What and how many fish to add?

[TMCross]

Hello! My wife and I are almost ready to add fish to our first tank (36g). We are going to be adding fish and invertebrates this week but we aren't sure what fish/inverts play well together, how many we should can have for our tank size, or how fast we should add all the livestock. I love inverts and am planning on 1 fire shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 emerald crabs, 5 bumblebee snails, 1 starfish (haven't decided on a specific type), and possibly 1 sea urchin. I'd also love a pistol shrimp and goby duo but am unsure if we have space for all that. My wife loves the fish and wants 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma, 1 leppard wrasse, 1 goby, and 1 orange butterfly fish. We might get a couple schooling fish as well if we have the space. We weren't sure if this is reasonable for our tank size and our skill level. Thanks for your input!

P.S. We will probably add coral in 6 months if we are successful so everything will need to be coral friendly as well.

 

[WalkerLoves_TheOcean]

Hello! My wife and I are almost ready to add fish to our first tank (36g). We are going to be adding fish and invertebrates this week but we aren't sure what fish/inverts play well together, how many we should can have for our tank size, or how fast we should add all the livestock. I love inverts and am planning on 1 fire shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 emerald crabs, 5 bumblebee snails, 1 starfish (haven't decided on a specific type), and possibly 1 sea urchin. I'd also love a pistol shrimp and goby duo but am unsure if we have space for all that. My wife loves the fish and wants 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma, 1 leppard wrasse, 1 goby, and 1 orange butterfly fish. We might get a couple schooling fish as well if we have the space. We weren't sure if this is reasonable for our tank size and our skill level. Thanks for your input!

P.S. We will probably add coral in 6 months if we are successful so everything will need to be coral friendly as well.

Hello, and welcome to reef2reef!

Don't overstock your tank. Your list seems pretty big for your tank... Some fish are to big for your tank anyways.

For inverts, they need more stable water parameters than fish do. Given that this is your first tank, that may be a little tricky. I would get a few fish, wait a month, go get a few inverts, and if everything goes well, you can get the rest of your inverts.

Start slow. This is your first tank, so things can easily go out of whack. You are going to experience parameter swings, and, you need to let you biological filter catch up to your bioload. I assume you have cycled your tank, but, adding fish is a much bigger bioload than doing whatever you did to cycle your tank.

Adding a whole bunch of stuff the first day your cycle has finished is not a good idea. You will experience a deadly ammonia spike, and that will not be fun.

I would go get just a few fish, 2 or 3, wait 1 to 2 weeks, go get a few more, and  slowly  add things.

I know, it really sucks. You have waited all this time waiting for your tank to finish cycling, only to realize that you can only get a few fish. Patience is your best friend in this hobby.

Good luck getting your fish, it's always a very exciting step!

 

[saltcats]

Welcome to the hobby!

I don't think there are any butterflyfish that are suitable for that size of tank, unfortunately. They also don't tend to be very coral friendly.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend ordering from them, liveaquaria dot com has pretty decent information about the size tank needed for a given fish, and their compatibility with each other/corals and inverts. It's a good place to start looking!

I think 2 clown fish and a royal gramma would be okay in your tank, and probably a pistol goby pair as well. The leopard wrasse would need a bigger tank, and they are also finicky to care for; better to leave until you have more experience!

Inches per gallon is a pretty outdated rule of thumb, and was always more geared towards freshwater IIRC.

Good luck with your new aquarium, hope you will enjoy it for a long time

 

[crabgrass]

Hold off on the leopard. They may need some pods, and aren’t the hardiest fish. I am not a wrasse expert, but there are some peaceful hardier varieties. A six-line might can be tempermental.

 

[jgabbsxx]

Hello! My wife and I are almost ready to add fish to our first tank (36g). We are going to be adding fish and invertebrates this week but we aren't sure what fish/inverts play well together, how many we should can have for our tank size, or how fast we should add all the livestock. I love inverts and am planning on 1 fire shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 emerald crabs, 5 bumblebee snails, 1 starfish (haven't decided on a specific type), and possibly 1 sea urchin. I'd also love a pistol shrimp and goby duo but am unsure if we have space for all that. My wife loves the fish and wants 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma, 1 leppard wrasse, 1 goby, and 1 orange butterfly fish. We might get a couple schooling fish as well if we have the space. We weren't sure if this is reasonable for our tank size and our skill level. Thanks for your input!

P.S. We will probably add coral in 6 months if we are successful so everything will need to be coral friendly as well.

Be careful on which starfish you add to your tank especially if you are adding corals

 

[The_Paradox]

I would also make sure you get 3 female Emeralds as they tend to play nicer in a mixed reef. If you’re not going to quarantine you may consider adding everything at once. That way it’s a couple weeks of nail biting not constant stress over a year. Buying direct aquacultured or pre quarantined fish also helps.

 

[kevgib67]

This is probably to late but just add a few cuc at a time and increase as the algae, their food source, increases. You don’t want to throw a bunch in with minimal algae and they all starve. This does not pertain to the shrimp as they will eat what you feed to your fish. Starfish are difficult to keep even for very experienced reefers. Mico brittle stars are easy and an excellent part of your cuc.

 

[OrionN]

Hello! My wife and I are almost ready to add fish to our first tank (36g). We are going to be adding fish and invertebrates this week but we aren't sure what fish/inverts play well together, how many we should can have for our tank size, or how fast we should add all the livestock. I love inverts and am planning on 1 fire shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 emerald crabs, 5 bumblebee snails, 1 starfish (haven't decided on a specific type), and possibly 1 sea urchin. I'd also love a pistol shrimp and goby duo but am unsure if we have space for all that. My wife loves the fish and wants 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma, 1 leppard wrasse, 1 goby, and 1 orange butterfly fish. We might get a couple schooling fish as well if we have the space. We weren't sure if this is reasonable for our tank size and our skill level. Thanks for your input!

P.S. We will probably add coral in 6 months if we are successful so everything will need to be coral friendly as well.

Welcome to R2R.
My take:
Add two shrimp of the same species and they will breed in your tank. You won't be raising any baby, but it is fun and free live food. They are hermaphrodites and will take turn bearing eggs. Skip the emerald crabs, or at most one. They are not that interesting of an animal. Don't add starfish (yet) most eat growth on your rock, and you don't have enough to feed them yet. Sea urchin is OK but same think, you got to feed them. Most will eat Nori.
Clowns are OK but hold off on Leopard wrasse. They are sensitive and will not do well. No Butterfly, you have too small of a tank for all the butterflies. Shrimp goby and Pistol shrimp are great fish to add.
In your tank perhaps two medium size fish, max out at about 2.5 inches would be OK, depends on species. but I would add about 4-5 fish total. but no Leopard Wrasse and no Butterfly. Also, no marine fish will school in your size tank, not like all the freshwater tetras.
Other species: 2 Orchid dottybacks (be careful with other dottybacks).
@kevgib67 advice is right on. Know what animal you add will eat so you can provide it for them.

Problem:
It looks like you don't have sump and skimmer. You need something to aerate the water or else you will run into hypoxemia and death at night. This will likely be your most problematic thing for you to solve.

 

[Bruttall]

I don't understand why so many people skip over a decent snail crew to keep their tanks clean, and worse who ever gives them all the terrible info on how many snails, UGH!!!!! Here is a screencap from Reefcleaners.org for the CuC they recommend for your 36g petco corner tank.
I suggest you add about HALF of this list when your tank is about 3 months old, the other half add at 6months. I have a 300g display with over 400 snails/inverts. Not to mention the PODS! Iso, Ampi and Copepods are vitally important to a good ecosystem IMO.

Good luck and happy reefing.