Tell me about fish and a 55g

[dstoneburg]

Little about me. I just turned 19 and am training to become an emt/fireman. I manage my finances well and am able to responsibly manage a tank financially and time wise.
Items-
Im looking at doing a FOWLR. I wanted a coral/reef for sooo long yet my love lies with the larger fish such as puffer/tangs/triggers.
I have a 55g tank(Changing to a 125g). I plan on doing a sump/refug.
I would love advice on a skimmer/lights/heater/filter. With this equipment I need it to be a little bigger and better then necessary to accomidate the higher bioload from the slighy overstocked tank.
Now I know in the long run everyone is going to outgrow it. And I have accepted this and will be sure to find them a great home before the time comes.
I would like to have...
Clown Trigger
Porcupine Puffer Fish
Hawaiian Blue Puffer
Seahorse(Is this possible with a trigger 2 puffers and a tang? What special treatment do seahorses require?)
Starfish(Will a lukia or such starfish survive the puffer?)
Clown Fish
Blonde Naso Tang
Picasso Trigger
What are the rules with a seahorse? What about a cleanup crew? Will all these fit in a 125g?
Any help would be great, thanks - Dale.

 

[brandon7491]

imo forget everything u just said for a stocking list down below. even though the naso is going to be small it will still get ick and die being in a 55gallon tank thats just the facts and from experiences. water can be perfectand u can have all the equiptment i.e uv,ozone,huge skimmer but it will still get ick cuz tank is too small. no no on a clown trigger they get way way to big and agressive and will kill anything in the tank. same thing goes with porcupine puffer. u really cant have any big fish like tangs, puffers,triggers but u can get a scoppa tang. i wouldnt reccomend triggers of puffers of any size for ur tank due to the agressive nature unless u want to turn it into an agressive tank. a fish list in a 55 could consist of flame angel,longnose hawk,six line wrasse,3 chromis,scoppa tang. (here is just an idea) clean up crew could be 50blue leg hermits,10turbo,10astria,1queen conch,1brittle star,1cleaner shrimp. skimmer is all up to u, there is so much crap out on the market that u have to choose what is best, but in my experience percison marine,euro reef,asm,aquac all work great and are well worth the cost. if u deciede to do a reef u could go with 2 metal hailde fictures or if ur just going fowlr u could just do pc's or t5's. now for filtering all i use on my tanks is tons and tons of liverock. get tons of it maybe 100-120lbs its the best filter on the market and well worth the investment. fuge could consist of a 20gallon or higher tank with a light on it and a 6inch ls sand bed and some cheto algea. for sand in the tank if ur doing fowlr u could do 100lbs of ls. i hope this helps pm me if u need any further help

 

[dstoneburg]

Speaking with the LFS guy and reading some stock from the stock list thread, there seem to be many 55g's or so with puffers and tangs/triggers. I agree its not under the best conditions. As much as it breaks my heart I think you are right about the naso, which is like killing me because its such a beautiful fish. I am very appreciative of the information youve given me and I do think a lot of LR and LS would be a good idea. Thank you for the time and information! Any other info on the seahorse, opinions on my wanted lifestock and what not would be much appreciated!

 

[andy51632]

Be careful with all advice that you get, especially from your LFS. They will not care if your fish die because they will just sell you more.
You really cannot have large fish in a 55gal. This would be a great tank to do a FOWLR sticking with smaller fish. If you eventually want to upgrade to a reef just make sure and only buy reef safe fish.

 

[dstoneburg]

Thanks for the input andy. Definitly agree on the LFS advice, thats why im here . I dont think anything can match and or surpass the knowledge of a collective forum of hobbiest's. Any other opinions on mixing those certain types of fish? And anyone that has kept these fish in a type this size please chime in.

 

[andy51632]

forgot to add that a clean up crew would probally be breakfast for triggers and puffers.
i love triggers though. someday i will have one. i just don't want to have to give alot of things up like corals, shrimp, certain fish, to have the one fish I want.

 

[puffer32]

Maybe stick with the 55 until you can upgrade to a really large tank. Then you can have both an aggressive and reef. But you can't really have seahorses with either tank, they have special needs.

