Advice for 55 gallon fish

[peekaboogliders]

I have a 55 gallon reef setup that's well established with many corals and about a 30 gallon sump. It's got a shallow sand bed of about 2" and some really nice cave hiding spots. It is rimless and topless but due to huge evaporation issues we are looking at fashioning some type of cover. After a fiasco with Blue Life USA's Cyano RX killing off all of the fish in our tank we are finally looking to restock. The list of size appropriate fish we are looking at is as follows.

Firefish
Purple Firefish
Blue/Green Chromis (possibly 3 to see some mild schooling behaviour?)
Yellow Watchman Goby
Twinspot Hogfish
Psychedelic Mandarin (preferably frozen trained)

Can anyone chime in as to what would be our best options. Who is going to get along best and anything we should avoid? Previously we had great success with 3 Clown fish, a Purple Dottyback and a Scooter Blenny.

 

[breederforlife]

youve chosen well. But in addition you could probably add a small angel if you wanted like a coral beauty.
Hope everything turns out well

 

[DopeCantWin]

Firefish tend to kill each other after a while
Chormis do the same, in 90+ percent of the time you'll end up with one a few month later
My Twinspot Hogfish started taking chunks out of my Mandarin in a 210, I can't put anything smaller than him in there anymore.

Surprisingly enough, your list would really scares me.

 

[Marshall O]

From what I have seen, Firefish from different species do fine together; it just multiples of the same species that do not work long term.

But I agree on not doing the Hogfish with the Mandarin. I would choose one or the other. Otherwise, I think your list is fine. As mentioned, your 3 proposed Chromis may turn into one long term. You could substitute a pair of Clowns instead as another idea.

 

[peekaboogliders]

Thanks for the advice on the Hogfish, I'd read that unlike other's of their species they were a lot more peaceful and not likely to bother tankmates, but needed some experienced opinions. That's one to take off the list. The Angles are a bit of a risk for us with a large amount of coral that we really don't want to lose. The Chromis I've read dozens of mixed reviews, seems they will continuously pick off the smallest in the group, but many have also had them last together without issue. If they aren't going to bother any of the other fish, then we may give them a try as It's one of our favorites. I've had a Royal Gramma recommended as well which might work nicely. I'm glad to figure the rest would do okay together and we will likely be opting for just one firefish or the other.
Thanks for the input folks

 

[MikeandNicole]

I would steer away from the chromis group, like the other posters I have not been able to keep a group for more than a year or so in a tank of that size (but it has also been years since I've tried).
Otherwise, if you don't have coral on the sand bed I'd get a pistol for the watchman, and take a look at some other small fish that won't bother your coral or other fish, like assessor basslets or barnacle blennies.

 

[Megatrev62]

Nothing wrong with chromis,I guess I defied the belief. At least they are still good (6) in my 90 gallon for 17 months. In the meantime go with 3 or so lyretail anthias instead. Super nice and super easy with regards to anthias.

 

[gsiegel]

Nothing wrong with chromis,I guess I defied the belief. At least they are still good (6) in my 90 gallon for 17 months. In the meantime go with 3 or so lyretail anthias instead. Super nice and super easy with regards to anthias.

I guess I too have defied the chromis odds. I have 3 that always hang together. I do also have a trio of female lyretails. If I had to choose I would take the lyretails hands down. Great active bright colored fish.

 

[Vgyoung]

Chromis do not pick on each other I've had 3 for 1 year with no problems