just started a brackish tank 55g

[johnnywonton]

Look's like an awesome forum(good group of ppl)hope i learn lots from all.Anyway my question is regarding capacity of a 55 g brack its still cycling so no worries yet.I used to have a scat in a marine tank years ago and want one in this set up i have now but was told it would out grow me.Am also interested in puffers as well .can anyone tell me what and how many fish i can keep in this tank.Like i say it's a 55g with plain gravel(no sand k.i.s.s. plus i already have a 125 marine i wanted to go for a river type look)for filtration im runnind a under gravel filter with two penguine 660's and a fluval304 canister filter plus i plan to add a hot mag or another flu .spec grav is 100.6.what fish are compatible and how many? please help as i should be able to put in some babies this weekend e mail me if you want i will check back thanks johnny like i say i have a 125g 100%salt already and wifey wont let me get anything larger than the 55g
HELP

 

[Puffer_freak]

Don't go with puffers if you have gravel. Puffers like sand best. I'm sorry, I don' know what else you coyukd put in, not knowing the ultimate size that the fish yopu have mentioned grow to. Ty looking in the fish profiles on this site (top of the page) for more info.

 

[nmonks]

Hello,

With 55 gallons you should be able to keep quite a few small to medium sized fish. Depends on the shape of the tank of course, with surface area being much more important than volume.

I wrote a simply computer program (for Mac and Windows) that calculates, among other things, stocking levels. It's called Fish Tank Tool and you can download it here:

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/software/software.html

Among the less frequently kept brackish water fish that would work well in your tank are violet gobies, 'freshwater' flatfish, wild-type orange chromides, saltwater banjo catfish (Aspredo) spp., and the clay goby Dormitator lebretonis. The Brackish Water Aquarium FAQ lists plenty of others.

While I agree with "Puffer Freak" that some pufferfish species do like sand, I'm not sure using gravel as a substrate necessarily prohibits you from keeping pufferfish. I have a tank with a sand substrate, and the South American pufferfish in that tank doesn't seem to show the slightest interest in digging or burrowing, even at night. Also, whenever I've seen pufferfish in the wild, they've been swimming over rocky substrates. There's probably some variation among species, with the more sedentary ones needing to dig more than the active species, but I've only kept two species of puffer, the South American and Arothron hispidus, so I can only speak from personal experience for those.

Cheers,

Neale