 

[browniebuck]

I agree with most of what Brandon said. From experience, I disagree with what he said regarding your cleanup crew. He said to get 50 hermits along with a queen conch...from my experience, this will result in one of your hermits having a home that is far too large for himself as well as an expensive meal of conch fritters! We have had 2 queen conch (in separate tanks) that have both met their demise from an overzealous hermit (a blue leg and a red/scarlet leg), one of which after only a day. It is almost humorous to watch the hermit after they have overtaken the shell, as it is WAY too big for them. I have heard that you can get away without having hermits if you up your snails and get some other sorts of crabs, shrimp, etc... (if you would like the queen conch).
My 55 gallon (while admittedly overstocked, though very stable) consists of a foxface rabbitfish, a maroon clown (I think it is gold-striped), 4 blue-green chromis, a yellowtail damsel (peaceful damsel), an eibli angel, a keyhole angel, and a green mandarin. In terms of a cleanup crew, we have 3 porcelain crabs, 3 anemone crabs, 3 emerald crabs, 7-15??? hermits (blue and red/scarlet), 4 cleaner shrimp, 4 peppermint shrimp, and 2 sandsifting starfish.

 

[petjunkie]

I wouldn't put most of those fish in a 55 ever, aggressive fish get large and need large tanks, you could do semiaggressive with a maroon clown, dwarf angel, dwarf puffer, hawkfish, and a wrasse. I also had planned on a 55 aggressive but realized it was really too small and a bad shape for the fish I wanted. Stuffing a bunch of mean big fish is just going to cause problems with aggression and water quality, plus possibly stunting growth as it seems most people always have plans to upgrade or a friend with a big tank but still keep fish way over the size they should be moved.

 

[dbm1983]

I was going through the same process you are a few months ago. I'll give you my set up for my 55g becuase it is working amazing and all my levels have never been crazy (except calcuim). Heres the equipment:
Fluval 304
Red Sea Prizm Skimmer
48' Catalina t-5
AC Powerheads
Jebo Heater
Coralife UV Stabalizer (not hooked up yet)
Here are the fish I have been successful with:
3 blue green chromis
1 Flame Angel
1 juvi Dejardin Sailfin Tang
3 Skunk Cleaner shrimp
various snails/ crabs
Hope this helps.

 

[browniebuck]

Originally Posted by dstoneburg
I have a 55g tank(Changing to a 125g). - Dale.

How soon are you planning on upgrading to the 125??? You may want to wait until you have that set-up so that you can get what you want from the start rather than trying to move what you can fit into your 55 into a 125. Just a thought!

 

[dstoneburg]

Originally Posted by browniebuck
How soon are you planning on upgrading to the 125??? You may want to wait until you have that set-up so that you can get what you want from the start rather than trying to move what you can fit into your 55 into a 125. Just a thought!

Very sorry, with the given information and help from you guys I decided to sell my 55g and purchase a 125. With this thread I was getting a game plan together with a fish list and such before I even started anything. So that gave me the option to upgrade before I setup the tank. So everything will be going into a 125g. With a 125g can I do the specified list above? What are the special needs of a seahorse?

 

[brandon7491]

dude ur a genious. that was the best move u could have ever made selling it and getting a 125 , now were talking

. for a fish list u could have powder blue tang,regal angel,purple tang,3 lyertial anthias, six line wrasse,watchman goby. if u really wanted to u could put a naso in it. so it could be like naso,regal angel,3lyertial anthias,6line wrasse,watchman goby,3 chromis ect.. i would personally not waste a 125 on seahorses because of the needs they require and u being a fire fighter no offence but i doubt u will have the time to spot feed seahorses daily. now for a fowlr u could go crazy with fish. obviously i no u want ur naso so it could be naso,regal angel(hard fish to keep),blue hippo tang,blue throat trigger or if u have alot of money to spend sargassum trigger cuz they are reef safe along with blue throat trigger. the skys the limit but in reason so give us a list and we will give u our opponions on it good luck man

 

[dstoneburg]

Originally Posted by brandon7491
dude ur a genious. that was the best move u could have ever made selling it and getting a 125 , now were talking

