nano reef stocking: how many fish for a 49-gallon tank

[DeepFins]

We've had our 49-gallon tank up and running for about six months now, with over a month of cycling and pod growth before adding any livestock. After a month, we introduced a cleanup crew consisting mainly of snails. Two months in, we seeded our 2-gallon fuge and tank with amphipods, large copepods, and Tisbe pods. A few weeks later, we added three coflake frags and a pair of black Ocellaris clowns. Since then, we've added 15 more frags and three more fish, but only a few frags and one fish every month or so.

My LFS told me I could keep up to a dozen fish in our tank size, as long as we went slow and gave our 60 pounds of live rock and the coflakes time to buffer the added nutrients. I'm considering adding a royal gramma, red-headed goby, clown goby, and possibly another peaceful fish that'll swim freely like the clowns. This would bring our total to nine fish. I'm not sure if that's too many, though.

I've seen nice 29-gallon cubes with up to seven fish, and the nine I want are within the inches-per-gallon rule. However, I'm still concerned it might cause problems. With just the five fish we have now, the tank still looks a bit bare. Our current stock list is as follows:

Fish:
- Pair of Black Ocellaris Clowns
- Tail Spot Blenny
- Manderin Dragonet
- Green Banded Goby

Inverts:
- Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
- 2 Peppermint Shrimp
- 8 small blueleg hermits
- 1 orange Spiny Star
- 15 nassarius snails
- 14 nerite snails
- 3 turbo snails
- 1 trochus snail
- 2 feather dusters (we want to add three more)

Coflakes:
- hystrix birdsnest
- pink stylo
- green stylo
- monty undata
- red capricornis
- purple capricornis
- sea rod
- purple tree leather
- yellow tree leather
- frogspawn
- alien candy
- star polyp
- acan lord
- lobo brain
- zoas
- acan brain
- mushroom leather
- purple bushy photosynthetic gorgonkento4

We plan to add 10 more frags over the next year, including a chalice, more zoas, a rainbow monty, a plate coflake, staghorn, green capricornis, branching duncan, blastomussa, rainbow acan lord, and a yellow finger gorgonkento4 NPS.

Here are some pics of the tank for reference:

[Aurora7]

A midas blenny would be a great addition to your tank. They're really enjoyable to watch, swimming around in the upper water column until they find a cozy spot to rest. I'm not too familiar with the royal gramma or the clown goby, but I do know that my gramma was a big fan of hunting pods. If you're looking for a fish that's active and moves around the tank, I think a wrasse would be a great choice. Some species of wrasse are really active and can make the tank feel more lively. My malanurus is a great example - with just him and a purple tang in my 55, the tank doesn't feel empty at all.

[dazed_knots]

I'd consider a fairy wrasse or a yellow assessor for your tank. Both are great options for adding some movement and visual interest.

I've had a good experience with the Orange Spotted Prawn Goby, it's a fantastic fish. However, I've learned from my mistake of pairing it with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp - that was a bit too aggressive. I'm actually planning to switch it out for a candycane pistol, much more suitable size-wise.

Do you supplement your tank with filter feeder food? With five feather dusters and a mandarin, I'm worried your pod population might take a hit.

[DeepFins]

Thanks for the suggestions, really appreciate the help. I was thinking the royal gramma might be a good choice, but I'm a bit concerned about the pod hunting, I'll have to look into that some more. The midas blenny sounds like a great option, I love the idea of a fish that'll swim around in the upper water column. And a wrasse could work too, I've heard they're pretty active. I'll have to do some more research and see what I can find. I'm definitely going to look into the fairy wrasse and yellow assessor, thanks for the tips.

[dazed_knots]

No worries at all, thanks for the input.