New to saltwater need help choosing fish

[Cantra]

I'm in an aquatic science class at my school and the teacher gave me and my partner a saltwater aquarium. its a 20 gallon and i don't know what kind of fish to get for it. its all set up and she wants me and my partner to get fish by the end of the week. she'll also be helping us. something easy because neither me or my partner has kept saltwater tanks before and we are both very new to even freshwater

[Cantra]

also it should be something that at the end of the school year can be brought home and be in a ten gallon

[Fish727Nole]

Blue damsels.. solid
royal grammas.. very hardy
picasso trigger.. VERY hardy (much experience w/triggers)
the standardized 'nemo' fish aka the tank raised ocellaris clowns are tank raised, thus should be okay
fire gobies are hardy enough, the 10-12 dollar ones

[Fish727Nole]

Cardinal fish are also amongst the hardy of hardy as well... the PJ or the Bangaii

[Fabio's Dad]

Just starting out, you might try a hearty cleaning crew and live rock. You get a lot of animals, and it's relatively inexpensive. (hermit crabs, turbo snails, etc.). Hermit crabs seem tougher than snails, but if you were handed a system that has been run through the starting proccess,(cycling), properly, then they should be fine. Maybe after that, you might start researching small and inexpensive fish that won't clash with the before mentioned animals.

[Fabio's Dad]

Ok, so I can't spell. Sorry bout that.

[Fabio's Dad]

Did your teacher give you any kind of water testing supplies?

[Cantra]

she has all the supplies at the school where we will be keeping the tank. at the end of the year we will be bringing the fish home and when we do it'll be up to us to get all the supplies

[Fabio's Dad]

Is there any live rock in it?

[serafino]

I have to disagree with the clown fish idea. They can be extremely finicky and can die very easily especially with an inexperienced aquarist. I would stick to damsels. Also a trigger will need a much larger tank than a 10.
My suggestion would be a damsel probably a YTBD (yellow tail blue damsel).

[Ornatapinnis]

I think it is going to be tough to offer a good answer to this question with as little information as given about this aquarium. How is it being filtered? How long has it been up and running? Has anything been done to biologically establish it? Have you tested the waters parameters and if so, what are they? What is your "end product" goal with this aquarium? In other words, are you wanting, a fish aquarium? live rock? inverts? Live corals? What lighting system does this aquarium have?

Give us some detailed information about the set up and I bet a much better advise can be offered.

Joel

[BIGgourami]

Give us some detailed information about the set up and I bet a much better advise can be offered.



im going along the lines of BASIC AS HELL

1 gramma
or
1 smaller blue damsel (yellow tail, fiji, yellow belly, etc)
or
smaller pseudochromis
with
yellow watchman
or
neon gobies
and a few hermit crabs and astrea snails

HOB filter rated fro a 20 gallon
a 50 watt heater
a hydrometer
SW master test kit
and some live rock and aragonite sand

[Veacane]

Live rock and inverts (crabs, clams, snails) thats what we did in my enviro science class.

[Cantra]

I don't know much about the aquarium she set it up and has had it running since we got back to school from the hurricane and she hasn't told us anything about the aquarium even when we ask. She tested the water parameters but didn't tell us what they were. I want a fish aquarium maybe with some live rock and inverts but am pretty sure i can't have all of that. I know i don't want corals cause from what i've heard they are hard to take care of.

[Fabio's Dad]

Either way, do research on all of the things suggested here, or on what ever you think you might want, before you do anything. Good old fashioned books and real liturature is the safest and most acurate answer to a lot of questions like this one, in my opinion. It seems that whenever I'm completely void of knowledge about something in aquaria that I want to dive into,(pun intended), the most important things that I need to know come at least 85 percent from published lit. Not saying you can't trust people. I'm just saying that someone who went through the trouble of publishing info about 'setting up tanks', for instance, may have taken the time to cover all imprtant bases.