What size tank do you need in order to keep three saltwater fish?

It’s not really so much as how many fish you have (especially when talking about only three) but what each fish needs

Surgeonfish and Tangs generally are recommended a minimum of 75 gallon tank for an adult
Three Striped Damsels are recommended 10–15 gallon for one
Clownfish are recommended anywhere between 10–30 at least but universally it seems to be stated that the larger the better for these jokers.

So looking at this, you’re looking at a minimum of a 75 gallon tank. I think some more fish to keep them company isn’t to bad of an idea

I may stick with a 30 and have two clown and a one three striped damsel (along with a few crabs and shrimp). Would that work?

That sounds okay, maybe a tad crowded, but should do swell. :)

What would you eliminate with the 30?

As a general rule of thumb, you should go as big as you can afford to – the larger the tank, the easier it is to effectively control water quality, temperature, salinity, etc.

There are a couple tangs like flame fins that can go in smaller tanks but i would skill be apprehensive as to putting one in a 30g. Also damsels are complete assholes and will pester most other fish and are a royal pita to remove from a tank without removing all your rock first.

If your going for a small tank id do clowns and a goby and some inverts like a cleaner shrimp. There are some nice small wrasses you could get as well.

If you have any specific questions in regarda to set up along the way feel free to shoot me a PM

@uberbatman I also have a question about Discus for freshwater. How well would they do in a 30 gallon tank?

Bad idea. They get rather big(at least any ive ever seen) and theyre really quite hard to take care of compared to most other fish. They need an extremely stable enviornment so you really want the biggest tank possible since this will help stability.

Well, that’s out then. Thanks for the info, though.

Here you have a beautiful betta.

Contray to what most think, you can actually keep betta with other fish as long as they arent slow or have long flowy fins.

@uberbatman Could you recommend a few that would get along with a betta male?

Here’s a nice chart that shows compatability

Thanks!

@Jude How well would a clownfish and two cardinalfish do in a 20 gallon?

What type of cardinal are you thinking about?

Banggai

Maybe as a temporary thing. Bangaii’s get pretty big but and kind of aggressive. You could probably get away with it as long as you have plenty of rockwork for hiding spots. What kind of clown as well, i assume percula?