Carrying capacity with large vs. small fish

[leafyseadragon]

At I first I thought of having a few large fish when I upgrade to a 75L. Then I bought some blue damsels for my 37T tank.

It got me to thinking: can I fill up the 75L with blue damsels, or would that lead to a lesson in Darwin's survival of the fittest? And if it can be done, how many of those fish can safely be put in there, assuming a skimmer and a sufficient amount of LR?

 

[lando]

It totally depends on the biological filtering capabilities of the tank. You can add as many damsels as you like as long as the water parameters are stable. If you start to see changes in parameters you are exceeding the biofilter capabilities of your tank. A few months back we had a member that decided to "experiement" by putting like 25 yellow tangs in a 125gal. he had a total tank crash and we have not heard from him in a long time. (Still out there, Sixline )

 

[fishfirst]

Blue damsels can be highly aggressive tankmates. It is very unlikely that you will be able to "fill" your tank with them, especially a 75 liter, they will kill eachother until the population is to thier likeing.

 

[scuba_steve]

if there is enough hiding places and ya add all at one time the survival will be alot better imo id not add more than 10 and leave it at that with no other fish but honestly why not do chromises then ???

 

[Brad]

If I had a larger tank, I've always wanted to find an exceptionally small, schooling fish and have a small school flashing around in there. Like 100 individuals, each no larger than 1/4".

In case I win the lottery...does anyone know of a fish like that?

 

[scuba_steve]

a tank i think would look really neat which they have little video on the baby einstien video but its i think stag horn coral with a school of 50 or so chromis

really looks neat seeing them dodge in and out of it

brad chromis are a better choice unless ya have dough go for anthias

 

[leafyseadragon]

Say fishfirst, when I said 75L, that's a 75 gallon (Long) tank, which is 60" long. My metric is a little rusty, but isn't 75 liters under 20 gallons?

As for why not chromis, I prefer the bright colors of the damsels to the chromis. They look too much like freshwater fish to me..