stocking a 29g

[burningbaal]

I'm starting to cycle my 29g again. standard aqueon converted to a AIO with some 1/8" black acrylic. think of it as a peninsula tank where 5" on one end is converted to a sump/fuge (no macro yet, planning to grow/harvest GHA on a grid, actually). I've got about 40lbs of rock

 

Anyways, I'm planning to have a 50x flow and 80 or so watts of LED above it, probably about 60-70% actinic. I'm hat 50/50 color with 40w now, but will be adding more. Planning for sps as well as some lps near the bottom. I expect I'll have a few snails and hermits to clean up, but looking for advice on others:

 

shrimp? skunk? sexy? peppermint?

 

fish

- flasher wrasse ok or is this too small? sixline?

- goby? Feels a little 'blah'

- firefish (purple?)

- basselet

- better ideas?

 

I want to keep the bioload fairly small so I can keep up with water changes and the GHA farm in the sump.

[Nanomaniac]

A Fairy Wrasse or some other colorful fish would be nice. Gobies and Blennies are not much for show fish, they do have great personalities and add character to a tank. Firefish are nice, I've kept them before, but they sometimes find a burrow near the base of the rocks and only inhabit that area. Bangaii Cardinalfish are not very colorful, but will hover in the open and are unique in appearance. Three, maybe four small fish would be the maximum that I would have in that size of tank.

 

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp are very colorful and will help with some additional cleanup duties, so that's my choice regarding Shrimp.

[burningbaal]

sounds good. Perhaps 3 firefish or three bangaiis would be best. what about royal gramma?

 

I think I'm settled that a skunk cleaner is part of the tank, especially since he can help clean up some detritus and such

[Fishmademepoor]

Show clowns like the da vinci grade a or b are cool. Royal grammas are pretty, mine was a little shy till I added my coris wrasse though. Personally I think bangaiis are a little bland, there just kinda there.

 

 

p.s.- peppermint shrimp are considered part of the clean up crew because they eat aptasia. So I might add one just to some aptasia "first-line resistance".

 

I vote sexy as a show shrimp though

[malacoda]

Have you considered one of the smaller fang blennies (of meiacanthus variety) - such as a smith's (m. smithi)... forktail (m. atrodorsalis)... or green/tonga canary (m. tongaensis)?

 

Very peaceful (except toward other fang blennies). In the case of the forktail and tonga canary, quite colorful. Very affordable. Active throughout the water column. And a bit less common than firefish, clowns, etc. (which I find very surprising given how curious, active, colorful, non-skittish my tonga canary is...).