So I'm at a fun point. My tank is going, and I got to the big thing I wanted to get to: the absolute top priority was to have a paired yellow watchman goby and a tiger pistol shrimp and dangit I have them! I attached a picture for proof because they were hiding in the other pictures (my fat boy clown likes to come over and look for the food I left for them, and he's much bigger than they are, so they hide. Mild jerk. But I love him.)
My question is, where can I go from here? My tank is 54 gallons plus an 11 gallon sump. Right now I have a clown, a lawnmower blenny (who is a total diva with some serious tude, awesome fish), and the dynamic duo, the YWG and tiger pistol. The clown hangs out in the open water, the blenny is kind of all over the place, and the ywg and pistol rule their little corner (except when the clown colossus comes on by, then they hide. But occasionally the pistol will sound off and it's awesome).
I'd really like to add a couple more critters to get more activity in the rock work of the tank. I think my next addition will be a cleaner shrimp (there are two really nice archways where it could be out of direct light and set up a cleaning station). After that I was thinking probably a firefish.
If it seems reasonable, I'd like to add one final fish after that point, but I'm not sure if that's too many fish for 54 gallons. If I COULD add another, I'd love input on the most peaceful type of wrasse out there (I actually had a 6 line in the tank briefly a little while back, and it turned out to be a bully and I spent 1.5 hours catching it with a net without uprooting my rock work), something that would really be in and out of the rocks and busy. That said, I REALLY want fish that are very likely to be peaceful (I get it, it varies fish to fish, so no guarantees). I thought about a mandarin, but currently have no pods (working on the fuge but can't seem to get my hands on any chaeto), and I feel like that might be a little too stressful and crowded for a mandarin. If the more experienced hands think I could handle a mandarin, I'd get a huge pod population going and go for it (I'd also be willing/interested to do a mandarin in lieu of a firefish).
The goal for corals (which I'm pretty set on) is for the current frags to really grow out, and to add more zoas and have a big zoa garden in the middle, and then branching hammers to one side and probably a Kenya tree coral off to the right.
So that's basically it: with what I have, I would like to add a cleaner shrimp (I have good water quality, 8% weekly water changes have kept the important stuff where it needs to be, including iodine, which is nice), and a firefish (or a mandarin if reasonable), and then is it reasonable to add something more, given right now the rockwork is not used by basically anyone, to add something else and if so, what might be a good and peaceful option? Should I go with something other than a firefish? I posted pictures of the tank so that you can see the layout.
My question is, where can I go from here? My tank is 54 gallons plus an 11 gallon sump. Right now I have a clown, a lawnmower blenny (who is a total diva with some serious tude, awesome fish), and the dynamic duo, the YWG and tiger pistol. The clown hangs out in the open water, the blenny is kind of all over the place, and the ywg and pistol rule their little corner (except when the clown colossus comes on by, then they hide. But occasionally the pistol will sound off and it's awesome).
I'd really like to add a couple more critters to get more activity in the rock work of the tank. I think my next addition will be a cleaner shrimp (there are two really nice archways where it could be out of direct light and set up a cleaning station). After that I was thinking probably a firefish.
If it seems reasonable, I'd like to add one final fish after that point, but I'm not sure if that's too many fish for 54 gallons. If I COULD add another, I'd love input on the most peaceful type of wrasse out there (I actually had a 6 line in the tank briefly a little while back, and it turned out to be a bully and I spent 1.5 hours catching it with a net without uprooting my rock work), something that would really be in and out of the rocks and busy. That said, I REALLY want fish that are very likely to be peaceful (I get it, it varies fish to fish, so no guarantees). I thought about a mandarin, but currently have no pods (working on the fuge but can't seem to get my hands on any chaeto), and I feel like that might be a little too stressful and crowded for a mandarin. If the more experienced hands think I could handle a mandarin, I'd get a huge pod population going and go for it (I'd also be willing/interested to do a mandarin in lieu of a firefish).
The goal for corals (which I'm pretty set on) is for the current frags to really grow out, and to add more zoas and have a big zoa garden in the middle, and then branching hammers to one side and probably a Kenya tree coral off to the right.
So that's basically it: with what I have, I would like to add a cleaner shrimp (I have good water quality, 8% weekly water changes have kept the important stuff where it needs to be, including iodine, which is nice), and a firefish (or a mandarin if reasonable), and then is it reasonable to add something more, given right now the rockwork is not used by basically anyone, to add something else and if so, what might be a good and peaceful option? Should I go with something other than a firefish? I posted pictures of the tank so that you can see the layout.
