Inhabitants for a 50gal tank?

[crazyfishguy]

When I move to my new house I'll be moving my reef from the current 50gal tank to a 180 or larger.

Then I'll have an empty 50gal.

Sell it? Nah. Let's make it a FOLR!

So what would be some good choices for the tank? I like triggers a lot, but from the other threads it dosen't sound like a good choice for this small a tank. I was thinking Flame Angels, small Lionfish... Maybe the BTA from my reef.

Another question, what stocking levels should I go for? I've heard 1" of fish per 10 gal, but I doubt that's very accurate.

Thanks,
-Eric

[Hlothran]

Just my .02 Cents worth...

I would defiantly stay away from the triggers. Flame angels or a coral beauty would be a good choice very beautiful fish and only get 3-4 inches long. Maybe some of the smaller schooling fish like green chromis or possibly some cardinals. If you wanted to go aggressive you probably could get by with a dwarf lion, or an eel depending on the length of the tank.

Hlothran

[billsreef]

Dwarf angels and dwarf lions certainly. Many interesting gobies and blenny's. Clowns and damsels. Small eels such as snowflakes or zebra eels would be interesting.

[Wolverine]

If you're talking about small lions, make sure you're talking about getting small lion species, not a volitans lion that's going to get big in a hurry, but is small now.

You could put an undulated trigger in there, as long as you don't mind not ever being able to put anything else in there (including your hands).

Dave

P.S. You're lucky to have the Fish Doctors up the road from you in Ypsi.

[crazyfishguy]

No Triggers huh? <pout>

Thanks for the info all. Still wondering about stocking levels... Let me guess: "whatever works for you, the type of fish, and your WC routine." :-p

[BTW I'll probably end up with wekly or bi-monthly WCs]

Wolverine, IMO Fish Doctors is not very good. Most of the fish are in poor health, I try to avoid them when possible. My new LFS of choice is Coral Reef near North Campus.

-Eric

[Wolverine]

Eric, I don't remember that store. If it was there when I was, then it wasn't very good. The Doctors was by far the best in the area (not counting Tropicorium, which is a little more of a hike). It was actually the only one we would spend any time going to.
When was the last time you went to the Doctors? I ask because I know that a couple of years ago, they were in a real downturn, mostly because Tom wasn't spending enough time there. But last time I went, about a year ago, what I saw looked good. For us the problem was more selection, but Tom was always able to get things in for us if he didn't have it already, so it wasn't a big problem at all; what they had was always in good shape when we were there.

That's too bad if it's cycled back down into a bad turn.

Dave

[crazyfishguy]

I was just in FD a month ago. Sick fish all over the place, bleached anenomies, etc.. Tom (who's hardly ever around these days) says it's a bad distributor, but I suspect it's just negligence and not a great support staff. I've heard that they have sold cyanide caught fish, but I cannot verify.

Coral Reef has been in business for close to a year. Net-caught florida fish, friendly knowlegable owners, will price match web for dry goods.

Trop is amazing, gonna go there this weekend to get some Banggais and a few corals. I can hear my wallet screaming allready...

[Wolverine]

That's too bad that they've gone downhill again. It seems to happen when Tom has other things going on, and stops spending enough time at the store. It used to be that when he was gone, his brother was there to man the ship, but I guess they had a bad split.

That Coral Reef store is new then since when we lived there; that explains a lot.

Luckily, in a few months we're moving back to the Detroit-Ann Arbor area (I'll be working in Detroit, and my wife probably will in A2, so we'll live somewhere in between). I'm looking forward to being able to count Tropicorium as my LFS (but I am very much going to miss my LFS here).

Dave