Amount of Fish??

[boges_au2006]

Hi i currently have a 5ft tank with live rock and fish. hopefully will be getting coral soon as nitrate is on the way down. Yeeeyyyyy.

Anyways just wondering how many fish could i put in this size tank.
Think its about 67 gallons??

So far i have
1 cleaner wrasse
1 lightning wrasse
1 foxface
2 clowns
2 Green chromis

Not sure about the foxface as the lfs didnt tell me how big it would grow as i kind of wanted only small fish in there. cause i heard if u get one big fish that it is a big bioload compared to even say 3 small fish.

Is it a general rule of the one inch of fish per 2 gallons?
Does having coral change any of this?
cheers in advance

 

[Ziggy953]

1" per 5 gallons...I think you are about at your max now. The foxface can get to about 8" the clowns depending on what kind could be anywhere from 4"-6"+ I don't know how big the lightning wrasse can get, the chromis will get to about 2.5" each. So you are at your max for a 67gallon tank. Others will chime in with their opinions as well....I don't give the cleaner wrasse much chance, as they don't live long in the home aquarium.

Coral does not effect the bio-load of the tank in the same way that fish do. You could have a heavily coraled tank with the same amount of fish and your "bio-load" would be the same however your water parameters, including the addtion of CA (SPS and LPS corals) and other trace elements with a HEAVY stock of corals becomes more demanding....

HTH

 

[boges_au2006]

yeah thanks for that. i wasnt happy when i found out about the foxface. was thinking about getting rid of him as he still hides but i just dont have the heart hehe
the clowns arent that big and have been there for awhile. they dont seem to be growing at all. they are the real dark with white bands. one is tiny the other is bigger. guessing male and female (the tank is second hand and come with the fish) the cleaner wrasse has been in the tank about 7-8 months now. i was told it wouldnt last that long but it seems to be happy and is swimming around well. the lightning wrasse is about fully grown too i think. or i hope hehe.

thanks for the help about the coral. doubt i will get any yet till i get my nitrates perfect though

 

[Ziggy953]

The clowns sound like they are maroons if that is the case they are on the larger end of the scale and can easily get to 6" or more....

 

[boges_au2006]

just had a quick look. its a Black & White Ocellaris Clownfish which grow up to three inches. guessing the female is at its full length now.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1867&articleid=2512

 

[melosu58]

Are you sure your tank is a 67 gallon tank. Use the tank calculator to find out for sure. It also has a fish capacity calculator.

http://www.fantasyreef.com/flash/calculator.html

 

[boges_au2006]

hey u are right. i was told a fib. its only like 58 gallons i think. gee i think im gonna have to take out the foxface then. wont be going back the lfs store i went to as they shouldnt of sold me the fish.

 

[MT79]

Honestly I'd be more concerned about the cleaner wrasse. There was just a thread in the Saltwater Reef Aquaria forum about them. Their survival rate in captivity is dismal. They also contribute a lot to a natural reefs health, through their cleaning services. Removing them poses unnecessary risks on natural reefs. Here is the thread-
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=97235

 

[boges_au2006]

Well i bought the tank second hand. and the cleaner wrasse was already in there.
what am i supposed to do about him? he seems fine swimming around and he seams to eat some nori along with some food when i feed them. he also likes the foxface and lightning wrasse as well. it seems happy enough and as i said has been going well for about 7-8 months.
what would i do with him if i had to get rid of him?

 

[ClamKnuckle]

IMO since you already have the fish and it has lived for months seemingly happily in your tank, the smart thing to do would be to hold on to it. If you took it back to the LFS then the chance of it surviving will greatly decrease, but like i said, that's just my opinion!