New to saltwater fish

[bball4life]

Im starting up a saltwater aquarium. I think I will just start with a 29 gallon, what fish can I stock it with? This is what I had in mind, I think it is too much but wanted to get some feedback

3 tomato clownfish
1 haitian anemone
1 sebae anemone
2common hermit crabs

 

[3fsh]

First of all, have you researched salt water at all? I studied and read about it for almost a year before starting my first tank. They are very costly and time consuming, so please don't just buy an aquarium and throw some salt water and fish in. My 25 gallon has cost me about $1,000 to set up and maintain. Read some of the pinned articles and you will get a good idea of what it takes.

Secondly, I would never stick more than one clownfish in a sw aquarium unless they are a mated pair otherwise they will fight. 2 Clownfish wouldn't be overstocked and you could probably fit 1 or 2 more *very* small fish in there without a problem. From what I've heard on here, anemones are very hard to manage and it's better to get a coral because they will live in that as well. (I believe Navarre has a clown that uses a coral as a host...) You could fit many more hermit crabs than that... I've heard some people suggest 1 clean-up invertebrate per gallon. Good luck!

 

[bball4life]

Ok thanks, I ised to know lots of things about marine fish since my father has kept them for most of his life. But after awhile I got sick of marine fish and went with freshwater fish.

 

[Navarre]

the best advise i can give is forget the anemones. the money you need to put into the tank to keep them healthy is hige when a simple sarcopyton will be a perfect host for clowns.

 

[Fishy411]

actually a coral is not *better* for the clownfish. It is just easier. It actually is better for the clown to host an anemone as a clown will often harmfully host a coral other than an anemone.

 

[Ed4567]

Its probably better for the clown when they dont end up in the middle of an ammonia spike due to a dying anenome.

Anyway-
Clownfish: go for the smallest two you can find and they will form a pair bond.
Cleanup: I personally dont particularly like hordes of hermit crabs, so would just go for 3 or so of one of the smaller species. Add a load of small snails and let whatever comes out of your live rock do the rest.
Other fish: Maybe a neon goby and some sort of rock dweller eg. royal gramma.

If you are looking at keeping corals then it would be a good time to think about lighting, either a single 150 watt metal halide if you are looking to keep clams or hard corals, or some sort of power compact or t5 lighting for soft corals and easier to keep hard corals.

Filtration- generally mechanical filtration has been replaced by live rock as the main filtration and as long as stocking is sensible then this is surficient for your tank. I do however use a cannister filter for circulation and as an easy place to run carbon but this isnt essential.

 

[Navarre]

The skin of a sarcophyton uis thicker than the skin of an anemone, the clwons will have a hard time harming it. Also leather corals recover easily from tears... anemones dont.