Stocking a 29 gallon tall...

I have a list of fish I would like to stock in my soon-to-be-reef tank. I want to have 2 firefish, 2 percula clows, a flame angelfish, and a cleaner goby. Also a banded coral shrimp & some snails.

Good/bad/too many?
Will they all get along or should I change something?

Thanks

 

I would take the flame angel out of that. This is because that is pushing the stocking limit and the angel would probably feel a little cramped in a 29. You may want to go with Ocellaris Clownfish rather than Perculas. Clowns can be pretty territorial and in a space that small I would rather see Ocellaris who are slightly less aggressive and look almost identical to Perculas. You may want to look for a gold coral banded shrimp that will stay smaller for that tank. There are all sorts of other fun things that I love that could go in there like hermit crabs, emerald crabs, sally lightfoot crabs, peppermint shrimp, blood shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, and more. Sounds like a good set up.

 

Yea I keep getting ocellaris and perculas mixed up : (petstore calls the ocellaris perculas...) Thanks though I've been looking into the gold coral shrimp, I really will get any shrimp that eats fireworms (I really don't those worms!!!!) And are there any angelfish that I could get? I really love the dwarfs they have such color variety.

This is my first real 'reef' tank so I'm gonna start on a small scale

 

One thing you have to remember is that fish consume a lot of oxygen. You are going to have a tough time balancing the pH swing.

Less fish = happy tank (so to speak)

Once your lights are off everything is gona start consuming oxygen in your tank. So its better to keep this to a minimum. For your size tank, i would recommend 2 fish. 1 anemone if you want and 1 coral. This is just my opinion ofcource. You should also try to kick start your copepod population before you get any fish in there. These tiny creatures really boost the fish's immune system and also make nice lil fresh snack for the fish.

The clowns would be a great start. If you get a matched pair you will have lil baby clown fish too

I only have 1 fish in my 120 gallon tank with 50 gallon sump. I plan on getting more fish sometime soon, perhaps a Green mandarin and matched pair of black and white clown fish.

 

In that size tank I wouldn't put any angel, even a dwarf one. They will be more territorial and aggressive in close quarters. As for oxygen, if you have a skimmer, a sump, and some surface agitation, you should be ok. Also, if you want two fire fish, make sure they are a mated pair. Fire fish will fight with members of its own species, they should best be kept singly.

 

A part of the limitations while stocking is surface area. Surface area determines how much gas exchange you will get, which in turn means there will be more oxygen in the system, meaning you could have more fish. You would be able to have more fish in a 29gallon as opposed to a 29 tall.

One question is: will you have a sump/ fuge? A protein skimmer?

I would go with 2 ocellaris clowns, a firefish, and maybe some other smaller fish. I don't think a dwarf angel is gonna be too happy in that setup. The inverts don't contribute much to your bioload or gas exchange, in my mind their cleaning far outweighs their resource consumption. So let 'em clean. It's just are going to have a very small limit to fish stocking. I would say 4 fish tops.

 

I think 2 fish should be the max. Just think about it for a second, think about how big the freakin ocean is, and also how much space the fish have. Its sorta like if we started live in a bathtub instead of our house or apartment. I mean we really dont want a lot of people in there, it stinks, its cramped, its stressful, not a good thing. Probably a bad analogy but you know what i'm trying to say.

A skimmer and surface agitator isnt gona do much to stabilize the oxygen. It will still continue to decrease as long as the lights are off.

Fire fish are community fish. I've never seen them fish with each other.

 

I know that, but having a skimmer, sump, surface agitation will help with gas exchange. It won't prevent the depletion of O2, but will help. As for the fire fish, I better check the copyright on my fish book.

 

If you have a sump, thats a whole different story. You can have a small fuge with macroalgae producing oxygen at night. But those things do help i guess.

 

I think with small fish like Ocellaris and Firefish you could get 4 in there, but I would wait until it is well established to add fishes 3 and 4. The problem with Clowns and Firefish is that they don't like to live individually.