Are these fishes suitable for a 46 gals?

[saltwater84]

Hey guys, I need some opinions. I just set up a 46 gals bowfront and have some fishes in mind. Here is what I have in mind:
- a blue or powder tang (medium size)
- two bannerfish (medium size)
- two mandarins from my previous setups
- 2 cleaner shrimps
- 1 sand snifting goby
- 10 snails
- 1 starfish

What do you guys think? I know that the tang might not be suitable if they are fully grown, I'm not planing to keep them for a long time. Any suggestions on what type of fish I should get beside these. (setup is going to be a reef tank).

 

[dbacksrat]

Drop the tangs, mandarins, and bannerfish, and you'll be fine. The tangs need a minimum amount of room to swim around. Two mandarins would likely starve to death, and from what I've seen and read, bannerfish aren't exactly reef friendly.

 

[saltwater84]

oh no, my two mandarin are from my previous setup, one from my 5gals and the other one from my 20gals. I have the one from my 20gals for almost a year now, and the one in my 5gals for 2 months now, they are doing great. They both eat mysis shrimp. I really like the hippo tang though, so even keeping them small and exchanging them for new small ones when they seem to grow bigger wouldn't work?

 

[TheFool]

No , they tend to look really cramped in smaller tanks as they look to ned so much swimming space, plus they grow quicker than you'd think, so you'd need to replace them quite quickly. Ditto the banner fish, though they're slower growing they don't adjust well to cramped quarters.

 

[Lorna]

Why stress the fish more than necessary........ If as you say you have had the mandarins for over a year and they are eating mysis....then those two would be fine. But I wouldn't keep them with a sand sifting gobie as they would compete for the same food source. What about some nice pygmy/dwarf angels or wrasses

 

[saltwater84]

good idea Lorna. The flame angels look very nice.

 

[dbacksrat]

Where did you find mandarins that eat mysis?

 

[saltwater84]

I didn't, I ween them into mysis myself.

 

[kevin4052002]

Nice.


Biggest fish fur joo ish gonnabee something like a dwarf angel or anthias.
No tangs, butterflies, rabbitfish, triggerfish, etc., etc....

 

[saltwater84]

clycolpeeze is fish crack, I agree.