Thinking ahead for 55g stocking, thoughts please

[travie]

I'm looking for some thoughts on a planned stocking for a 55g reef.

Have:
1 Blue Watchman Goby
5 Pajama Cardinals
2 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimip
Snails and Coral

Want to have in addition to all of the above:
1 Longnose Hawkfish
1 6-Line Wrasse
1 Royal Gramma

Thoughts/opinions on this plan are most wanted. What could/shoud I add or subtract? Thank you.

travie

[unleashed]

I wouldn't add any species of hawkfish with shrimps or small fish. All species of hawkfish are notorious predators. I have only seen them kept with shrimps in one tank and the shrimps were a pair of massive coral banded shrimps.

Pajama cardinals also get quite large so you may want to consider either a different species or a smaller numbers. Also bear in mind that large cardinals will happily consume your shrimps.

I would probably add the royal gramma first as these can be very very shy when first introduced. My blackcap basslet (related to the royal gramma) took about 4 weeks to come out of the rockwork and another 4 weeks to become comfortable with people in the room and not dash straight back into the rocks

The sixline wrasse.... so cliche ;) lol

I would definitely add last. These are very very aggressive. I personally would have a look on Live Aquaria's Diver's Den section as they quite often have some beautiful and sometimes uncommon to rare wrasse species for very reasonable prices.

[coachfraley]

The sixline wrasse.... so cliche ;) lol


I am with Unleashed, if it were my tank, I would choose another wrasse, there are SO many pretty ones to choose from.

http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/wrassereefsafe/

[Red]

no clue travie, good luck with the tank!

[travie]

Okay, Longnose Hawkfish is probably out for my snail and shrimps' sakes. The Pajama Cardinals and shrimp will be staying as I already have them. I'll look into other Wrasses, but only thing is, I'll have to be able to find it locally. I'll keep posting up my different plans and keep looking for opinions.

[labnjab]

We've got a falco hawkfish for a few months and it hasn't mess with our CBS, snails or crabs. The guy who gave it to us had it for 2 years and it didn't touch a single invert. I guess is one of those things you take a chance on and sometimes you get lucky and other times you don't. It has, however tried to make a meal of a $20 firefish goby a few months back, which unfortunately didn't make it through the night. Other then that its been a great fish and adds a lot of character to the tank and leaves our clowns alone

[travie]

As far as Damselfish go, which one is the least aggressive? And it has to be found in the Indo-Pacific. I am possibly considering getting fish only from the Indo-Pacific area, and yes, I realize that means no Royal Gramma. Maybe it can be my oddball, center piece fish, or I can just get a Bicolor Pseudochromis instead; the Bicolor wouldn't be the same though... Just posting up my ideas for discussion and to have them written down somewhere.

[rageybug]

I love damsels, and have kept many different types of them. The only damsel I can recommend as a "gentle" fish would be a Talbot's Damsel. They can actually be very timid and are known to get picked on by other "gentle" fish.

Here is a info link on them (bad picture, they are very nice looking fish)
http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+28+128&pcatid=128


Stay away from dominos and 4 stripes, they will mangle everything in your tank. Yellow-tailed and blue damsels can be nasty in smaller tanks too.

[travie]

Time to get this stocking list finalized if you know what I mean. :)

5 PJ Cardinals
1 Blue Watchman Goby


1 Wrasse (not sure which one)
1 Royal Gramma
Any other fish that I could add and be fine with tank wise?