tell me if this looks good

[nitroxdiver009]

I have a 55 gallon tnak how does this list look


( i will stock VERY SLOWLY)

3-5 cardinals
2-4 fire fish
2-3 ocilaric
1 yellow headed jawfish
1 manderin
4 BTA
1 clusterduster
1 christmas tree worm
2 featherdusters
some soft and hard coral
will this be ok ????
what would you recomend on the ones with the varying numbers

[nitroxdiver009]

oh and a goby and pistle shrimp pair ( anyther shrimp that go with goby)

[clownfish4]

Overstocked for fish and you'll get flamed for having a mandarin. And I doubt 4 anemones will fit in there comfortably.

[cmulawka]

i agree to many fish. Youwould be asking for an ich breakout

[santapaulareefer]

Originally posted by cmulawka
i agree to many fish. Youwould be asking for an ich breakout

The only way you're going to experience an "ich breakout" is if you introduce it to your tank. Quarantine all fish before adding them to your tank. At least 4 weeks. I believe 6 weeks is best. Don't believe those who tell you that ich is always in the tank and it just pops up when the fish are stressed cause it's bs.

As for your fish, you don't want to add a mandarin until the tank has been up and running for at least 6-months. That seems to be the common minimum with those fish. The # of fish...well...there are on the small side. This is a hot topic. I would say do what you're comfortable with.

Matt in Santa Paula

[Phrogg]

Originally posted by santapaulareefer
The only way you're going to experience an "ich breakout" is if you introduce it to your tank. Quarantine all fish before adding them to your tank. At least 4 weeks. I believe 6 weeks is best. Don't believe those who tell you that ich is always in the tank and it just pops up when the fish are stressed cause it's bs.

No offense Matt, but I'm gonna have to call horse dookie on that one. I think the point being made is that the more fish in the tank, the more stress you put on the animals in the environment. It's always easier not to risk it.


P.S. I've seen a tank acquire ich after 2 years of no animal or rock additions.

[santapaulareefer]

Phrogg,

I suppose the Ich Fairy could've visited the tank in the middle of the night and sprinkled it with magic ich dust.

What you're saying goes against all science. If ich does not have a host it will not survive. It feeds on the fish. Like I said, QT all your fish, however many you decide to put in your 55g, and you'll live happily ever after.

[nitroxdiver009]

Yes it took some wacky conditions on earth just to make the first 1 celled organism and i highly doubt that any one has those conditions in there tank lol... Ich can not pop up out of no where. nothing can. ( with out the right conditions ie air that we would die in in under a minute electricity heat blablabla)
experiments ( one that is over 100 years old and still going) shows that something cant comefrom nothing.

IT IS IMPOSSABLE TO GET ICH unless you just got somthing carrying it like water from your lfs. sand ( one of the stages in ichs life cycle lives in sand) and so on


And as for the manderin i did say id stock VERY SLOW. and i was helping some one yesterday at the lfs who asked me why his manderin isnt doing to well and his tank is 3 months old so i explained some of it to him and he went home to try to get his wife to let him spend money on the fuge....( i made a sale... i hope) altho i told him to give it to a friend untill tnak is ready for it..


i even aclimate my fish slow ( 24 hours)

[Project Reef]

Originally posted by nitroxdiver009
I have a 55 gallon tnak how does this list look


( i will stock VERY SLOWLY)

3-5 cardinals
2-4 fire fish
2-3 ocilaric
1 yellow headed jawfish
1 manderin
4 BTA
1 clusterduster
1 christmas tree worm
2 featherdusters
some soft and hard coral
will this be ok ????
what would you recomend on the ones with the varying numbers

Okay, add the mandarin last, wait about 5-7 months, let the pod population get to a good level.

3-5 Cardinals, what species? As long as they are a naturally schooling species you will be fine.

Instead of 3 occelaris clowns, just get 2 (a pair).

2-4 firefish, there is about a 95% chance that they will all fight and kill each other to the point that only one remains. Just get one firefish, these particular fish do not school. That is a common misconception in the hobby.

Good luck!

[nitroxdiver009]

oh live foods can carry ich BTW


phrogg!!!

