55 Gallon Community Stocking Idea

[froglover007]

Here is my idea for my first SW tank (FOWLR). Any suggestions?

1. Common clown, pink skunk clown, or percula clown X1 pair
2. Bangaii cardinalfish X1 (or a group?)
3. Some kind of pygmy angel, preferably an African flameback angel as the last addition

Inverts:
1.Cone shell hermit crab, up to three
2.Decorator crab X1
3.Emerald crab, up to three?
4.Skunk cleaner shrimp, fire cleaner shrimp, or marbled shrimp X3
5.Turbo snails X3, Florida fighting conch X1, or tiger cowrie X1
6.Crimson knobbed starfish X1, chocolate chip starfish X2, or serpent star X1
7.Urchin, any kind except toxic sea urchin (maybe replace the snail(s) with one of these?)

As you can see I am focusing much of the tank on invertebrates. I will add the sensitive ones later and make sure I only add what the algae in my tank can support. There will be no sessile inverts in this tank so that is why I have the starfish up there :) .
Tom

[gobytron]

I'd ixnay the clowns and focus on a group of Cardinals or a harem of assessors or grammas...

[ponokareefer]

The clowns you picked should work out good, all less aggressive and smaller.

The Bangaii's can be kept as a single or a proven pair, but a group will kill each other off. Some other cardinal's can be kept in groups, but not Bangaii's.

Some of your other livestock can eat corals, so if you ever plan to go that route, you may not be able to.

[froglover007]

OK I will then have just one cardinal (which is lighter on my budget anyway ;) ).

[silentcivilian]

Dont get too, I had two, and they were friends for awhile, then the aggressive one laid claim to the whole tank and harassed the other one, then one day the aggressive one died... I know that last bit doesnt make sense, but they will kill each other off.

Thought of getting a jawfish or goby of some kind??

[froglover007]

Yes actually. I was thinking a yellow-headed jawfish would be fun to have. Am I correct in that they need both large gravel pieces (coral gravel) and fine sands?
How do you keep the sand from going to the bottom and the gravel to the top?