Hard Corals
 

[COLOR=deeppink]I'm planning on having some hard corals in our tank but someone told us yesterday that with hard corals you can't have hardly any fish. I hadn't ever heard this before. Can someone please explain. ?[/COLOR] :confused:

Not true.

That's only partially accurate. When it comes to keeping coral...whether it be hard coral like SPS or LPS or even soft corals, certain fish can't be kept with them because they will eat them or pick on them. Actually, there are many fish that will do that. On the other hand, there are a good number of very fine fish that are "reef safe" and pose no threat at all to coral. The best way to figure out which can be kept with coral and which can't is to get a good book and use that as a reference to chose the fish that would be safe to keep with coral.

Here's one that you can start with.....

[url]http://www.amazon.com/PocketExpert-Guide-Marine-Fishes-Essential/dp/1890087386/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200068255&sr=1-8[/url]

Not true.
You have to get 'reef-safe' fish. This, understand, doesn't guarantee they won't eat each other, but there are hundreds of species you can have in a stony coral tank.
Look on liveaquaria.com in marine fish. If it says reef-safe, it will probably be fine.

Fish that ARE safe: blennies, gobies, [dragonets: mature tank only]; dartfish; damsels [chromis is the safe one: the others are nippy toward other fish]; kole or tomini tang [other tangs grow too large for your tank: these two max out around 9 inches, as I recall, but check.]

Fish that are not reefsafe: angels, butterflies, puffers in general, and a few others.

Fish not safe with other fish: eels, triggers, sharks, cephalopods: the carnivores.

Reef fish measure adult size in feet, in some instances: before you get a fish, check that out on that site. THey never stop growing.

Fish with a max size of about 4-5 inches will be most comfortable in your tank.

Beyond that, ask about habits and compatibility.

Not true at all. Acrually it's a good thing to keep the right fish with corals. This partially insures the corals get nutrients they need from fish food and fis waste and many fish eat things that can harm corals or clams. There are many fish, however that will eat coral,anemones ,shrimps crabs mollusk etc. Some "reef safe" fish will still nip certain corals. Study of individual compatability issues and putting the puzzle pieces together in an aesthetically pleasing way is the art of the hobby.

I'm wondering if the OP is asking about the [I]number[/I] of fish one can have vs the types?

If you're asking about numbers, the trend these days in the SPS forum is to have a decent fish population in your tank as the fish poo is supposed to help feed the corals. I think it used to be that you had a sparse fish population if you had SPS, but then folks had less hardy looking corals this way. Upon adding more fish, the corals would color up and look better. Or at least this is how I've been reading it from the SPS forum.

Well the guy (pet store owner) said that basically if you're going to have hard corals you can't have hardly any fish because they eat it up. I know that some do but he acted like they almost all do...

Then that's BS, because there's lots of fish you can have with SPS corals.

K Thnx!!!

Go look at the archives of the "Tank of the Month" winners that are mainly SPS and check out their fish stocking.