. for a fish list u could have powder blue tang,regal angel,purple tang,3 lyertial anthias, six line wrasse,watchman goby. if u really wanted to u could put a naso in it. so it could be like naso,regal angel,3lyertial anthias,6line wrasse,watchman goby,3 chromis ect.. i would personally not waste a 125 on seahorses because of the needs they require and u being a fire fighter no offence but i doubt u will have the time to spot feed seahorses daily. now for a fowlr u could go crazy with fish. obviously i no u want ur naso so it could be naso,regal angel(hard fish to keep),blue hippo tang,blue throat trigger or if u have alot of money to spend sargassum trigger cuz they are reef safe along with blue throat trigger. the skys the limit but in reason so give us a list and we will give u our opponions on it good luck man

Haha you are very kind. Something like this would be a dream for me...
Clown Trigger
Porcupine Puffer Fish
Hawaiian Blue Puffer
Clown Fish
Blonde Naso Tang
Picasso Trigger
Maybe adding one more I ran across if its something that cant be turned down.
I wanna see those pics from your vacation brandan!

 

[brandon7491]

ill put the pics up right now. i like ur list so far but it needs some minor touch ups. first the sea horses will not survive because they need literaly ur tank covered in plants so they can grab on to and like i said before to be spot fed daily. linkia star fish, well they need atleast a year or more established tank, only live sand,and tons of rock work. they are very very difficult to keep in captivity though not impossible. i wouldnt be so concearned of the linkia starving the triggers than the triggers eating they linkia. it seems like u love triggers and yea the list sounds good for them. puffers u should be fine. the thing i would be most concearned about is the agression showed to the naso tang. they are a more doscile fish to keep so if u were to get one try and get a larger one maybe 5-6inches and add him first. for a clown fish i would get a maroon clown cuz they are agressive and larger so you wont have to worry about him getting bullied but i would get him an anemone just so if he has to he can retreat. make sure to get a good skimmer cuz ur bioload is going to be fairly large. for a clean up crew u really need to be careful cuz the triggers will eat them. maybe 10scarlet hermits,40 blue legs,20turbo,5 astria and maybe a coral banded shrimp. all and all said i think ur stocking list sounds good just keep the triggers well fed

 

[mcbdz]

Originally Posted by dstoneburg
Haha you are very kind. Something like this would be a dream for me...
Clown Trigger
Porcupine Puffer Fish
Hawaiian Blue Puffer
Starfish(Will a lukia or such starfish survive the puffer?)
Clown Fish
Blonde Naso Tang
Picasso Trigger
Hermits and shrimp?
Maybe adding one more I ran across if its something that cant be turned down.
I wanna see those pics from your vacation brandan!

Very smart move to upgrade before setting up.

Just make sure you go to the new hobbist forum and read through the 2 thread that lion-craz stickied. There is lots of info on there to get you started on the right track.
Sea horses need a species tank that is made just for them. If you think you may eventually want them go to the sea horse and pipefish forum. I am helping my son plan one of these. It would be better to wait and see how you can manage your fish only tank first. Make sure you reaserch each fish yourself and decide if you want to take the risk. It will be your money you will spend. Some triggers can get very aggressive.
Good Luck and take your time.

 

[mcbdz]

OH Yeah. Forgot to mention. You clean up crew will most likely consist of YOU.

Aggressive usually love inverts.

 

[dstoneburg]

Thank you all for the much valued information. So after lots of reading Ive come down to a stock list such as this.
Clown Trigger
Porcupine Puffer Fish
Hawaiian Blue Puffer
Clown Fish
Blonde Naso Tang
Picasso Trigger
Large hermit crab ( Im told these have the best chance to make it with puffers and such ).
Is this close to overpopulated? Can I add one or two more?

 

[brandon7491]

u can add 2 more. maybe a blue throat trigger and an eel or something

 

[petjunkie]

I would cut naso tangs as they get way too large still and clown trigger as they would also outgrow it and are very aggressive, the smaller the tank the more likely for disaster. A smaller tang such as yellow, purple, hippo, kole would work and I would get a maroon clown as they get larger and can hold their own against big fish, perculas may become food. I would also check on the porcs size, they are wide fish and 125 aren't wide tanks, may become an issue with space if it can't turn around. Keep in mind filtration also, buy the biggest skimmer you can afford and put it in your sump, also a refugium would be very helpful in keeping water quality up. Large hermits do well for a while but may become food down the line so plan on replacing them occansionally. Good buy with the bigger tank, btw, you won't regret it.