How to respond about load in tank

[StartingInUtah]

Hello everyone,

I have a friend who just bought a tank and started the cycle. He has a 75 gallon tank with about 100 lbs of live rock and about a 2 inch black sand bed. He is trying to figure out what fish to put in and has come up with the following list:

2 Ocellaris clowns
1 Christmas Wrasse
1 Firefish
2 Bengaii Cardinals
1 Royal Gramma
1 Longnose Hawkfish
1 One Spot Foxface
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Kole Tang

I feel like this is too much for his tank but the person at the LFS has told him about all this research that he has done and as long as he has a good skimmer then he is fine with that load in the tank. Because of this my friend will not listen to what I have to say about the load in his tank. Do you think this is too much for his tank? What should I tell him? Being forceful or rude is only going to want him to put this load in more so please give me honest ideas without getting upset of what to tell him and facts that support your thoughts if you have any.

I have a few weeks to talk him out of this before he starts adding. As soon as he starts to add he is not going to stop. Please help!

Thank you for your help in advance.

[bribo12]

I say drop the foxface or tang and one other small fish. Other than that it seems alright to me. Bare in mind this tank should be stocked maybe 1 fish a month (except the clowns).


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[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by bribo12

I say drop the foxface or tang and one other small fish. Other than that it seems alright to me. Bare in mind this tank should be stocked maybe 1 fish a month (except the clowns).


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I agree completely

In my 90g I have:

Pink spot goby
Snowflake blenny
2 occ clowns
Mccosker wrasse
Blue throat trigger
Yellow tang

I feel that this is very close to fully stocked myself. However, to truly know well stocked the tank is you have to look at nitrate production and aggression.

In salt water aggression is a big problem which limits a lot stocking possibilities.

The true limiting factor is nitrate production though. In a tank that size you cant rely on water changes to export any nitrates and doing 50% changes on a 75g tank gets expensive quick. Its also a difficult one to judge because fish get bigger, sometimes very quickly.

[mdaniel2882]

The Tang and the foxface won't be happy in that small tank. Get him to drop those to just for the happiness of the fish. Cardinals do better in odd numbers so drop the two bigger fish and add a cardinal to make 3. Everything else should be fine as long as he doesn't add to many at once. Watch the order they are introduced with the most aggressive fish last


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[mdaniel2882]

The long nose hawk is going to be hard to keep alive with that much competition in the tank


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[bribo12]

A kole would be fine. They're not one of the more active beefy tangs. I'd drop one or the other


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[StartingInUtah]

I agree with what everyone is saying. I am worried about his load and the amount of fish in the tank, etc. He is still convinced that he will be fine as long as he has a good skimmer because that is what he was told. I think he needs to drop a couple fish from his list as well. Does anyone have any data that supports that argument? Right now that is what I need. I don't think I can talk him out of a Kole tang or the one-spot foxface no matter what. Those are his very favorite fish and he was also told that the foxface will help protect the tang and they will kind of be buddies in the tank. He is told that since it is a one-spot foxface it will stay a little smaller than most foxface and the kole tang is also a smaller tang and will be fine in his tank. I am really just concerned about the number of fish right now. I think if I can talk some sense into him on that point then I will be able to work out the rest with him. Does anyone have any data or anything that will help by any chance?

[mr_X]

It's not the water quality that's going to be the problem- it's the aggression from close quarters and the inevitable lowering of the immune system due to stress from confinement that is. While bought small he may be able to keep these fish for a while, they will eventually show discontent in one form or another.
Even in a 150 gallon tank I am seeing aggression and stress from foxface and tangs...but it took a few years, but only a few years and this tank is over double the size of a 75.

[StartingInUtah]

Thank you. That is something I can work with and bring to him. That gives me something to go off of.

[Gregcoyote]

I deal with the aggression issue in my 300 gallon. It can be a real problem.


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