Please help me finish my stocking list

[sooju]

I have a 55G tank w/ 110 lbs live rock and a 20G sump and 8G fuge. At the moment the inhabitants are:

3 clowns (came with tank)
1 large blue/green chromis (came with tank)
1 royal gramma
2 bangaii cardinals
asstd cleaning crew (nassarius, trochus, peppermint, sally)

I'd like to keep the tank somewhat lightly stocked, but could use a couple more fish. What do you think of the following for this tank? I'm posting in the reef forum becuase I have two zoanthids and plan to add more low light corals down the road, so I need fish that won't eat them.

yellow assessor
yellowhead jawfish
fairy or flasher wrasse

If not these specific fish, could you please recommend a yellow fish, a burrowing fish, and a red fish? Thanks!!

 

[austinsdad]

Clown goby, midas blenny, or canary blenny for the yellow. How about a pistol shrimp and goby for the burrowers? Can't help on the red.

 

[sooju]

I forgot blue - would a blue chromis get along with the blue/green chromis and everyone else? My LFS says don't touch the blue damsel. They actually suggested a juvenile blue tang, but I don't want to get a fish I know I can't keep for the long term...

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

...
I'd like to keep the tank somewhat lightly stocked, but could use a couple more fish....

I think I'm a little conservative when it comes to this type of stuff, but with the list of existing fish I'd say you're way past "somewhat lightly stocked."

If you want more fish, I'd go with the clown goby idea... something really small.

 

[melosu58]

Dont know about red but how about a pink spotted goby?

 

[Innovator]

Why not kill two birds and purchase a group of yellow and blue assessors? They prefer to be in groups, fairly small (under 2" I believe), and wonderfully peaceful. I'd probably add around 5 per and depending on what species your clowns are.

 

[sooju]

Why not kill two birds and purchase a group of yellow and blue assessors?

I'm intrigued - my clowns are false percs I believe. Would that work?

And one of the cardinals has gone missing. Completely disappeared. How is that possible? He was there last night, and now I can't find him anywhere. I've even checked the floor behind the tank. :-(

 

[Innovator]

Yes it would work, since you have one of the smaller clown species. Use a flashlight to look inbetween the liverock and try to keep your hand out of the tank in case it is just hiding. You can also offer a pinch of food to see if it is indeed just hiding (excitement of other fish feeding should bring it out). Take an extra look inside your sump, fuge, filter socks (if you use them), etc. Hope you find it alive and well!

 

[sooju]

where the heck did he go??? it's 3 pm and I've been searching everywhere with a flashlight since 7 am and all of a sudden my missing cardinal has appeared. just like that. so bizarre.

thank you all for your stocking suggestions. I'm also wondering about blood shrimp. I think they're really cool looking but I brought two home a couple weeks ago and they died within three days. Are they fragile, or was I just unlucky? I think they had just arrived at the LFS so maybe the double trauma of being shipped and then moved to my tank did them in...

 

[roka64]

How did you accli9mate the shrimp?

 

[sooju]

I put the sealed bag in the tank for about 15 minutes to let it come to temp, then I opened the bag and added 1/2 cup tank water, waited 15 min, added 1/2 cup, 15 min, 1/2 cup, 15 min (total time 1 hr) and then scooped them out and put them in the tank. That's what my LFS recommended. One died two days later and the other three days later. Are inverts typically easier or harder to acclimate than fish?

 

[roka64]

I find I have more success using the drip method for at least 2 hours. Inverts are less tolerant to water changes than fish.

 

[sooju]

Okay, so I searched for drip acclimation and it seems that the way I did it isn't terrible, I just didn't do it for long enough? Maybe next time I should add smaller amounts of water each time and do it for another hour?

So much for lightly stocked! I don't really want to have three clowns but they're a family and came with the tank. I was going to bring them back to the store but they're smarter than I am and there was no way they were going to let themselves get caught.

My total volume is 70G so how many inches of fish can I have? Max 23" (1" per 3G)? Maybe I should bring the chromis back. He's beautiful, but he's also big and hungy and picks on my poor little gramma. I do like that he's always out front though.

Does anyone have experience with fairy or flasher wrasses and would you recommend them?

Re: assessors, my fish book recommends adding one large and three small. If I wanted both yellow and blue, could I do two of each?

Do blood shrimp count toward my bio load? I know they're not really part of the cleaning crew, but they're really cool looking.

So many questions. I really appreciate everyone's feedback!

 

[roka64]

I like the drip method because I don't have to watch the time. I just start it up and do other things while I am waiting, like moving rock, scraping, making dinner and other things.
The inch per gallon rule is a bit outdated. There are some gish that need mre swimming room and there are others that are messy eaters.
I have never had a wrasse so I really can't help there the same with assessors.
Inverts don't really count against your bioload.

 

[austinsdad]

I've had both. For the flashers, I had the carpenter flashers. IMO it's best to have 3 of them to get the most our of the beautiful flashing display by the males. Thing is, 2 females would be better IMO, since one female might get harrased too much. They are also jumpers. My 3 changed to one female left. 2 jumped and the solitary female just died one day after more than a year in the tank. I did have a single fairy, the pencil wrasse (rainbow colored). It lived for about 3 months and died one day. Did notice it had a very small mouth. It would not eat anything but frozen or live mysis or brine shrimp. Was very secretive also and only came out when feeding time or at night. The carpenters ate everything.