Figuring this out is a several-headed problem.
First, understand how your fish store works. You see clowns by the dozen in one tank, colorful and pretty. You see tangs and angels in what looks like a 20 gallon tank. Whoa! Take a look at the whole system.
That whole row of tanks is really one tank. It's not one 20 gallon tank. It's more like 300 gallons, all one sump, and take a look at that skimmer and sump, with the mangroves and the algae...you're not dealing with a 20 gallon, for sure. This is a mega-tank with partitions.
Point two: some of these fish are adults. Some are babies. Can you tell which? Not by looking at them. But blennies, gobies, pygmy angels, basslets, dragonets and the smallest of the damsels are sold as adults. Tangs, triggers, angels, larger damsels (including the red clowns, dominoes, and sergeant majors and garibaldis) are sold as babies, with an upside growth measured, in some instances, in FEET. I've seen jacks and groupers offered for sale. Measured in FEET, no kidding, and this goes for some tangs. There's a large number of 10-inchers, like rabbits, smallest tangs, some triggers, some angels. So if you're not the Atlanta Aquarium, don't buy what you can't keep for life. A marine fish never stops growing. If you don't want to provide for Charlie the Tuna in your living room, read up on adult size, and figure how much energetic swimming a 10 inch fish can enjoy in the tank you can provide him. Because there will be a day of reckoning when you have to euthanize a perfectly healthy fish you've had for years---not because he couldn't live another ten years, but because there's no more room for him, no fish store will take him, you can't sell and ship him because of his size, and you're up against the wall.
Remember, too, that the tank in Finding Nemo was constructed as a nightmare tank full of entirely inappropriate species for its size and shape, run by a careless owner: but nobody got the 'joke.'
You can realistically plan only with adult fish. And if you really need a visual aid, cut out some 'football' shapes the length of the adult size of fish you propose to get, and tape it to the wall in the site where you propose to put your tank. It may be an eye-opener.
First, understand how your fish store works. You see clowns by the dozen in one tank, colorful and pretty. You see tangs and angels in what looks like a 20 gallon tank. Whoa! Take a look at the whole system.
That whole row of tanks is really one tank. It's not one 20 gallon tank. It's more like 300 gallons, all one sump, and take a look at that skimmer and sump, with the mangroves and the algae...you're not dealing with a 20 gallon, for sure. This is a mega-tank with partitions.
Point two: some of these fish are adults. Some are babies. Can you tell which? Not by looking at them. But blennies, gobies, pygmy angels, basslets, dragonets and the smallest of the damsels are sold as adults. Tangs, triggers, angels, larger damsels (including the red clowns, dominoes, and sergeant majors and garibaldis) are sold as babies, with an upside growth measured, in some instances, in FEET. I've seen jacks and groupers offered for sale. Measured in FEET, no kidding, and this goes for some tangs. There's a large number of 10-inchers, like rabbits, smallest tangs, some triggers, some angels. So if you're not the Atlanta Aquarium, don't buy what you can't keep for life. A marine fish never stops growing. If you don't want to provide for Charlie the Tuna in your living room, read up on adult size, and figure how much energetic swimming a 10 inch fish can enjoy in the tank you can provide him. Because there will be a day of reckoning when you have to euthanize a perfectly healthy fish you've had for years---not because he couldn't live another ten years, but because there's no more room for him, no fish store will take him, you can't sell and ship him because of his size, and you're up against the wall.
Remember, too, that the tank in Finding Nemo was constructed as a nightmare tank full of entirely inappropriate species for its size and shape, run by a careless owner: but nobody got the 'joke.'
You can realistically plan only with adult fish. And if you really need a visual aid, cut out some 'football' shapes the length of the adult size of fish you propose to get, and tape it to the wall in the site where you propose to put your tank. It may be an eye-opener.