one last fish

[Mappelbaum37]

I just got my cpr aquafuge with a protein skimmer today. At the store the guy told me that i can get one more fish due to the cpr aquafuge. I am replacing my fluval 405 and prism protein skimmer with the aquafuge. I have 8 fish. My fish are:

- Midas blenny, bangaii cardinal, yellow tang, coral beauty, 2 occelaris clowns, flame hawk, diamond goby... and a bunch of corals.

I started a thread on my friends hippo tang and no one seemed to happy about me taking in the hippo on this site so i didnt accept. Im thinking I'll buy maybe a kole tang, 1 or 2 anthias (I dont know if they travel in packs or not) or a 6 line wrasse.

What do you think???

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[Mappelbaum37]

also how about a Royal Gramma Basslet ?

[scotmc]

Your overstocked as it is. You have a problem with cyanobacteria. I don't think adding another fish will help the situation

[reefergeorge]

I would go with the sixline.

[Whisperer]

A couple of firefish, they are small and stay close to each other.

[pdfb55]

what size tank?

[Swanwillow]

In a 75 gallon tank, I must agree that you are full, even though the LFS told you otherwise-they WANT you to overstock, to need a fish to replace X, to get treatments for ich, to need better filters...

your yellow tang and coral beauty more or less make it a large bioload. IF you found a home for the tang, you could potentially have 2 smaller fish, such as the 6 line.

[snorvich]

You are overstocked as it is. If you add a sixline wrasse be prepared to have a method of getting it out.

[Mappelbaum37]

Originally posted by snorvich
You are overstocked as it is. If you add a sixline wrasse be prepared to have a method of getting it out.

What I honestly dont understand is how i am overstocked right now. I understand about getting one more fish- I have 8 fish and 5 of them do not exceed 2-3". Not to mention that one of those is a sandsifting goby which I dont think could hurt the tank in any type of way. There is 100 lbs of live rock sandsifting star, snails, hermits and a cpr aquafuge w/ a skimmer. Currently the tank is doing just fine and none of the fish are bullied or arent eating. All corals are thriving.

I just need to get my red slime algae under control... =(

Can you honestly say that a 6 line wrasse or something small like that fish will make THAT much of a difference or hurt the tank THAT much.

I respect and enjoy your opinions and if you say I shouldnt get a certain fish or one more fish, then I probably will end up siding with you....but I'm just curious.

Thanks!

[Swanwillow]

heres my way of explaining it. We'll be doing measurements in-damnsels.

okay, heres my bio-load explanation.
one damsel=a smallish load. You can potentially keep one for every 5 gallons. Which means, for your 75 gallon tank, you could keep 15 damsels.
Going over that, and you will have your slime algaes, your hair algaes, and higher nitrates than normal. The tank will look fine, the corals will live, the fish will live, but-not ideal.

So, going off of that you can figure how much of a bioload each type of fish is compared to a damsel, measure in damsels. (sounds weird, I know, bear with me)
for example-a seahorse=5 damsels. Seahorses are small, but eat 2x a day, poop a lot more, and are very messy. To do the damsel to other fish you need to take into account amounts eaten and pooped-I'm not going by how much physical space a fish takes up (forget the whole one fish for 10 gallons in a saltwater tank thing, measure in damsels!!!)

lets go over your list
Midas blenny,=1 damsel. Fairly low bioload (this isn't saying keeping one in a 5 gallon tank, but for bioload measurements)
bangaii cardinal, =1 damsel
yellow tang, =7 damsels-BIG poopers, BIG eaters
coral beauty, =2 damsels
occelaris clown, =1 damsel
occelaris clown=1 damsel
flame hawk,=1-2 damsels, depending on size, maybe up to 3 for a full on adult.
diamond goby=3 (destroys the sandbed-makes it a higher load than I first was thinking)

so, total for your tank, you have 18 damsels, which is what a 90 gallon tank with a skimmer, and good live rock can handle.

I know, call me strange, but THATS how I measure how many and what kinds of fish can go into a tank-in damsels. Lionfish and eels can be 10-20 damsels each. a 6-line is another damsel, the kole tang is 5 damsels, and anthias are really around 10 each, as they need to be fed 3 times a day.

[pdash]

The six-line wrasse could possibly harass your other fish in such a small tank, depends on the individual though. And yes your tank is already overstocked. I dunno if i would put a yellow tang in a 75 even if it was the only fish in the tank let alone with seven other fish only my opinion thou.

[Mappelbaum37]

I like your way of measurement with damsels. (i gotta kick out of that) you've proven your point and the 6 line wrasse that is at the lfs looks like it was just born- It is half the size of my small occelaris clownfish. lol. the fish I have bullied eachother when they were all new but they get along great now- i think theres a slim chance The 6 line wrasse would harass my fish. I want to do whats best for the tank but I just feel that my 75 g. tank is so empty, no swimming, no action. I went from a small 20 g. freshwater tank about a year ago w/ 12 fish to a huge 75 g (huge to me atleast) saltwater reef. Just looks un-full in my eyes. Now that I think about it I probaly wont get the wrasse but would it be so bad if it went from 17 to 18 damsels? =)...

thanks a lot- the damsel method works. =)

[Swanwillow]

see, thats just it-freshwater tanks are commonly overstocked, and don't rely on filtration, but REALLY HUGE water changes. That carbon? well, it helps SOME, but not as much as the 10% water changes does. Plus, its a LOT more expensive to replace fish in our hobby.

I like my system of measuring fish, thanks !! I laugh every time I type it out, but it gives you a 'feel' of what can be put where, ya know? Its not just fish/inch/gallon crud, its actually what our rock, sandbed, and skimmer, and other 'stuff' can process and still let us keep down the water changes.

Salt is expensive. Its horrible that we are going out and ripping things directly from the wile. If we can create the perfect tanks for our fish, then its not so much to worry about.

I have a 75 gallon I'm setting up right now-its sitting empty ATM, but I'm going by those rules-just small fish-gobies. one small goby (green clown) =.5 damsel. I can have a LOT of small gobies, or one medium fish.

[slant77]

So how many damsels is a flame fairy wrasse equal too?

[Mappelbaum37]

i saw a bunch of small green clown gobies that were really cool. they looked about the same size as the 6 line wrasse which is about 1/2". Now that Im fully loaded on fish, im starting in with a lot more corals- here are some pics for your entertainment of my tank.. =)

New torch coral (not fully open when i took this picture- it was a day old- it is now 1 week old and doing great)


New white bubble coral: really funky and i think the coolest coral I have in the tank (under the actinics right now)


New one week old spotted blue mushrooms under actinics (looks awesome under daylight)


lastly- my tank:



Enjoy!

[Swanwillow]

I've only been in contact with flasher wrasses, I'd put one at 1 (filimented) I don't know how much bigger fairy wrasses get though, I want to say they are a bit beefier, so 1.5 to 2 (7 gallons/fish to 10 gallons/fish)

isn't it a fun ranking system?

[Finding Emo]

that is a cool system that will be nice to keep in mind as i am just setting up my first tank and will be adding the first "live" specimens to it this weekend