Desired stocklist - 3 foot tank?

[beatle]

I'm on the hunt for a new tank.  I had a 90 and a 120 before which provided me the room to keep most any reef fish I wanted.  I'm considering a smaller 3 foot tank of around 60 gallons or so, perhaps a Reefer 250-300 or a standard 57g.  I kept most of these fish before with decent success in a mixed reef.  Can someone give me a sanity check on any potential issues with crowding?

 

• Pair of clowns (would love a pair of white stripe maroons, but may go occellaris again if aggression is likely to be too much)
• Cleaner shrimp
• Fire shrimp
• Gold head sleeper goby
• Yellow clown goby
• Neon goby
• Red firefish
• Purple firefish
• Pair of bangaii or pajama cardinals
• Pair of mandarins
• Midas blenny
• Royal gramma
• Dwarf angel (perhaps lemon peel or coral beauty if I can find one that isn't hungry for LPS)
• Sally lightfoot crab
• Blue tang?

 

Stocking these will be slow, as before.  I planned to stock in roughly the order listed unless there are other suggestions.

[tpallas]

I have a similar sized tank. Too small for a blue tang. I would scratch the mandarins unless you're pretty adept at feeding live food to them. I would also add the firefish first. I have a pair of ocellaris, komini tang, flame angel, one spot fox, six line, blue damsel, banggai, and a purple pseudochromis. It's about maxxed out and everyone is moderately aggressive so it balances out.

[beatle]

I knew the blue tang was a reach.

 

I understand tank bred mandarins now eat prepared foods, even pellets.  I kept one for over a year (no deaths) in each of my previous tanks, but those setups were larger with decent sized refugiums.  I'll still have a fuge on the new setup, but it may not be quite as big.

[DaJMasta]

Agree with the mandarins, and people have mixed results with the captive bred ones accepting prepared foods... That said, if you train them, they can certainly eat frozen.  You have to be sure to feed every day and with the pumps off, but I've got a pair in about 45g for a year or so now with regular spawning, so it can certainly be done.

 

Also don't know if a red and purple firefish will get along together in the long term, you can certainly have one or a pair of either, not 100% on whether one of each is a good idea.

 

Agreed on the tang too, not sure if a smaller variety would do well, but it sounds on the small side to keep one long term, at least.

 

I think the rest should all be fine, and if you pick carefully, I wouldn't be surprised if you could do a bit more in terms of smaller fish.

[beatle]

I had not heard of the firefish incompatibility.  I think I may have had 3 firefish in my 120 (red, purple, helfrichi).  I never noticed any aggression, but I'll have to read up on it.

 

I am also leaning towards a 4 foot tank now - likely a Red Sea Reefer 350 or a Waterbox 100.4.

[DaJMasta]

They may be fine together, then, I don't have experience mixing them but try to avoid mixing fish with similar body types and habits because it seems they can trigger territorial responses sometimes.  The other thing is just that firefish seem to be particularly difficult to catch, at least for me, so it can be a challenge to separate them if aggression shows.

The bigger the tank, the less likely to run into problems