[nitroxdiver009]

ive seen fire fish in stores school..... purple fire fish.... but i guess maby they grew uptogether or somthing... all fish are different.

but ill belive you

is there a way to pair firefish.?

as for the goby that i wanted what type of shrimp/ goby should i get?


and as for all of you who dont think its safe to overstock fish iv been doing it for years..... with FW about twice the amount i should have inthere but it still looks awsome. i have so many plants so it kind of breaks them up

[nitroxdiver009]

h stoplight or red spot cardinal or somthing like that

[nitroxdiver009]

i was thinkiung of adding a molly pair lol see how they do and if they reproduce lol mabey somthing will eat the young

[nitroxdiver009]

I am going to sell the stuff in my FW tank and turn it to salt ( and link it to my other salt tank....... ) only 1 filter and 1 fuge thatway ... and i will have that tank be more agressive fish ( damsals) since i think 12 gallons for 3 fish isnt enough

I feel that the one inch pergallon can be modified like in a 10 gallon tank 10 1 inch fish
in a 30 you could have 35 in 55 you could have 70

I prefer calculating on suface area and volume and some other things ( 1 10 inch fish = 100 1 inch fish) but all i know is for FW

i wish some one would make a book WITH EVERYTHING RESEARCHED not just opinions and have the "rocketscientest" of fish people write it and have everything being true and accurate lol

[nitroxdiver009]

LxHxW / LxW is a good fourmula

[Mishri]

Originally posted by Project Reef

2-4 firefish, there is about a 95% chance that they will all fight and kill each other to the point that only one remains. Just get one firefish, these particular fish do not school. That is a common misconception in the hobby.

Good luck! [/B]

thats odd.. ive seen them kept in schools many times.. i currently have 2 w/o any problems.. have had them for about a year now.. although i don't know about groups larger than 2 for extended periods i do know the lfs keeps a tank with about 10 of them in it

[erik921]

I have to agree with the others at the beginning of the thread. That seems like a lot of fish. You can't put as many fish in a saltwater tank as you can in a freshwater tank. It doesn't work for a number of reasons. If you're dead set on having all those fish, I would add them very slowly like you said and hope for the best.

[erik921]

Not to mention the anemones, which will all require regular feeding of meaty foods, will also have an effect on water quality. The limiting factor here willl be if your live rock/skimming/waste export/whatever can process everything from all of the fish and feedings.

[psiico]

There are some key differences between salt and freshwater. For one, there is less oxygen dissolved in saltwater. More fish means harder to breathe. The high temps we keep reefs at also lower oxygen levels.

There is not just the issue of the bio filter, but also territory to think of. Excessive overcrowding is a bad thing more for that in my opinion. Even if your bio filter can support the large population, you have less room for error if something goes wrong. Think of it like this, sure you could live in a house with 30 other people, but it would sure get annoying wouldn't it?

You say you plan to have corals. With an overstocked tank you will have nitrate problems for sure. Corals can't tolerate high nitrates as well as fish can. If you must have so many fish, go with a FOWLR tank.

I agree only 2 clowns and 1 firefish. No mandarin, tank is too small. Just my opinion.

[Phrogg]

It is fundamentally (nearly) impossible to ever "prove" that something can't happen or doesn't exist. To make blanket "fact" statements about the impossibility of Ich existing within a closed system after no lasting signs are witnessed is irresponsible unless you can site some credible research verifying your stance. This evidence still only elavates your opinion to a theory, which by definition allows for the possibility of failure.

This is a case where I actually have no legitimate proof of a dormant stage of Ich, but there is enough empirical evidence to "prove" that you can't discount the possibility.

Here are two articles that support a dormant stage in different species of "ich"

Cryptocaryon irritans (Traditional Marine Ich) at http://www.aquaculture.bz/fish-disea...water-ich.html

Amyloodinium ocellatum (Marine Velvet) at http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/sp/feature/

Here is an article siting the lack of a dormant stage with the statement "No dormant stage has been found in any study of its life cycle to date," which is hardly convincing.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2003/mini2.htm

Please feel free to correct me, just refrain from "because I said so" and jokes regarding Spontaneous Generation (a legitimate theory until 1859 btw)

[daveisrael]

I would stay away from the Mandarin, unless you can get one that you know eats prepared foods. I have about 200lbs of live rock, a refugium and no other competing fish, and it's barely enough for my mandarin.

As far as the Ick statements goes, I have personally had outbreaks of Ick after months of no signs and no new additions of anything but RO/DI water and flake food. I believe that Ick is present on/in many fish but only become noticeable when conditions are favorable, ie. fish are stressed. My hep tang gets ick like clockwork if water quality goes down, and I don't have to add anything to the tank. I'm not sure if it has dormant stages or not, I don't think it's been proven. It doesn't have to be dormant though, it could just be kept "in check" by the immune system of the fish and when the immune system is down, an outbreak occurs.

[sammiefish]

at last someone said it... you can have a fish that has ICH but does not display any symptoms... this is not dormancy, the organism is still traveling through its life cycle and reproducing. just as dave said, it is just kept in check... until something stresses the immune system......