMO. I'm sure you will spot another suitable fish to take its place

 

[speedfreak]

Originally posted by ophiura
It is not surprising that many of those fish did not survive, I am afraid. Really not a good stock list. Very unsuitable fish for that size tank, IMO.
Just outta curiousity would you be speaking about my stock list? Or someone else's?

 

[bang guy]

wrx777 - What are your opinions on having a Kole Tang?

 

[pontius]

speedfreak, I'm pretty sure she was referring to your list. a 55 gallon is about 4 feet long, a grown French Angel is not far from 2 feet long. and that's without the other angel added in.

 

[ophiura]

speedfreak,
Yes, I was talking about your stock list - that's a whole lotta fish, and big fish, for that size tank IMO. Maybe they weren't when you purchased them, but they would get large and have some big attitudes to go with it. So I, personally, would not recommend that list. The clowns, gramma and maybe a scooter or mandarin would be fine (scooter and mandarin would compete for food if they didn't take to prepared foods though). Depending on the wrasse, that may have been OK too. But a sailfin tang (surgeon fish), Koran and a French angel... That's a lot of fish.

 

[wrx777]

thanks for all the replies everyone! you've been a great help. so now that i have the tang questions answered, does anyone have any suggestions on a replacement? I really love tangs and butterflies, but i know most will probably not work out unless I had a bigger tank right?
BangGuy- you mentioned Kole Tang... I never looked into them, but will now... would a kole tang be ok with this stock list? anyone else have an opinion?
oh yes, and I would also like to get a psychedelic mandarin someday, when I have a well established tank with plenty of LR... he be alright too?
thanks again

 

[bang guy]

IMO a Kole will work in a 55 with a high probability of success.
The Mandarin would be OK. When it gets older & bigger and needs more food there are ways to bump up the pod supply.